Local Time: September 15, 2014
We rented a “rather expensive” car at Charles de Gaulle Airport and headed north. The first place we went was an old town called Amiens. Notre Dame Cathedral, which is registered as a world cultural heritage, is located here.
It took about 1 hour and 30 minutes from Charles de Gaulle airport.
Drive while looking at that cathedral from about 10km before already. Just park your car in the public underground parking lot in the center of town, the back of the cathedral, and go sightseeing.
The atmosphere of the city is just like Belgium
The first thing that surprised me was its townscape. The atmosphere of the town is like Holland, Belgium and Germany.
This was a surprise. It’s true that geographically we are in the north, but this is France.
Notre Dame Cathedral with its beautiful facade
The cathedral is indeed stunning. It’s big and powerful!
Especially its facade was impressive and beautiful.
I’ve seen many cathedrals, but I think the facade of Amiens Cathedral was one of the most magnificent. I was very impressed.
The interior was also very beautiful.
It is a gothic cathedral, but I am impressed even if I visit it many times. I am impressed by the technical skill of the people who built such a high and splendid building in the Middle Ages.
Lunch time, get Picardy food.
After seeing the cathedral, we decided to have lunch in the alley next to the cathedral.
Now, Amiens belongs to the Picardy regional area. There are many impressive regional dishes here as well. One that comes to mind is a dish called “ficelle”. Yes, I know it’s a cliché, but it’s like a gratin in a pie crust.
The only thing I could think of was ficelle, but conveniently, there was a Picardy-style appetizer on the menu, so I ordered that. Great answer.
In the middle is the ficelle, and on both sides are quiche and pate de campagne. Quiche is a dish from Lorraine, which is about the same latitude but further east. Pate de campagne is from all over France? Both were very delicious.
I didn’t have anything for the main course, so I went with the same beefsteak as the night before (laughs) because I was attracted to the Roquefort sauce. The area is completely opposite and totally different, though.
The restaurant here, quite good quality, was very tasty. The ingredients and the degree of cooking were incomparable to the previous day.
By the way, this Dijon mustard was very good. I think this is very good. I wonder if I can get it in Japan.
After lunch, we took a light walk before returning to the parking lot and heading to our next destination.
（続く）
