Sunday, September 11, 2011

Adventures in Amiens

This weekend I had the opportunity to travel with my rotary club to a city called Amiens. It has the biggest Cathedral in France, and it is personally, the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my life. I have taken pictures, I have stared at its towers, walked around and around in circles, but I don't think I'll ever be able to comprehend how the main vessel was built in 35 years. With the technology of the 14th century. You could fit the Notre dame du Paris inside it. This thing is huge. 


But there's something else about the Cathedral. So much energy and power have been stored in that place. If you go near it and close your eyes, you can feel the gravity of it all around you. It's like there's a hum in the air. It's incredible. 


Also what's special about Amiens is that it's called the "Little Venice of the North" for a reason. Many of the houses in the center of the city are build on the waterways, which twist and tangle throughout the place. boats pass underneath your feet as you cross every brick bridge, and there's flowers and music everywhere. I was lucky enough to get to take a boat tour, which was very fun and because I sat with the other kids, my french has improved immensely. I was able to chatter and understand all conversation with a few queries for about 20 minutes. 20 minutes!!! I'm very proud:) There was also a medieval demonstration in front of the Cathedral which was awesome and a little stupid when they pretended to be dead after fighting. Lol I have pictures. 


The town is built around the cathedral, which towers like a mountain above everything. I'm definitely in love with this old church, but I'll shut up now. The pictures will explain everything when I put them up tomorrow. 


We walked around the city with a tour guide, (in french :P) and normally I would have been all for it. But the day before I have to walk 12 kilometers (6 miles) from the metro station because I didn't feel like waiting two hours for the bus. It took me the exact amount of time to walk, and now I have blood blisters on my feet the size of my thumbs. Ugh. But I put on an extra pair of socks and toughed it out. It was very painful. But the city was too beautiful to miss. 


We also went to Jules Vern's house. If you don't know, he wrote the book "Around the world in 80 days" and "20,000 leagues under the sea". If you're not a literature person like me, it probably won't interest you, but I thought it was amazing. Everything was very beautiful and old, but you couldn't take pictures. He lived just before the twentieth century.  


We ate dinner very near the cathedral, with a lot of wine, so I was a little sleepy hahah. AND THEN MY FAVORITE PART.....was the lightshow with the cathedral. I lied. I'm going to talk about it a little more. 


With time, the paint has washed away, as it has with Notre Dame du Paris. But with the lightshow around 22:00 (10:00 for those of you who don't go by the 24 hour:) ) the colors were fantastic, and the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I wanted to start crying for it to be dramatic (lol) but I couldn't muster it. The full moon and stars were behind the incredibly ancient cathedral, with the dazzling lights and stained glass beaming through the darkness. 


I only have one worry and concern about my exchange. One thing that keeps me up at night, that haunts me and fills me with doubt and fear and sadness.


How am I ever going to leave France? 

1 comment:

  1. That's awesome. I'd like to check out the Little Venice, that sounds cool -ad Jules Verne? Yowzah! I'm trying to get the kids to read him.

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