Find a Holiday in
Picardy

HIGHLIGHTS

• Remember the atrocities and the sacrifices at the thought provoking Battle of the Somme Memorials
• Visit the spectacular Gothic cathedral and explore Amiens
• Catch the cable car up to the old city of Laon to admire views of the surrounding scenery

 

Picardy

Amiens, the former capital of Picardy, makes an extremely good base for those wishing to visit the Battle of the Somme memorials. It is also home to one of France’s most magnificent Gothic cathedrals, Cathedral Notre Dame, a Unesco World Heritage Site.

Hundreds of thousands of soldiers from Australia, Canada, the Indian subcontinent, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom, the West Indies and other parts of the British Empire died on the Western Front in France during World War One. Adhering to Commonwealth tradition they were buried where they fell and today hundreds of carefully tended plots dot the countryside to commemorate the war dead.

The delightful hilltop town of Laon displays another fine example of Gothic architecture in the form of its splendid cathedral, which was completed in 1235. The walled old town can be approached by an automated cable car that glides up from the railway station below.