WHERE ARE THE BEST GOTHIC CATHEDRALS IN PICARDY?
They are all pretty spectacular. The Michelin Green Guide to Flanders, Picardy and the Paris region suggests a useful round tour, incorporating the Gothic cathedrals of Noyon (a good example of the early Gothic style), Soissons (which has a starkly beautiful Gothic ruin of L’Abbaye de St Jean-des-Vignes, partially destroyed in Napoleon’s time to provide material for Soissons’ still unfinished cathedral) and Beauvais. But since you ask, my favourite Goths are the spectacular Notre Dame cathedral of Amiens and Notre Dame in Laon. Amiens cathedral is a spectacular sight – the largest Gothic building in France – and happily you can see it from most places in the city. This giddy colossus was started in 1218, after a Romanesque cathedral on this site was destroyed by fire. The townsfolk wanted a worthy monument to house the “head of John the Baptist”, which had been brought back from the fourth crusade by Wallon de Sarton, Canon of Picquigny. It’s comforting to know that tourists were gulli
