Amiens

Amiens is rightfully famous for its beautiful Gothic Notre Dame Cathedral, constructed from 1220 to 1280. It is 470 feet long, covers 89,875 square feet, and the beauty of the nave rises 140 feet above the floor. It’s the highest Gothic nave in France, and is surpassed in height only by the cathedral in Köln (Cologne), Germany (150 feet high) that was modeled after this one. The nave of the cathedral in Beauvais, France (completed in 1272), was originally seventeen and one-half feet higher than Amiens, but it surpassed even the ability of the Gothic builders and collapsed in 1284.

One day we shopped for our daily groceries, just outside Amiens. Emmy forgot they speak “kilo” rather than “ounce and pound,” so her one finger signal resulted in a full kilo (a little over two pounds) of butter, rather than the one pound she was “pointing” for. But it was excellent butter.