Just an hour from Gare du Nord, Amiens hides 300 hectares of gardens crisscrossed by canals behind its historic center. Once on the water, you glide past vegetable gardens, orchards, and small huts, in a setting you wouldn’t really expect to find so close to the capital. Today, we’re taking you on a tour of Amiens’ famous hortillonnages.
A great reason to spend the day in Amiens
For the tour, you’ll board a flat-bottomed boat, designed for the narrow passages and sometimes tight turns of the marsh. The boat glides gently between vegetable gardens, fruit trees, and huts. Some plots are meticulously tended, while others are more untamed, and you’ll regularly come across ducks, moorhens, or locals who’ve come to work in their gardens.
This landscape, however, wasn’t created for visitors. The hortillonnages are former marshes that have been developed for vegetable farming. The word “hortillon,” used in Picardy since the 15th century, comes from the Latin hortellus, meaning “small garden.” Market gardeners used to travel by boat to reach their plots and transport their vegetables to the city. About ten of them still work there, even though most of the plots have now become private gardens.
But beyond the picturesque views, the hortillonnages remain a vibrant neighborhood, maintained by owners, farmers, and an association that has been reinforcing the banks, cleaning the canals, and organizing tours since 1982.
And after the boat ride, you can head to the colorful houses and terraces along the Somme River, then walk to Notre-Dame Cathedral. Everything is within walking distance, without having to crisscross the city.
Just a few hundred meters from downtown, Amiens hides a patch of cultivated countryside right in the heart of the city. The Hortillonnages alone are reason enough to make the round trip from Paris, leaving you with enough time afterward to have lunch in Saint-Leu and visit the cathedral before catching the train back.
📍Location: Amiens Hortillonnages