Trip to Amiens

The trip to Amiens was great! I met Laurent Devime at his house in St-Gratien (a few miles North of Amiens) and we drove to a talk he was giving in Chauny (Aisne). The talk was extremely lively, with traditional Picard tales and legends told by a professional story-teller. I really enjoyed it. I also met a friend of his, a comedian from Aisne. I had a great time! Then, on Saturday June 24th – St-Jean-Baptiste Day, the national holiday in Québec – Laurent took me to Amiens so that I could see a few of the tourist attractions. We went to the Cathedral, which I learned is home to the relic of no other than St-Jean-Baptiste. I though it was a great coincidence that I found myself in the Cathedral of Amiens on that day. Then, while we were having lunch in the Quartier St-Leu, a hip and young neighborhood in Amiens, we saw Jean-Pierre Facquier, a friend of Laurent who is a wood sculptor and makes traditional Picard wooden puppets like Lafleur. He joined us for a beer, and then walked us to his shop, where he builds all his string puppets. I then spent some time touring by myself a bit, and then we went for a tour of the Grottes de Naours that Laurent was leading in Picard. I must admit that I got slightly claustrophobic when we first walked down (33 meters deep), but I felt fine soon thereafter and enjoyed my visit a lot. I got back to St-Valery in the evening for a well-deserved good night’s sleep. I photographed the cows that greet me as I make my turn on the Rue de Neuville in St-Valery; she (or maybe he) looked intrigued by my pulling over to take her (his?) picture by the barbed wire. I though this would give you an idea of where I am spending my time these days…