Amiens: Boat Tour

My last day in Amiens, I wandered into the tourist office with two other assistants from Saint-Quentin. When we asked for some recommendations of things to do in the city, one suggestion we received was to take a boat tour through one of the city’s parks, the Parc Saint-Pierre. We decided it sounded like a fun thing to do, and it ended up being my highlight from the whole trip!

We managed to find the ticket office in the park and reserved three spots for an afternoon tour. We boarded what seemed like a large canoe with a motor (I don’t know boat terminology), where we joined about eight other passengers plus the guide. The tour took us meandering through the park’s small canals, past flower gardens, houses’ backyards, and through tunnels of trees where it was easy to forget we were in the middle of a large city.  There were a ton of ducks that were highly amusing to watch, and the natural scenery was beautiful.

I couldn’t follow everything that our French guide said, but I got the impression that we were traversing an area known for its biodiversity and impressive man-made islands. My favorite moment was near the end of the tour. We rounded a corner into a broad body of water and could suddenly see the Amiens Cathedral in the distance, just visible above the trees and water (I snapped a photo, the last one below). The rest of the city was hidden, so it looked like there was an isolated cathedral in the middle of a lush landscape.

~ Just around the river bend... ~

~ Ducks! ~

~ Lovely flowers ~

~ Sarah, Haidee, and me on the boat ~

~ Cathedral in the distance ~