Amiens: The small city which left a big impression on my heart.

It's about time that I tell you about my Erasmus experience in Amiens, France.

Why Amiens?

Great question, why did I choose to study in Amiens? My answer is that I didn't choose it at first because it was one of my last choices. Here's how the process went: I really wanted to study in Lebanon at the American University of Beirut (AUB), because

• A) I could practice French and Arabic (I was studying both at the same time),
• B) My roots originate from Lebanon, and I have some family and friends there,
• C) Lebanese food and culture is one of the best in the world (Besides Japanese).

Unfortunately, my college (Eckerd College) didn't have an international connection with AUB, and they didn't want to make one for obvious reasons of wanting a more "stable" and "secure" country to send its students (although the Charlie Hebdo stuff happened a month after I left France). My international advisor suggested to me to study somewhere in France instead. I reluctantly agreed, because I really wanted an Arabic/Middle Eastern experience, but my parents wouldn't allow me to go to another Arab country if it wasn't Lebanon, because at least we had family connections there.

Looking at my choices in France, I decided that Nice was the place to go, not only because it's nice, but I also have family there and I wanted to see my grandmother's sister who lives nearby. I applied to Nice. At the last minute, they told me that it wasn't possible to do my exchange there because the school had a lame excuse like they were having problems with their international program.

My next choice, Montpellier. That didn't work either because they didn't offer a specific class that I was required to take that semester. Feeling totally demotivated and disappointed, I was left with choosing between Saint Etienne and Amiens, because they were the only other schools in France which offered the biology classes that I needed to take.

At first I wanted Saint Etienne because it is located more south than Amiens, which meant that I would be closer to my family, but after analysing the map more closely, I realized that it was kind of in the middle of nowhere. Amiens on the other hand, which is not far from Paris, Lille, Belgium and London, seemed a bit more interesting geographically. Tossing Saint Etienne aside, I reluctantly decided to apply to Amiens.

Upon my arrival to this city, it didn't look too bad. By the end of my study abroad experience there, I had fallen in love with Amiens (and with someone who was studying there with me). What impressed me the most in the beginning, as well as the rest of the population, was the immense stature and beauty of the Notre Dame Cathedral of Amiens. Sitting at the center of St Leu (the city center), it towers over everything and it can be seen looming in the background from different perspectives throughout several parts of the city.

The Notre Dame Cathedral of Amiens

Standing at 42. 3 meters high and 145 meters long, the Notre Dame of Amiens is the largest (by interior volume) and tallest complete cathedral in France, and it is the 19th largest church in the world. It is so big that about four Notre Dames of Paris can fit inside it. The cathedral of Amiens was meant to be large enough to accommodate many pilgrims who would be flocking to see the famous treasure of the cathedral: the supposed skull of Saint John the Baptist, which was obtained in 1206.

In my opinion, the most interesting and unique thing about the Notre Dame Cathedral is that it's façade gets lit up at night to mimic the original colours that it was painted in. Using a laser technique, it was discovered in the 1990s that the main entrance façade of the cathedral used to be colourfully painted in the 13th century. After determining what the exact colors were, a detailed lighting technique was developed to precisely project on the cathedral how the original colors looked like.

This photo is an example of the light projection show on the cathedral, which is displayed on summer evenings as well as during the evening in the month of December for the holidays.

There is so much I could write about it, but I'm pretty sure this well detailed article about the Cathedral of Amiens written by J. B. S. covers just about everything I'd want to say. It's written in Spanish, so here's a good opportunity to brush up on your Spanish reading skills.

My top piece of advice regarding the cathedral is to go to the top of the towers. You'll find a beautiful view of Amiens, and you'll be able to observe exclusive close-up details of the gargoyles and architectural designs at the top of the cathedral.

Below you'll find the tour information, borrowed from the official Amiens cathedral tourism website.

Open hours:

• April, May, June, September. Guided tour at 3p. m. and 4:30p. m. except Saturdays and Sundays. Unaccompanied tour from 2:30 to 5:15p. m. on Saturdays and Sundays
• July, August: Guided tour at 11 a. m. Unaccompanied tour from 2. 30 p. m. to 5. 15 p. m.
• October to March: Guided tour at 3:45 p. m.
• Closed: Tuesdays, the 1st of January, the 1st of May, the 25th of December, and the last Sunday in September. The towers may also close during bad weather.

Ticket price information:

• For tourism professionals and groups (minimum 20 people): 4, 50€.
• Adults 5, 50€. Concessions 4€.
• Free admission: minors under 18 (excluding school groups), and people 18-25 years old (also excluding school groups). This is valid if you are of one of the 27 countries of the EU or are a non-European permanent resident of France.

Go to the little shop at the left of the entrance of the cathedral for more details about the tour and for getting your tickets.

Where did I stay?

I stayed in none other than La Residence de St. Leu, the all-girls residence in the city center. I loved living in St. Leu and being within walking distance of all the city activities and nightlife. My favourite part about my room was the view I had from my window. Every day I had the pleasure of opening my eyes and seeing none other than the beautiful Notre Dame Cathedral of Amiens.

This is the exact view I had from my window. I'll never forget it, and I'll always consider it one of the best views I could ever have asked for.

The only downsides to living here is that unlike the dorm rooms in Castillon, Thil, and Bailly, the toilets and showers in St. Leu are communal, the building is an older, less modern structure, and they're so strict with the "no boys" policy. That was a frustrating rule because my guy friends were not able to enter on social business, such as in the event that we wanted to cook and have a meal all together on the kitchen. One time we managed to casually sneak in our Italian friend by making him wear a hijab and dress. I know I have a picture of that somewhere....

On the upside, the dorm rooms in the St Leu residence are much bigger than those in the other mixed residences. Although the toilets and showers are communal in the residence, each room has its own sink so you can wash your hands and brush your teeth in privacy and you can know it's clean because you don't have to share it.

This panoramic photo shows my dorm room. The photo is a bit small, but basically you can see the sink and mirror on the right side. The brown thing separates the sink area from the bed, and it has cupboards to hold whatever you want. On the left is the closet door, and further down you can see the desks (my room was one of the biggest ones in the residence, and it had space for two desks) and shelves. In the back right hand corner there is a little refridgerator to keep your food and drinks.

As I said before, the location of the Residence St. Leu is by far the best. Castillon is located on the north side of the city, about a 20-30 minute walk from the city center, and Thil and Bailly are located right on the campus of the Université de Picardie Jules Verne (UPJV), but there's nothing to do in that area except go to classes and Leclerc.

The buses in the city stop running at around midnight, so for those students living in Thil and Bailly who wanted to stay out at night after 12 or 1 in the morning, they either had to take a taxi home, walk an hour, or wait for the busses to start again at 6am. (Unless the hours changed, that's how they were when I lived there). That's why I think living in either Castillon or St Leu (if you're a girl and don't mind the no boys rules) were the best options.

Université de Picardie Jules Verne (UPJV)

This university in my opinion looks quite prison-like on the outside, but maybe that's just me. To get here from the city center, you can take the busses XII (my favorite because it's the quickest), the B6, the B circular, or the L2. To be completely honest, the classes I took there weren't hard to pass at all, because when the teachers know you're international and don't know French, they make it easier for you to pass. Well, at least most teachers, if you're lucky.

There are certain faculties of the university that are not located on the main campus. For example, the biology building is located just 3 minutes walking from the St. Leu residence (which is why I wanted to live there) and it's right behind the Irish pub My Goodness. The law building is also in St. Leu, about 7 minutes walking from my residence, across from the public library of Amiens. All of the other faculties, such as languages, psychology, philosophy, social studies, are all on the main campus.

I don't think there's any other important thing to say about the school, so moving on.

St. Leu

The Amiens city center is so small. You can visit everything in less than a day. I'll give you a rundown of my favourite attractions, as well as those which would mostly be of interest to Erasmus students.

Bars

Baobar. This bar was one of the most popular Erasmus bars when I was there, but I don't know if that's changed. Either way, it's still a trendy African-themed bar with a nice ambiance located right in the center of St. Leu. The servers are always really nice and funny, and they usually remember you after you go a couple of times. The cocktails are quite good. Also, the toilet is usually clean and smells good which is a plus.

Baobar's prices are ok, and if they haven't changed, then they would be as follows:

• Pint starting at €4. 5
• Half pint starting at €2. 5
• Cocktails starting at €6

The happy hour here is from 18h-20h, and I highly recommend going to it because you can get a pint for the price of a half pint. There are other good offers but I don't remember them. A good thing about Baobar is that unlike the other places which I'll talk about later on, it opens early in the afternoon. The hours are 14h-3h.

There are many other bars in Amiens, especially in the same location as Baobar, which are also opened in the early afternoon, but I don't personally know them well enough to write a lot about them. These other bars include (but are not limited to): Aux Manneken Pis (opens at 10am because it is a cafe), Ad Hoc Café (also opens at 10am) and the Australian Bar (it has fun bar games and good cocktails, opens at 3pm). The following bars and clubs below which I'll talk about are only open in the evenings and not in the early afternoon:

My Goodness. I really love the ambiance at My Goodness because it feels, looks and smells like a real authentic Irish pub. It smells like wood and beer, and it has cool decorations on the walls and ceilings. The bar often has live bands playing, as well as tournaments and games for all to participate in. You can see the announcements of the live bands and other events here. Equipped with dart games and live entertainment, it's hard to get bored here. This was one of my favourite bars, and it was conveniently located right next to my residence and Biology building. The hours are from 18h-2h30, and every night is happy hour from 18h30 to 19h30.

English Pub. This place is kind of a bar and disco combination. There are two floor levels; the ground floor has a small space to break out your dance moves, and if you don't want to dance, you can hang at the bar or at the tables and chairs which are either on the same floor or upstairs. The English pub also has games too. Once they had PS3 Fifa, and another time they had billiards. I guess they change it up every year, but I'm not really sure what the pattern is. I like the English pub a lot, it was really popular when I was living in Amiens and we had fun there. It is opened from 21h-3h.

Clubs/Discos

Carré Rouge. The most typical and small disco in Amiens. You'll probably get sick of it after some time, but there isn't much more variety in Amiens to choose from. Personally, the Carré Rouge has a special little spot in my heart.

Le Lipstick. Another disco, a lot bigger than the Caree Rouge, but for some reason I only went there once or twice. It's not bad, but in the times I went there weren't many people so it looked kind of empty. I guess that's better than feeling claustrophobic.

Shisha/Hookah

I personally prefer sitting at a shisha lounge on comfortable sofas with chill music and inhaling flavorful carcinogens than going to a noisy bar or club full of drunk and/or creepy people trying to talk or dance with me.

There are two shisha places that I know of in Amiens that aren't too bad. I am not sure if they're still open, but both are located near the cathedral. One is located in front of the cathedral on a side street facing le Mercure hotel and has a modern blue-colored feel, and the other one is located behind the cathedral, and it has more of an Arab decor and ambiance. Depending on your style, choose your shisha place.

There are a bunch of other bars and nightlife places that I haven't mentioned, but I'm only giving you information about the ones I've personally been to. Also it's been more than two years since I lived there, so it's possible that some popular places have changed and new ones have opened.

Shopping

The place to go for your shopping needs is Les 3 Cailloux. It's a long nice-looking street with shops and some restaurants. There's a FNAC there and I'm a huge fan of it. If you don't know, it's a big store that sells music, movies, books, comics, board games, video games, etc.

If you're looking for grocery food shopping, it's not at les 3 Cailloux. You have to go to the Carrefour City at Rue Vanmarcke (it's right in the center of St. Leu), or the Carrefour Market (the big one) at Halles de Beffroi, or at the Supermarché Match next to la Gare (train station). There are other grocery stores, but these are the main ones. Also as I mentioned, if you're living by the university's main campus, then you'd go to the supermarket Leclerc.

Best food to try

Perhaps you might want to be eating French food since you're visiting France, but I have other suggestions for you.

Le Tokyo

The best least expensive sushi buffet I have ever been to is the Tokyo restaurant in the downtown St. Leu. If you like or love sushi, please go here.

This was only the first course. I love this buffet because unlike many sushi buffets, there is a decent sized selection of different sushi choices, and as you can see in the photo, they actually look good and appetizing. Trust me, it tastes as good as it looks.

During the week (except holidays), the lunchtime all you can eat sushi buffet is only 13, 90€, and as I said, it's good quality.

Mimosa

For those drunk nights or those moments when you just need something good and fast to fill your inner emptiness, get a kebab at Mimosa. They put a decent amount of meat and they have a good selection of sauces. After visiting Amiens this past April, two years after my study abroad there, I had Mimosa's kebab and the Tokio buffet and I was not disappointed.

Unfortunately, my other favourite kebab place no longer exists, and discovering this news upon my recent visit made me sad. I forget the name (it probably was called "Kebap"), but it was owned and run by a nice Turkish guy next to my St. Leu residence and we'd chat every time I'd get my kebabs, and he'd give me free Turkish delights and cigarettes. Such a sweet man.

Tante Jeanne Crêperie

I'll add a French touch here. There's a crepe restaurant that I tried once, and I really liked it. It's called Tante Jeanne Crêperie. It's a little bit on the expensive side (in my opinion), but I don't regret going at all. In fact, I really enjoyed my meal there. The restaurant has a cute ambiance which made it feel more authentic.

See how cute it is? I saw the façade and couldn't resist.

You can request to sit upstairs, which obviously has the best window view.

Les Hortillonnages

At the heart of Amiens, there's a small canal which runs through beautiful gardens and natural scenery. You can get a cute little boat tour or a walking tour of the canal and gardens. The boat tour dates are every day from the first of April until the 31st of October from 9h to 12h, and from 13h30 to 18h. Then the boat tours are closed from November to March. The price is less than €6 per person. I think it's really worth it.

Train station - La Gare du Nord

One of Amiens' greatest advantages is that you can easily access other surrounding cities with the train and bus network. To go to Lille is only 5€ or 10€ and it takes about an hour, and from Lille you can go directly to London and Belgium. To go to Paris is about 20€ and it takes two hours. If you plan on taking more than 3 or 4 train trips, I recommend that you buy la Carte Jeune, which is the youth card that costs 50€ upfront, but with it you end up saving a lot more money on train rides.

Ametis bus pass

Next to the station is the Ametis bus office (if you're facing the train station, the office is on the right side). Here is where you make your monthly bus pass, which, if you plan on taking the bus every day to go to class or work, is very helpful for financial and convenient reasons. The pass was 29€ and with it you can use the busses unlimitedly for the month. It's not as good as the 20€ Madrid transport youth card, but it's not bad either.

Cinemas

The Cinema Gaumont Amiens, which is located right next to the Station du Nord (the train station) is a good Friday or Saturday night alternative to the club and bar scene. I'll never forget that the time I went to this nice movie theater was when I went on a date to see the opening night of The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug. I bought a child ticket at the automatic ticket machine because I'm cheap and wanted to save money, and the ticket man didn't notice it, which is cool. I regret not going more often to the cinema.

There is also another smaller cinema in St. Leu called Ciné St. Leu, but I've never been to that one so I can't give my opinion about it. I know that it shows alternative films rather than the typical blockbusters, which I am a fan of.

Jules Verne

You're probably wondering why the author of Around the World in 80 Days, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, and Journey to the Center of the Earth has his name written all over the city of Amiens: the L'Université Picardie Jules Verne, Le Cirque Jules Verne (the circus), the Maison Jules Verne (his house). It's because Amiens was an extremely special city in his heart, and he lived there for 34 years (1871-1905).

In a letter to his friend Charles Wallut, Jules Verne said this about Amiens:

« Sur le désir de ma femme, je me fixe à Amiens, ville sage, policée, d’humeur égale, la société y est cordiale et lettrée. On est près de Paris, assez pour en avoir le reflet, sans le bruit insupportable et l’agitation stérile. Et pour tout dire, mon Saint-Michel reste amarré au Crotoy. »

In other words, he settled in Amiens at the wish of his wife, and he enjoyed the city for its kind and well educated people. He also liked Amiens because it is near enough to Paris to have a reflection of it without the unbearable noise and barren agitation. I agree with him on that point!

He cared very much for Amiens, so Amiens cares much for him too. You can visit La Maison Jules Verne, which was his home, now converted to a museum. You can also visit the Le Cirque Jules Verne where they put on some nice acrobatic shows. Jules Verne inaugurated the circus with a speech in 1889.

Holidays and activities

La Nuit Blanche d'Amiens

There are a few times per year when the small city of Amiens lights up and has some interesting and fun activities to offer during the night. La Nuit Blanche is a festivity which occurs every year on a selected night in October. Exhibitions, concerts, fairs, open houses, theaters and guided tours are open all night, from 8pm to 6am. Since its creation in 2006, the Nuit blanche d'Amiens has become popular for everyone. All events organized for the Nuit blanche are free.

Le Marché de Noël

This is the Christmas market which happens during the month of December, in which the main shopping street which I mentioned before, Les 3 Cailloux, is lit up and filled with artisan shops. There's also a Santa Claus roaming around giving candy to kids (you can take some too), and some of the shops specialize in a food or drink which you can buy and sometimes try.

There is a carrousel (which may be open year round) and a big ferris wheel which faces the train station.

This sneak peak view of the ferris wheel is just the tip of the iceburg. If you walk to the wheel and take a right, you'll be on the street les 3 Cailloux, and you'll see the whole street lit up with the shops, lights and people.

Parque Saint Pierre

This park is big and popular for all kinds of people and for all ages.

There is a part of the park around the lake where people go to sit, eat, sleep, run, bike or walk, and many people take their dogs. There's the part of the park with the basketball courts where all the dudes go play. There's a skate park section which has just been renovated, and a soccer (football) section (but it's on cement and not grass). There's also a playground for kids.

After all, I fell in love with the small city of Amiens, and my life will never be the same after having studied and lived there. It was really one of the best experiences of my life, and it's not only because of the city itself but also thanks to the people with whom I could share the experience.