1816: the Grandest Tour

France: Chapter 5

They reached Amiens towards evening and Leclerc found them a respectable enough inn for the night. The following day George and Tobias prevailed on the others to rise early and visit the cathedral, which the guidebooks suggested was worthy of attention. In this they were not disappointed. Amiens, it turned out, was their first truly great Gothic church on the Continent. In England they had not seen much other than Henry VI's fan-vaulted chapel at Cambridge. This building, while excellent on its own, could little prepare them for the grandeur of the bishop's seat they now wandered up to.

Looming over the square, the church's two bell-towers rose impossibly high, singing a decorated melisma in stone in praise of the Almighty. The main tympanum, the sculptural cavity above the building's central doors, presented hundreds of intricate figure carvings: angels, saints, demons, Biblical episodes, all crowding fluidly around God the Father as he sat in state. Inside, the roof in the nave seemed to float above them and reach heaven itself. Tall, pointed Gothic arches soared elegantly between each pillar, such that their material substance seemed hardly base stone at all. All four were duly impressed, even Robert, and Tobias led the way toward the choir, whose sides contained scenes in wood, all carved around the 15th century twilight of the Middle Ages.

"There's John the Baptist's beheading!" said Tobias, pointing out the scene, "and there's Herodias demanding his head on a silver platter. If you look below there's French written to explain it all." George circumambulated the choir with his friend, marveling at each virtuosic tableau. For Hugh and Robert this was starting to feel a bit too much like Sunday sermons, so they shortly made their way back to the square to buy pastries.

When George and Tobias emerged to join the others they inquired of Leclerc if there were anything else they might see in town before leaving for Paris.

"If the gentlemens mind not to travel by water," he said, "there is something they can see."

This hint proved intriguing enough, so the driver led them out of the old town and down to the banks of the river Somme, where they came upon a small jetty moored with a few rowboats. A tiny ferryman's shed stood on the bank just shy of the wooden platform, and as the whole party walked up Leclerc sang out in French to see if anyone was within. A high voice like a boy's greeted him in response, then the door burst open to reveal a strikingly handsome young girl. She was no more than eighteen and wore the sturdy togs of a peasant-woman, though her arms were bare up to half-sleeves at the shoulder. She clearly knew their driver and, after saluting them all, began a friendly conversation with him.

As much as George was impressed with the brunette maid's beauty, he was even more struck by the sheer confidence of her address. Here she was, practically alone in the countryside, receiving a group of strange men out of doors as if there were nothing more natural in the world. With amazement George reflected what a scandal even the idea of this might cause back in England. But the Continent was another country.

Her name was Delphine, and before long all four travelers were sat in a double-benched rowboat while she perched at the prow. Leclerc explained from the dock that she would take them on a short circuit of the hortillonnages villages, unique to this area, during which they would each row the watercraft by turns. There seemed nothing else to do but consent and hope that they could understand this bewitching girl's French, and with that they pushed off.

"Oh I say, this is uncommon," said Tobias within a few minutes.

Hugh, Robert, and George (who had volunteered to row first) could not help but agree. They had floated into a seeming otherworld where the streets were meandering canals and every house and garden sat proudly on its own island kingdom. The hortillonnages, Delphine told them, had been like this since at least Roman times. They were laid out in a vast swamp, turning an otherwise uninhabitable country into a thriving village of hundreds of families. Tobias asked if there were ever trouble with flooding, to which Delphine said of course, but the centuries had supplied the villagers with a great store of knowledge to resist every deluge down to the present day.