Amiens old town

Our first stop was Amiens, Northern France. With a population of around 135,000, Amiens in Northern France is home to the largest house of God in all France. Its Gothic cathedral, the Cathedrale Notre-Dame D’Amiens, a UNESCO world heritage site is a gem that shines bright over a town otherwise largely devoid of any other tourist sites. Surprisingly then, or perhaps unsurprisingly, there was a proliferation of ‘touristy’ restaurants along the canal which offered 3 course set price menus.

Cathedrale Notre-Dame D'Amiens

Our research had led us to Les Marissons. A former 15 century boathouse, it’d been transformed into a cosy old fashioned dining room with an intimate and romantic outside terrace. Its surroundings were tranquil and peaceful, reflecting its positioning between the canal and the lovely landscaped gardens that greet you as you enter, which on this particularly pleasant summer evening provided a certain for a dinner night out in France.

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Dear reader, have you ever wondered how it is that peanuts end up on the floor of the car, or in that little bit of space between the front two passenger seats? Is it because some of us are indiscriminately messy to begin with, or just too tardy to pick up after ourselves? And what does the average person do when they spot the drops? Do they pick them up and eat them? Or am I simply nuts myself? These truly life altering questions crossed my mind as I munched away on some Waitrose brazil nuts (organic of course), an hour into the start of our nine day driving trip through Northern France with a short detour into Southern Germany. After the nuts, I turned my attention to the crisps. I’d already had breakfast only about an hour earlier, but there’s nothing like a good munch on a road trip. Exercise for the teeth and gums I say, whilst you rest the backside.

Eventually I made myself stop, mindful of the fact that for the next week or so, we’d lined up a string of restaurants that would probably make us the envy of any food aficionado. We’d taken much care in planning for this trip: every restaurant and hotel booked, expected mileage calculated to the T, a travel pack with Wikipedia printouts of each destination all neatly filed by day in a little blue binder. A culinary restaurant adventure like no other was on the cards, one to perhaps placate my insatiable appetite. The nuts and crisps could wait till we got back to London.