The region boasts France’s largest and tallest cathedral, considered one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture.
It has been listed as a Unesco world heritage since 1981. It contains the reputed head of Saint John the Baptist, brought back from a crusade in the 13th Century.
Q: Which cathedral is it?
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A) The cathedral is Notre-Dame d’Amiens – called in full the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Amiens. Its builders were seeking to create an awe-inspiring feeling of light and space with its interior dimensions of 200,000 m2.
2. War writer
Named after a river, the Battle of the Somme - July-November, 1916 - fought by Britain and France against Germany, was the largest on the Western Front. Its first day was the worst ever for Britain with 38,000 men injured and 19,000 killed.
Q: Which British writer’s literary ambitions were put on hold as he was sent to serve after leaving Oxford? It later inspired his battle scenes.
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A) The writer was J.R.R. Tolkien, author of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. He spent three months in battle, finally being invalided out due to trench fever. He lost two close friends and later called life in the trenches ‘an animal horror’. Convalescing in 1917, he started writing his first story set in his fictional world ‘Middle Earth’.
3. An illustrious past
Quierzy in Aisne is today a small village of 450 residents but it has a glorious past having been the site of a Frankish palace used by kings in the Dark Ages and it was arguably the ‘capital’ of the kingdom of the Franks, the early version of France.
Bearded CharlemagneFlorian B. Gutsch
Charles Martel, who defended France from Muslim armies at the Battle of Poitiers, is said to have died there and his grandson Charlemagne – who was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by the pope on Christmas Day 800 - may have been born there.
A crucial treaty was signed there between the Pope and King Pepin the Short and a document drawn up under Charles the Bald setting out the feudal system of nobles’ responsibilities.
Q: Ancient tales describe Charlemagne as the emperor with what kind of beard – snowy, bushy or flowery?
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A) The answer is ‘flowery’. This odd expression originates in the 12th Century Chanson de Roland, which tells of one of the emperor’s battles and probably refers to a flowing white beard, suggesting wisdom. However spoilsport historians say the real Charlemagne seems not to have had a beard at all.
