You may remember that I went to Étretat at the beginning of my trip (after staying in the same campsite overnight!) and had the most hideous weather so couldn't really spend any time there? If not, see the first photo on the post here for the atrocious conditions that I found myself in back in June... I was really keen to see it properly so I made sure to go back.
This time around, the weather was a little more on my side, but that's definitely not to say that it was great. It had rained in the morning and was still showery (and looking quite ominous overhead). Having been before, however, meant that I knew where to park and how far the walk was so I waited for the rain to die down, donned my rain jacket and walked into town. I headed straight for the beach and was greeted by a clear view of the beautiful white cliffs.
I looked for the stairs at the end of the beach that took you up to the top of the cliff. There you could walk along a cliff path, which gave some great views over the cliffs. It was so dramatic, the white cliffs and the dark skies. There was even a little church up on the clifftop.
I was going to walk the cliff path on the other side too but the weather, despite the blue skies now and sun, was just too variable. It was also windy and quite chilly. So I went back to the car and consulted the map before deciding to drive to Amiens.
On the way there, I drove past this old building and had to stop and take a photo because it looked so nice. Not really sure if it was lived in or not, as it looked a little scruffy, but it looked like the kind of place I could imagine myself living in in France!
I drove into the outskirts of Amiens and it was a total disaster - they were doing massive roadworks everywhere so I couldn't follow the GPS as there were roads blocked all over. I managed to find a carpark, pulled in and checked how far away it was from the city centre - within walking distance, thankfully! I left the camper there and navigated the roadworks to find a way in.
I was walking towards the centre when this couple stopped me and asked me for directions in French. I could tell they weren't French so replied to them in English and it turned out they were from Queensland. Considering there are only about 25m Australians, I bump into Aussies everywhere! They were looking for the cathedral that Amiens was famous for and, as I was heading that way too, we all walked along to find it. It turned out that one of their relatives who was in WW2 had played the organ in this cathedral after the war ended.
The Amiens Cathedral is a huge 13th century building that is UNESCO World Heritage listed. It was very impressive inside, and is supposedly the tallest complete cathedral in France.
I left the cool of the cathedral to go outside and take a photo of the exterior.
It was time to go back to the campervan and find a campsite for the night. I decided on one, then tried to leave Amiens. What a mess it was, I ended up driving through the centre of the city, as so many ways were one-way, and there was no quick and easy way out. So poorly thought out, considering I had parked on the outskirts and just wanted to leave! Stressed out, I managed to finally get on a road out of the city, and kept driving and disobeying my GPS until I was safely some distance away from the city. I also had to pull over on the way out, as I was hit by a bumblebee flinging itself through my open window! He'd stunned himself hitting my arm at speed and was waking up on the passenger seat so I opened the window and shooed him out!
Campsite: Camping les Pres Marcotte
Rating: 6.5/10. An odd campsite where no one spoke any English. Facilities could have done with an upgrade. I was given a pitch in an area separate to all the other campers, which I found strange.