How to make the most of Picardy
Beaches that stretch further than the naked eye can see, patchworks of marshland and estuaries, and the largest cathedral in France are just some of the reasons to visit Picardy, northeast France.
Where to stay: find great deals on self-catering accommodation with Pierre & Vacances*, with rentals for all budgets and interests.
Picardy Maritime Natural Regional Park
The vast Baie de Somme Picardy Maritime Natural Regional Park covers the Bay of Somme, marshes and wetlands, and beaches from Mers-les-Bains up to Fort-Mahon-Plage.
Seen from a bird's-eye view, the scene creates an effect like pooling paint. The estuary and marshes, pancake-flat, fill and empty with the tide, and chalky cliffs and sand dunes, where the tall grass stands upright like electrocuted hair, add depth to the landscape. Down at sea level, wading birds pick their way through the mud flats.
Away from the estuary, the beaches, whilst still heavily tidal, become super-sized. At low tide, miles and miles of sand stretch before the chalky cliffs at every opportunity, with visitors using the major beach towns, Fort-Mahon-Plage, Quend and Cayeux-sur-Mer, as bases to practise a char à voile, sand yachting on three wheels.
There's so much space, and generally plenty of wind too, that these land dinghies go at a whip, reaching speeds of up to 60 kmph (almost 40 mph). The little sails, in all the colours of a Crayola pack, create the impression of regattas on the beach. It's northeast France* in a postcard.
Beachfront watersports clubs organise everything from paddleboarding and kayaking to sailing and fishing, and Glisse Sensations Mers in Mers-les-Bains harnesses the power of the wind to offer adrenaline-filled watersports like surfing, windsurfing and wingfoil.
The latest sport making a buzz in Picardy*, though, is altogether more sedate. In sea-wading, participants immerse themselves waist-deep in the water and go for a walk, making for a very complete all-body workout, and a sociable one at that. Le Flot in Le Crotoy organises outings.
Much of the coast of northeast France was heavily bombed by the Allies during WWII, and the towns that bore the brunt of it were hastily rebuilt in concrete.
Picardy, with its smaller towns, escaped the worst of the bombing. St Valery-sur-Somme, Mers-les-Bains and Cayeux-sur-Mer are all colourful half-timber houses with brightly painted shutters and creeping vines covering much of the façades.
If time is on your side (and the wind on your tail), the 1,500 km (932-mile) Vélomaritime cycle route runs all the way from the Belgian border to Roscoff in Brittany, passing many of Picardy's coastal towns, plenty of farming villages and circling the perimeter of the Somme estuary.
There are bike hire outlets in most major towns, including Saint-Valéry-sur-Somme and Cayeux-sur-Mer.
The Somme
The Somme is, and forever will be, synonymous with the bloodiest battle of WWI, resulting in over a million casualties and 300,000 deaths in 1916.
Before this, though, the Somme would have been known as the river, which starts south of Amiens and empties into the Channel between Le Crotoy and St Valéry-sur-Somme.
The battle was fought an hour south of the bay, and the area is marked with more than 400 military cemeteries. The Thiepval Memorial commemorates over 72,000 missing soldiers, and the Delville Wood Cemetery has over 5,500 graves, almost two-thirds of which are unidentified.
The Bay of Somme is part of Picardy Maritime Natural Regional Park, and the Western Front was never near here, even on the furthest German advances. It looks untouched by war.
Take a pirogue (canoe) trip from Saint-Valéry-sur-Somme, and you'll almost certainly see harbour seals and grey seals ducking in and out of the waves.
Often they move like leaves in a breeze, transported by the current. At the mouth of the estuary, the little town of Abbeville has a beautiful 15th-century Gothic collegiate church with kaleidoscopic stained glass windows, and manor houses surrounded by gardens worthy of Impressionist paintings; Parc d'Émonville's gardens are particularly impressive.
Picardy inland
Away from the coast, arable land folds into yet more marshes and rivers. Picardy's capital, the city of Amiens, is resplendent and unexpected.
The immense Gothic cathedral was largely built between 1220 and 1305, and is the largest cathedral in the country, albeit not the tallest.
Gargoyles leer from the numerous turrets, and bearded saints stand serene in the alcoves. A steep plod up 307 stairs takes you to the top of the north tower, for a view which stretches well beyond the city confines.
After so much grandeur, it's surprising to find a large swathe of the city full of sheep, ducks and dragonflies rather than people, only just over a mile from the cathedral. The hortillonnages, which best translates as "vegetable gardens," is a 300-hectare expanse of crisscrossing canals that forms hundreds of islands in the middle.
It's like visiting a muddy and much more rural Venice, and the best modes of transport are either a kayak (rentals from the Club Nautique at Rivéry), or on board a traditional wooden flat-bottomed boat, available from Ô Jardin restaurant.
Although Amiens is the regional capital, the favourite haunt of France's former royal family was Compiègne. The Château de Compiègne was a holiday spot for everyone from Charles V to Louis XVI, and was later frequented by Napoléon Bonaparte and Napoléon III.
Compiègne was also made famous as the site where Joan of Arc was captured in 1430, during the Hundred Years' War, and there's a statue in front of the Hôtel de Ville (town hall) to commemorate her.
Getting there
Getting to Picardy from the UK couldn't be easier. Multiple ferry operators cross the Channel for various ports across the south coast of England and Ireland:
- P&O Ferries - Dover to Calais
- Irish Ferries - Dublin to Cherbourg; Dover to Calais
- DFDS - Dover to Calais & Dunkirk; Newhaven to Dieppe
- Brittany Ferries - Portsmouth to Le Havre, Caen, Cherbourg & St Malo; Poole to Cherbourg; Plymouth to Roscoff; Cork to Roscoff; Rosslare to Cherbourg
You can also take LeShuttle, which operates multiple services per day between Folkestone and Calais, with journeys taking just 35 minutes.
Climate in Picardy
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maximum daytime temperature °C |  6 |
7 |
 9 |
 12 |
 16 |
 19 |
21 |
21 |
19 |
15 |
10 |
7 |
| Hours of sunshine (daily) | ||||||||||||
| Days with some rainfall |  18 |
 14 |
16 |
15 |
15 |
13 |
 12 |
13 |
13 |
15 |
18 |
17 |
The above guide shows the climate in Abbeville. Find out more about conditions across the country in our complete guide to the climate in France.
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