L'Épine

Legend has it that in the Middle Ages some shepherds herding their flock down from pasture found a statue of the Virgin in a burning thorn bush (épine). Their discovery triggered the building of a church—Basilique de Notre-Dame de l'Épine—which today looms over this otherwise uninspiring village.

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Although Amiens showcases some pretty brazen postwar reconstruction, epitomized by Auguste Perret's 340-foot Tour Perret (a soaring concrete stump by the train station), the city...

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Beauvais and its neighbor Amiens have been rivals since the 13th century, when they locked horns over who could build the bigger cathedral. Beauvais lost—gloriously...

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