Amiens is the prefecture of the Somme, in the Hauts-de-France region, in the north of France. With around 134 000 inhabitants, it is the main city of Picardy and an important university and administrative hub. Crossed by the Somme and its many arms, the city is laid out around its Notre-Dame cathedral, the largest gothic cathedral in France, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its position halfway between Paris and the Channel coast, with rail links to the capital, shapes its way of life.
The city built its identity on water and textiles. The Saint-Leu district, born in the Middle Ages along the canals of the Somme, long brought together weavers, dyers and tanners around its mills. Nicknamed the little Venice of the North, it became a picturesque and lively area after its renovation in the 1990s. At the foot of the city, the hortillonnages, market gardens cultivated on the water for centuries, form a landscape found nowhere else. Amiens also keeps the house of Jules Verne, the listed belfry and, near the station, the Perret tower, a concrete high-rise of the 1950s.
Amiens today draws on the University of Picardy Jules Verne, whose Citadelle campus, designed by Renzo Piano, opened in 2019, on a station linked to Paris and Lille, and on the Ametis bus network with its Nemo rapid transit line. The shopping centre, around the place Gambetta and the rue des Trois Cailloux, shapes urban life. This setting, combined with measured prices for a regional prefecture, makes for an affordable property market, sought after both for buying a main home and for student investment.
