Exploring The Hortillonnages: The Floating Gardens Of Amiens

You don't expect to find 300 hectares of islands and waterways in the middle of a city.

Visitors often hear them described as "floating gardens." It is a poetic image, but not quite accurate. Nothing floats at all: the islands were built by human hands, and they have been maintained for hundreds of years by generations of boatmen and property owners.

Today, the Hortillonnages remain one of the most distinctive places in northern France.

What are the Hortillonnages?

The landscape is made of of hundreds of artificial islands separated by narrow waterways. The public channels are called rieux, while the private waterways that provide access to private properties are known as fossés.

The name comes from the Latin hortus, meaning garden, the same root that gave us the word horticulture.

The Hortillonnages were once vastly larger than surface they cover today. In the Middle Ages, the cultivated marshes stretched across nearly 10,000 hectares (25,000 acres). Now, there are around 500 islands shared among roughly 1300 owners.

The islands may look natural but they were actually created during the Middle Ages to transform the marshland into productive farmland. The result is spectacular: an environment that feels surprisingly remote even though it sits almost in the center of Amiens.

One moment you're surrounded by city streets and a few minutes later, you bathe in birdsong and the sound of water against a boat.

A vegetable kingdom

For centuries, the Hortillonnages were an agricultural powerhouse.

The market gardeners, known as hortillons, supplied vegetables not only to Amiens but to much of northern France, and of course their produce traveled by boat.

Traditional flat-bottomed boats ply the Hortillonnages ©Somme Tourisme - AB

Traditional flat-bottomed vessels called barques à cornet carried vegetables through the waterways. The distinctive pointed compartment (the cornet) was used as a storage area for produce.

The tradition survives in a reduced form today through Amiens' annual floating market, where vendors once again arrive by water. 

The profession has become far rarer, and just a handful of market gardeners remain. It's not an easy job – everything has to be brought in by boat, from tools and soil to the vegetables themselves, which leaves too small a margin for profit. This is not an easy way to make a living.

A living landscape

The Hortillonnages look different depending on when you visit.

Spring brings nesting birds and fresh vegetation, summer creates tunnels of greenery along the waterways, and autumn transforms the islands into gold and red.

A view of the Hortillonnages in summer ©OffbeatFrance

I visited in summer but I'd love to see this in winter: local guides recall navigating snow-covered canals while boats broke through thin layers of ice, and even frequent visitors describe it as an almost entirely different place.

Part of what makes the Hortillonnages remarkable is their biodiversity and more than a hundred bird species have been recorded here.

Kingfishers flash their blue and orange along the banks while great crested grebes carry their chicks on their backs. And there are plenty of fish, including pike and perch.

One local story illustrates how much the environment has changed. According to one guide, historical records show that workers were once partly paid in salmon because the fish was so plentiful. Apparently some even complained about eating salmon too often...

Yet salmon have recently been spotted returning to the river system after a long absence so there's hope.

The challenge of preserving the Hortillonnages

The Hortillonnages may look natural, but they're entirely dependent on human maintenance.

Without continual work, the islands would gradually erode and the landscape would revert to marshland.

In fact, erosion is one of the biggest challenges here and as you float along the water, you can spot bits of coast frittering away.

Property owners regularly reinforce the banks, and local preservation groups help coordinate restoration projects. Well-maintained banks can last for decades, but the work is expensive and time-consuming.

The future of the Hortillonnages also depends on attracting new market gardeners willing to continue a profession that is both physically demanding and economically uncertain. Let's just say it's a work in progress.

One of the few local houses that are still in activity - and wildly decorated ©OffbeatFrance

Art among the islands

Since 2010, the annual "Art, Cities and Landscape Festival" has transformed parts of the marsh into an open-air gallery, with contemporary works set along the waterways and on the islands each spring. 

The works are chosen through an international competition and creations reflect some of our contemporary issues, including biodiversity and water resources. Some works remain for several seasons while others are replaced. It's not a natural marriage but the contrast between modern art and centuries-old market gardens seems to work.

An intriguing part of the festival is its solidarity and social side: it welcomes placements of young people living on the margins as well as young civic service volunteers.

From May to October, visitors can explore around 50 works on a self-guided electric wooden barge – simple to navigate, six people at most, with arrows marking the trail so you don't get lost. I did this on a cold rainy day and thoroughly enjoyed discovering the various artworks. 

Examples of the artwork you'll pass on your barge ©OffbeatFrance

If you happen not to be inclined to navigate a barge, you can walk around at least part of the festival, with two trails available, both leaving from the "chemin de halage", the path that runs alongside the Canal de la Somme nearby.

Visiting the Hortillonnages

The classic way to discover the Hortillonnages is by boat.

Guided tours follow the network of rieux, introducing visitors to the history, wildlife, and traditions of the site.

At present, most boat tours remain within the Hortillonnages themselves. However, plans are underway to expand some routes into nearby Saint-Leu, Amiens' historic waterside district.

I was fortunate enough to get a peek at the potential route and seen from the water, Saint-Leu reveals a different side of Amiens. The area was once the city's working-class and industrial neighborhood, and is dnow known for its colorful houses, canals, and the many bars and restaurants that cater to student life.

Along the banks, you can still spot a few old mills and other traces of the textile trade that once drove the economy of Amiens.

This is what St. Leu looks like from the water ©OffbeatFrance

Canal de la Somme

While the Hortillonnages stretch out to the east of Amiens, the Canal de la Somme is on its western edge. Beyond the floating gardens lies a waterway that once helped power an industrial city.

The canal's northern shore is a playground of sorts and a burst of greenery, filled with joggers and cyclists and dog walkers, a patch of countryside almost in the center of town.

Sailing on the Canal de la Somme, along the Chemin de Halage ©OffbeatFrance

On the south side, you'll pass former industrial districts where textiles once dominated the local economy. For generations, the city produced the velours d'Amiens, a durable cotton velvet that became one of the city's best-known textile products during the 19th century.

The main manufacturer was Cosserat, whose vast factory complex stood beside the waterways and once employed hundreds of workers.

Much of that world has disappeared and the last Cosserat factory, victim to the textile industry's decline, closed in 2012.

What's left of the once-powerful Cosserat plant ©OffbeatFrance

There have been some efforts to repurpose the buildings but so far, but only one seems to have succeeded, a micro-brewery called La Filature, with a wide range of beers and excellent lunches. Part of the site is protected as a historic monument.

Also visible from the water are the Passe-Avant and Passe-Arrière mills – the last two of nearly 25 that once operated along these canals. They once ground wheat, woad, and bark for the industries that made medieval Amiens prosperous

For a deeper look at the history of the waterways of Amiens, the Musée des Hortillonnages in nearby Rivery holds a collection of tools, equipment, and documents tracing the lives of the hortillons across generations. A guided boat tour of the wilder parts of the waterways is included.

Before you go...

The Hortillonnages are one of those landscapes that have been around for centuries, mostly discreet but definitely present, the kind of memory that will stay with you long after you leave Amiens.

If that's the kind of offbeat discovery that appeals to you, the salt marshes around Guérande in Loire-Atlantique offer something similar – a working environment with centuries of ingenuity behind it, and definitely designed for a slow visit.

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