In The Footsteps Of Jules Verne In Amiens

In 1889, a young American journalist arrived in Amiens with an unusual mission. Nelly Bly was out to travel around the world faster than the fictional Phileas Fogg, and before continuing her journey, she stopped to visit the man who had inspired it all: Jules Verne.

Verne welcomed her into his home and predicted she would complete the trip in less than 80 days.

He was right.

Bly returned to New York after just 72 days, becoming a global celebrity and proving that one of literature's greatest adventures might actually be possible.

This salon, or living room, is probably the room in which Jules Verne and his wife Honorine met with Nellie Bly ©OffbeatFrance

Many of the places connected to that meeting still exist, and today, visitors can follow in Jules Vernes' footsteps around the city in which he spent the last 34 years of his life.

Why Amiens?

Fans of Jules Verne will recall how Captain Nemo explored the oceans aboard the Nautilus and Phileas Fogg raced around the world in 80 days. In Verne's world, adventurers journeyed to the center of the earth and traveled to the moon long before space flight existed.

While crafting these extraordinary voyages, Verne lived in Amiens, a quiet city in northern France better known today for its cathedral than for science fiction.

I should mention here that Nantes, where Verne was born and spent his first 14 years, makes its own claim on Verne. It holds the original manuscripts of his novels and has a museum dedicated to his early life and to the port city that fed his maritime imagination.

But Amiens was the place his heart chose. After the Franco-Prussian War, Verne settled here and never looked back. 

The city of Amiens in the 19th century, as Jules Verne may have known it. Photo Édouard Baldus 1850-1860

His wife Honorine's family lived in the region, and the nearby Bay of Somme quenched his thirst for the sea. He threw himself into municipal life, eventually becoming a city councillor. He wrote most of his best-known works here and late in life, he would say: "Here I am fully a citizen of Amiens."

One of many places in Amiens you'll see Jules Verne's name ©OffbeatFrance

Just as Jules Verne was attached to his city, so Amiens continues to demonstrate its own affection for the author.

There's a Boulevard Jules Verne, the Cirque Jules Verne, the Maison Jules Verne, and the Aronnax Trail, named after the narrator of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Verne's books fill shop windows, and his face appears on posters.

Recognition is everywhere — the Brasserie Jules next to the train station, the city buses called Nemo, not to mention guest houses and shops. More than a century after his death, Amiens still treats him more like a familiar local than a long-gone historical figure.

Highlights of the Jules Verne itinerary

Maison Jules Verne

If you only visit one Jules Verne site in Amiens, make it this one (but beware, there's a steep circular stairway so ask at the reception for the elevator if you need help getting up there).

Entrance to the Maison Jules Verne in Amiens ©OffbeatFrance

The Maison Jules Verne is the house in which the author lived from 1882 to 1900, during some of his most productive years. The tall brick-and-stone residence on Boulevard Longueville with its distinctive tower is as close as you can get to stepping into Verne's world.

It was also in this house that one of the most famous encounters in travel history took place: his meeting with Nelly Bly.

Verne's "bureau", or study

The study is where Verne worked, surrounded not only by books but by scientific journals, maps, travel accounts, and technical publications.

I was surprised to discover just how much research went into Verne's novels. He wasn't simply inventing fantastic machines and distant worlds – he spent an enormous amount of time reading about science and corresponding with specialists.

His imagination was based on careful observation of 19th-century technology: he noted scientific ideas, and then expanded them. 

This small study is where Jules Verne did much of his writing ©OffbeatFrance

Verne and the sea

Jules Verne had a lifelong connection to the sea.

His brother Paul spent time in the navy, and often advised him on nautical matters.

Verne himself owned several boats (not very creatively named Saint-Michel I, II, and III, the one on which he traveled around Europe, gathering material for his stories).

One room is even designed with a maritime theme, a bit like being at sea but without the water.

This room in Jules Verne's home is made up to look like a ship － he loved the sea and brought it into his home ©OffbeatFrance

The final years

Verne left the house in 1900 and moved back to a smaller residence nearby, where he spent the final years of his life. He died there on 24 March 1905.

That building still stands on what is now Boulevard Jules Verne and forms another stop on the city's literary trail.

Cirque Jules Verne

Few buildings illustrate Verne's civic involvement better than the Cirque Jules Verne.

At first glance, it seems an unlikely place to include on a literary itinerary. Why would a circus bear the name of a science fiction writer?

It has everything to do with his role as a municipal councillor.

From 1888 to 1904, Verne served on the Amiens municipal council, where he took an active interest in cultural projects and urban development. He even imagined the city's future in a speech called Une Ville idéale (An Ideal City), which described technological advances that would transform everyday life. 

In the late 19th century, Amiens decided to build a permanent circus, a common structure in French cities at the time. This building would accommodate not only circus performances but other public and cultural events, but it would be expensive to build. As a member of the council's cultural commission, Verne strongly supported the project.

The iconic Jules Verne Circus near downtown Amiens ©OffbeatFrance

But that's not the only connection.

One of Verne's later novels, César Cascabel, follows a traveling circus family attempting an extraordinary journey across the globe. The book appeared while the Amiens circus project was underway, linking two of Verne's interests: spectacle and travel.

The building is one of the city's most distinctive landmarks and reminds us that the imagination of Jules Verne didn't limit itself to the written word.

The theater

Before he became famous for his novels, Jules Verne had wanted to write for the stage.

He studied law to satisfy his father, who expected him to follow a conventional professional career. Instead, he devoted much of his energy to writing plays and worked with both Alexandre Dumas father and Alexandre Dumas son.

His skill at writing plays would not be acknowledged, and while a few of his productions did reach the stage, he had no major successes.

His fame would be jumpstarted by meeting the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel, who would publish Five Weeks in a Balloon, and the rest is history.

The Municipal Theater, located on a buzzing downtown pedestrian street, represents an important part of Verne's story. He may have failed as a playwright, but he never lost his attachment to the stage.

The "ancien theatre" so important to Jules Verne's life in Amiens. Photo: Patrick Despoix, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

La Madeleine Cemetery

The final stop on any Jules Verne itinerary is La Madeleine Cemetery, where he is buried.

When the beloved author died, thousands attended his funeral procession through the city on its way to the cemetery.

His tomb remains one of the most visited graves in Amiens.

The monument, created by sculptor Albert Roze, shows Verne emerging from his grave and reaching upward. Officially titled "Toward Immortality and Eternal Youth", it captures the optimism and forward-looking spirit that characterized so much of his work ©Somme Tourisme - AB

The cemetery itself is worth a visit. Opened in the early 19th century when burials were moved outside city centers for public health reasons, it contains the graves of many notable Amiens residents.

Most visitors, however, come for Verne.

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