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Jules Verne's ideal City

THE AUTHOR OF TWENTY-THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA IS THE MOST TRANSLATED FRENCH WRITER IN THE WORLD ! BUT DID YOU KNOW THAT JULES VERNE SPENT OVER 30 YEARS OF HIS LIFE IN AMIENS ?

Here I am fully a citizen of Amiens.It seems to me that I was born here
Verne wrote one day to his friend Félix Duquesne

A life of passion and adventure

Born in Nantes in 1828, Jules Verne was living in Paris when he first came to Amiens in 1856 for a friend's wedding. During his visit he fell in love with the bride's sister, Honorine de Vianne, the young widowed mother of two daughters, and married her the following year. They settled permanently in Amiens in 1871.

In 1875 the author, passionate about his adopted city, gave a speech in the form of a short story entitled “An Ideal City” during a public session of the Académie d'Amiens. It took the form of a dream that plunged Verne into the future, that of Amiens in the year 2000.

“Here I am fully a citizen of Amiens. It seems to me that I was born here.” Verne wrote one day to his friend Félix Duquesne

maison de Jules Verne - © L. Rousselin

The works of Jules Verne

A prolific writer, Jules Verne wrote his most famous novels in Amiens or in the Somme. His stories, always very well researched, generally take place during the second half of the 19th century.

Many of Jules Verne’s are part of the “Extraordinary Journeys” series, containing 62 novels and 18 short stories, including:

Five Weeks in a Balloon
Around the World in Eighty Days
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
From the Earth to the Moon
The Vanished Diamond

His work has become universal and has undergone many adaptations into film, as well as being made into comics, plays, operas, music and video games.

DIVE DEEP INTO JULES VERNE’S IMAGINARY WORLD!

What could be more intriguing than visiting Jules Verne’s house in the company of the man himself, his editor, his wife or even one of the characters straight from his novels?: Passepartout, Princess Aouda, or Robur the Conqueror who prefers to be called "Master of the World"?

Le grenier de la maison de Jules Verne - Somme Tourisme - AB

Jules Verne's house

In 1882, Jules Verne and his family moved into a 19th century mansion, at the corner of rue Charles Dubois and boulevard Longueville. Jules Verne was then 54 years old and, at the height of his fame. It was here in the house he lived in for eighteen years, that he wrote the majority of his Extraordinary Journeys.

The ‘Maison à la Tour’ is a red brick building. The lintels, cornices and windowsills are limestone. The first floor, accessible via the tower’s spiral staircase, is given over to bedrooms. The writer's study is located on the second floor, in the corner of this 4-storey building.

After extensive renovation work carried out by the Ville d’Amiens, Jules Verne's house is now home to a museum where the famous writer’s imaginary universe and daily life are intertwined. The museum showcases many of works belonging to the author, as well as over 700 artefacts mustering his personality, the sources of his inspiration, and his life.

In Jules Verne's footsteps

Explore the tourist office’s “In the footsteps of Jules Verne” trail. Setting off from Amiens Cathedral, this one-and-a-half-hour walking trail is a circuit in the heart of Verne's “Ideal City”.

The author, who loved Amiens, actively participated in local public life. In 1888, he was elected to Amiens city council of and remained there for sixteen years. A keen walker, always accompanied by his dog, he enjoyed strolling through the city.

Follow in his footsteps, and explore the main landmarks that helped shape the author's life in the city: the town hall, rue de la République, the Louis Aragon library, the circus, the Illustrations Picardes, Saint-Martin’s church, and the Madeleine cemetery where Jules Verne was buried in March 1905.