The lands of Picardy are soaked in the blood of time. It was the theater for the Hundred Year’s War, the French Wars of Unification, and both World Wars. An inheritance of fortresses and castles dot the landscape, in addition to the trenches and monuments of the Great War. In between is an ancient landscape of bocage and dramatic cliffside beaches, waiting for the adventurous traveler.
Picardy is a region of contrasts, where the trenches of the First World War are cast in the shadow of soaring Gothic cathedrals. A visit to the region might dwell on the region’s long history of conflict, focusing on the Hundred Years War, the French Revolution, and the First World War. However, I prefer the positive achievements of humanity, and Picardie is also a land with a proud local identity and language, full of beautiful villages, churches, and palaces.
Picardy is another region with a nebulous association with its modern geographic extent. The word “Picard” refers to a linguistic minority in northern France. This French dialect is now largely extinct and exists only in small rural communities, but its legacy is a region with something of a common identity. However, the political borders of the region never corresponded to the reach of the Picard language.
The delineation of Picardy on this site refers to the political definition from Pre-Revolutionary France, which includes the coastal strip from Calais south. The modern borders are cleaner and combine the Somme and Oisne River valleys without the beaches of Calais. Neither administrative setup properly reflects the historical extent the Picard language, which also encompassed Artois, Southern Flanders, and parts of Beauvais.
The historical borders offer some more insight, as they were carved over centuries of conflict with England, Burgundy, and the Holy Roman Empire. Picardy is a lowland territory that fits nicely between the hills of Ile de France and the English Channel. It acquired, along with the other lowland counties, to the Kingdom of Burgundy. Unlike other regions, though, Picardy was annexed directly to the French Crownlands with the collapse of the Kingdom in 1477. This makes the region more of a grab-bag of territories without a clear historical association, despite the presence of a proud local cultural identity.
