The Most Beautiful Places in Hauts-de-France
6 places · updated 13 October 2026
In short: By our ranking, the most beautiful places in Hauts-de-France are Canadian National Vimy Memorial, Amiens Cathedral and Thiepval Memorial. The list covers 6 places. Last updated 13 October 2026.
Hauts-de-France covers the north of the country, from the chalk cliffs of the Channel coast across the farmland of Picardy and Flanders. Gothic architecture grew up in this part of France, and its bishops pushed the new style higher and further than almost anywhere else. The same open country later became the Western Front, and the battlefields of the Somme and Artois are lined with memorials to the soldiers of many nations who fought there.
Amiens Cathedral is the largest Gothic cathedral in France by interior volume, its west front crowded with sculpted figures. Beauvais Cathedral went higher still: its choir has the tallest Gothic vault ever completed, though its builders never managed to finish the nave. The castles show two different centuries' views of the past. Château de Pierrefonds is a medieval fortress rebuilt by Viollet-le-Duc for Napoleon III as an imagined vision of the Middle Ages, while Château de Chantilly, set among lakes and formal gardens, holds a renowned art collection and great stables built for the Princes of Condé.
The memorials of the First World War are works of architecture in their own right. The Canadian National Vimy Memorial raises two tall white pylons over the ridge captured by Canadian troops in 1917, carved with the names of the missing. At Thiepval, Edwin Lutyens designed a towering arch of brick and stone that bears the names of tens of thousands of British and South African soldiers with no known grave.
In this list
| # | Place | Type | UNESCO |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Canadian National Vimy Memorial | War memorial | |
| 2 | Amiens Cathedral | Cathedral | ✓ |
| 3 | Thiepval Memorial | War memorial | |
| 4 | Beauvais Cathedral | Cathedral | |
| 5 | Château de Pierrefonds | Castle | |
| 6 | Château de Chantilly | Castle |
01 Canadian National Vimy Memorial
Mémorial national du Canada à Vimy
France · 10.7 km from Arras50.379° N 2.774° E
Jean-Pol GRANDMONT · CC BY 4.0 On Hill 145, the highest point of Vimy Ridge in northern France, two tall white pylons rise from a broad stone platform and can be seen for miles across the flat mining country of Artois.
Did you know? Canada Bereft was carved from a single block of about 30 tonnes, the largest piece in the monument; the dancer Edna Moynihan was its model.
02 Amiens Cathedral
Cathédrale Notre-Dame d'Amiens
France · 0.7 km from Amiens49.895° N 2.302° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Jean-Pol GRANDMONT · CC BY 3.0 Amiens, the capital of Picardy, sits on the River Somme about 120 km north of Paris, and its cathedral stands on a slight rise above the river, visible for miles across the flat countryside.
Did you know? In 1915, under heavy bombardment, the west portals and the Golden Virgin portal were encased in protective walls of sandbags.
03 Thiepval Memorial
Mémorial de Thiepval
France · 26.8 km from Arras50.051° N 2.686° E
Amanda Slater , from Coventry (England) · CC BY-SA 2.0 In the open farmland of Picardy, a great tower of red brick and white stone rises above the fields.
Did you know? Lutyens's stepped arches grew from a practical problem: fitting more than 72,000 names into a compact form instead of a long, low wall.
04 Beauvais Cathedral
Cathédrale Saint-Pierre de Beauvais
France49.432° N 2.081° E
Image by SLPix from Pixabay Beauvais Cathedral is the most daring building of the Gothic age and, fittingly, an unfinished one. Its choir vault stands about 48 metres above the floor, the highest Gothic vault ever built, and walking into it from the low streets of the town is the whole point of a visit.
Did you know? The clock was first exhibited in Paris at the Palace of Industry in 1869 before being installed in the cathedral in 1876.
05 Château de Pierrefonds
France49.347° N 2.980° E
Image by remiou from Pixabay Rising above a village on the edge of the forest of Compiègne, the Château de Pierrefonds looks like the ideal medieval castle from an illuminated manuscript: eight great round towers, double rows of covered wall-walks, steep slate roofs and a keep crowned with crenellated chimneys.
Did you know? In 1617 the castle belonged to François-Annibal d'Estrées, brother of Henri IV's mistress Gabrielle d'Estrées, who had sided with the rebellious Prince of Condé.
06 Château de Chantilly
France · 38.6 km from Paris49.194° N 2.486° E
Image by Zoeysnowflying from Pixabay Chantilly looks like a stage set: pale stone and steep roofs rising straight out of water, with Le Nôtre's canals and basins spread out in front and forest all around. It is really two buildings joined together.
Did you know? According to legend, Louis Henri, Prince of Condé, believed he would be reborn as a horse, and so wanted stables worthy of his rank.
How this list is ranked
Places are chosen for how they look, not for how famous they are: each one has its own description and a photograph credited to its author. The order is a single world ranking that weighs the beauty of the place in curated photography together with how widely it is documented — the number of language editions of its encyclopedia article and how often that article is read in a year. The list is rebuilt as places are added, so the order and the counts on this page are always current.
Questions people ask
- What are the most beautiful places in Hauts-de-France?
- On our list, Canadian National Vimy Memorial ranks first, followed by Amiens Cathedral and Thiepval Memorial.
- Why is Beauvais Cathedral unfinished?
- Its choir vault partly collapsed in 1284 and had to be rebuilt with extra supports, and a tall crossing tower fell in 1573. Money and confidence ran out, so the nave was never built.
- What does the Thiepval Memorial commemorate?
- It records the names of more than 72,000 British and South African soldiers who died on the Somme battlefields before March 1918 and have no known grave. Designed by Edwin Lutyens, it was unveiled in 1932.
- Why is there a Canadian memorial at Vimy?
- In April 1917, the four divisions of the Canadian Corps fought together for the first time and captured Vimy Ridge. The memorial, by Walter Allward, was unveiled in 1936 and bears the names of Canadians killed in France with no known grave.
- What kinds of places are there to see in Hauts-de-France?
- In our collection, the places in Hauts-de-France are most often cathedrals (2), castles (2), war memorials (2) and churches (1).
- How many places are on this list in Hauts-de-France?
- The list covers 6 places.