Every design for Saint-Quentin

On a fine day, the Parc d'Isle fills with walkers, joggers and families heading for the marshes, the Réserve naturelle des marais d'Isle, which bring a stretch of wild wetland right to the edge of Saint-Quentin. A few streets away, the town goes about its business around the basilica and the Musée Antoine Lécuyer.

Saint-Quentin is unusual in being by far the largest town in the Aisne without being its capital, an honour that goes to Laon. It has deep roots: the Romans founded it at a ford over the Somme and called it Augusta Viromanduorum, and it later grew up around the tomb of Quentin, a Christian martyr who gave it its name. For centuries it was the seat of the counts of Vermandois. Today the Somme, the Saint-Quentin canal and the marshes still shape the town, and the Village des Métiers d'Antan & Musée Motobécane keeps the old trades alive.

People who grew up here will find their own paths on this map: the walk to school, the route round the marshes, the familiar outline of the basilica above the rooftops.