Aisne: what to see and do
39 sites listed in the département. A land of memory marked by the Great War, the Aisne also keeps a remarkable medieval heritage of Gothic cathedrals, fortified castles and abbeys. Between game-rich forests and quiet valleys, this Picardy département has an identity that is both rural and historic.
Abbaye Saint-Jean-des-Vignes
Its two asymmetrical Gothic spires, standing alone above the ruins, form the most recognisable silhouette of Soissons.
Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Laon
Perched on the hill of Laon, this early-Gothic cathedral impresses with its openwork towers adorned with sculpted oxen, a reminder of the legend of its construction.
Chemin des Dames
This ridge road between Laon, Soissons and Reims was the scene of some of the deadliest fighting of the First World War, now marked by memorials and military cemeteries.
La Hottée de Gargantua
A rocky chaos about ten metres high with surprising shapes. According to legend: Gargantua empties his basket and creates the mountain on which the town of Laon is built.
Cascade de Blangy
Château François Ier
Château d'Oigny-en-Valois
Château de Blérancourt
Château de Château-Thierry
Château de Condé
Château de Coucy
The castle occupies the summit of a rocky spur. It communicated with the fortified town by a gate squeezed between two cylinders.
Château de Fère-en-Tardenois
Château de La Ferté-Milon
Château de Montgobert
Château de Septmonts
Château de Vadancourt
Donjon de Septmonts
Donjon de Vic-sur-Aisne
Familistère de Guise
The Familistère is the utopian story of Godin, a nineteenth-century cast-iron industrialist, who decided to create a revolutionary social palace of great comfort for his employees, in the little town of Guise.
Jardins de Viels-Maisons
L'ile verte
La Caverne du Dragon
La base de loisirs AXO PLAGE
La forteresse des Ducs de Guise
Guise, a bolt on the Oise valley, owes it to its position to have been, from the tenth to the twentieth century, a fortress at the heart of European events.
Le Fort de Condé
Les Ateliers de l'Abeille
Follow the queen's procession and her court, learn to decipher the rites and customs of this buzzing palace that is the beehive.
Maison natale - Musée de La Fontaine
Musée de la résistance et de la déportation de Picardie
Musée des Papillons
Musée des pastels Antoine Lécuyer
The museum owes its international reputation to the prestigious set of pastel portraits by Maurice-Quentin de La Tour (1704–1788).
Oisellerie du Château Médiéval (ex-Aigles de Château-Thierry)
Parfondeval
This hamlet of fewer than 200 inhabitants clinging to the banks of a river valley is a typical Thiérache village.
Source de l'Escaut
Source de la Somme
Village des Métiers d'Antan et Musée Motobécane
Abbaye de Longpont
Abbaye de Prémontré
Cathédrale Saint-Gervais-et-Saint-Protais de Soissons
