You will learn all about the history of Woad - "Blue Gold from Picardy"- on your guided tour of the exhibition created by Mme Françoise Joly. This biannual cruciferous plant, also called Pastel or Isatis tinctoria, was cultivated for its leaves during the XIIth and XIIIth centuries, particularly in the Santerre region. To process the harvested leaves, a considerable local workforce was employed to crush them, assemble them into balls, then dry and finally grind them. Then the final product could be used by the master-dyers in Amiens.

During the Middle Ages a significant factor in the growth and prosperity of Amiens was the woad trade, symbolised by the important financial contribution of the woad merchants corporation for the building of the cathedral (1220-70). It may even be said that woad enabled the cathedral to be built in record time : all the more remarkable as the cathedral is such an imposing monument!

If you look carefully at the floral motifs on the west front of the cathedral, the group of statues outside St Nicolas Chapel and in the carved choir stalls, you will find traces of woad.

Anne and Jean-François are forging links with their region’s history by growing and processing woad once again on their farm.