Were it not for the cathedral, few travellers would stop at AMIENS . Badly scarred during both world wars, and with heavy traffic pounding along the ring road built over its old city walls, it's not an immediately likeable place. Yet there is more to the town than first meets the eye. St-Leu, the medieval quarter north of the cathedral with its network of canals, has been renovated; the town's university makes its presence felt; and within a few minutes' walk from the train station the hortillonnages transport you into a peaceful rural landscape.