All over the world community gardens thrive, offering city dwellers a chance to get back to nature and, given enough sunlight, put some food on the table. But there are allotments and there are allotments.

In Amiens, France, about an hour by train from Paris, a 1.6-acre section of marshland between the Somme and Avre rivers has been cultivated by hortillons, or market gardeners, since the Middle Ages. The waterways that criss-cross this fragile landscape have been dredged—by hand in early times and mechanically today—to shore up the fertile garden plots and prevent flooding.

At the height of production during the 19^th century, roughly a thousand plots in Les Hortillonnages, as this area is known, produced enough fruits and vegetables to feed the city. Today, there are only a dozen or so market gardens, which have been passed down from generation to generation. The owners sell their produce and flowers at the Saturday market in the Saint-Leu district, near University Jules Verne. Other plots have been bought up by weekend gardeners who are permitted to stay overnight if they are lucky enough to have a cabin on their allotment.

The cost of maintaining the gardens and the canals of this UNESCO Heritage Site is supported by tours on electric-powered barges that glide silently along the waterways. It is also possible to explore this remarkable place by kayak. Information..