Rainy Day in Rouen

It seems my previous post was a little misleading. I am NOT currently in France, but I was back in October/November in 2009. I am currently home in the Houston area and just trying to get caught up on previous trips. I think I mentioned that somewhere, but should have been more clear.

I know I mentioned arriving in France in late October while fighting a head cold and nursing a strained elbow tendon. I think I forgot to mention I was also recovering from a sprained ankle suffered back in October in Texas. And the weather was cool and wet. Not conducive to either a cold or to achy joints.

I decided to spend the rest of my weekend in Rouen, about 30 minutes east of Le Havre by train. Rouen is a very old city, dating back to the Roman times, and has sometimes been a regional capital and always one of the predominant cities of Normandy. One thousand years ago it was the 2nd largest city in France after Paris. William the Conqueror made the city his home, so for many years it was as important to the English as to the French. In the 20th century Rouen was devastated by Allied bombings during the WW2 Battle of Normandy, and while most of the historic center of the city survived, you can still see battle damage on some of the old buildings today.

It was raining quite hard when the train arrived in Rouen and kept up most of the morning. Even with an umbrella in hand, my clothes were quite wet by the time I made it to my first destination. The train station is uphill from the center of town, so the walk to the center is an easy 20 minutes or so.

Very near the train station is the tower where Joan of Arc was imprisoned in 1431. This tower is the only thing left of the old city wall that at one time surrounded Rouen, and Joan (in French, Jeanne d'Arc) was kept here during her trial and before her execution by the English. She was officially tried for being a witch (she claimed to have heard the saints speaking to her to lead the French armies), but it seems more likely the English used this charge as an excuse for why they kept losing battles to an army being led by a 19 year old girl. As if to atone for their complicity in her execution, Joan is revered throughout the city (and is considered a saint herself by the Catholic Church).

The place where Joan was executed was the town square and is now the site for the city market and a 20th century church building. The place where she was burned at the stake is now a lovely flower garden adjacent to the church building and the square.

I stopped for lunch at a restaurant near the church. Morning services had just let out and the place was very busy with the after-church crowd. Seems things are the same here as back home with popular eating places crowded for lunch after Sunday morning church services. Lunch is a very important time everyday in Rouen, and nearly all sights are closed from Noon until 2 PM.

After lunch (and after things reopened at 2 PM) I went back inside the Jeanne d'Arc Church. It is built to resemble more of a Norse ship than a traditional church shape, but is decorated with the stained glass salvaged from a 16th century church destroyed in WW2. The modern sanctuary seemed alive with the color of the light filtering through the glass. It was a great blend of old and modern.


A short distance down the street is the Gros Horloge, or Big Clock. The 16th century clock is set in a archway over the street, but the clockworks are in a tower next to the arch and several stories above. While not a unique configuration, it is unusual because of the distance between the clock face and the clock works (about 3-4 stories), and because this one still works after nearly 5 centuries. The clock only has an hour hand, but in the Renaissance you didn't anything more specific that that. Try having a meeting today based on an hour hand only clock. From the top of the bell tower (where the bells and the clock works are kept), I had a fine view of Rouen and fortunately it had quit raining.

Leaving the Big Clock, I walked past the Palace of Justice which still bears the battle scars in its walls from WW2 bombings.

For my Texas and Louisiana readers, nearby the Palace I spotted a plaque marking the birthplace of René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle. He was the Frenchman who explored the Great Lakes and Mississippi River, and claimed the entire watershed of the Mississippi for his king, Louis 14th, the Sun King. Later when he tried to return and colonize the mouth of the Mississippi, he overshot and landed in Texas. He put his colony there, but three years later he was killed and the colony dissolved. Anyway, I saw his birthplace in Rouen.

A short distance later I reached the Notre-Dame Cathedral. No not THAT Notre Dame, but one almost as famous (on a side note, it seems nearly every town of significant size has a Notre Dame Cathedral - "Our Lady" as Mary the mother of Jesus is called, is the patron of France). This is the cathedral made famous by the Impressionist artist Claude Monet who did around 30 separate paintings of the front of the Gothic cathedral in the 1890s. Inside the Cathedral are a few tombs, including that of the heart of Richard the Lion-Hearted, King of England. Why is the King of England's heart buried in France (I left my my heart, in Rouen)? He was the great-great grandson of William the Conqueror, and Rouen was where Richard considered home. Richard the Lionhearted was more French than English, or to put it in today's perspective, Richard was less Sean Connery and more Jean Reno.

My last stop on my walk (because by then the tender ankle was really bothering me) was at the site of St. Maclou plague cemetery. The cemetery was created during the great plague in the mid 14th century, which killed nearly 2/3 of the Rouen population. In the early 16th century the courtyard was built to house the exhumed bones on the upper floors. Carvings were added on all the columns of the surrounding courtyard depicting skulls and bones and other images of death. At one point, a cat was buried in the walls to scare off evil spirits. It was later found and is now on display in a glass case in the wall. Nice kitty.

I made my way back to the train station for the 30 minute ride back to Le Havre. It was dark by the time I got to the hotel.

Later, I will describe the work week and the unforeseen ending of the trip.

Pictures of this day and the rest of the trip are at http://scottshots4.shutterfly.com/424

A bumpy start on another trip to France

Hi,

I'm trying something a little different. I have found that it is getting harder to write one long journal each week of a trip, particularly on trips that only last one week. I keep good notes each day, but just don't seem to have the time like I used to transferring my thoughts and notes to the computer.

So even though I am three months and two trips behind, from now on I am going to try shorter updates on this blog, sending you the links to this location and to my pictures as I progress.

In late October I left for what was to be a two week trip to our France office on the English Channel, only do not call it that to the French. To them it is simply, "La Manche" or "the sleeve". I was hesitant to leave as planned because my wife's father had been hospitalized for a month, and we had already cancelled a planned vacation when things didn't look so good. But he kept rebounding, and just a few days before I was to leave he was showing remarkable improvement, so I felt better about leaving for this trip.

At least my mind felt better - my body was fighting a head cold, and at the airport I strained my elbow lifting my computer bag to the security table. I didn't sleep as well on the flight over as I normally do because of the pain, congestion, and a lot of turbulence on the flight. Fortunately, for this trip I had agreed to have a driver meet at the airport in France for transit to Le Havre on the coast, so I was able to catch some additional sleep on the drive.

Once in Le Havre I kept awake by strolling the town and seeing some of things I had missed on previous trips. First stop was the market, or Le Halles ("the halls"), where French shoppers do their grocery shopping. All through the building were counters with fresh fish, fresh meat, cheese, at least two produce stands, wines, chocolates, bread and pastries, and coffees. I picked up two kinds of French honey and some Normandy cider. A few blocks away across from the docks were stalls where the fishermen sold the catch of the day from right off the boat. I didn't pick up anything here.

Near the docks is an 18th century shipowner's house open for tours. It is several stories high, built around a floor-to-roof atrium with each room on each floor opening onto the landing of the atrium. As I left the house, a film crew was just outside doing a shoot about the house (they went in just as I was leaving), so perhaps I have been on French TV. Hmm?

Cafes are a part of the French culture. I stopped at one during the early evening mainly just to people watch. The place was quite busy with almost as many dogs present inside as people. There were two terriers, a spaniel, and a German shepherd (which one of the terriers did not like).

One little terrier was sitting in his mistresses lap and would at times rest his head on the table. From where I sat, it looked almost as though he was looking longingly at her glass of what I guessed was a beer.

While I was there, two elderly women sitting at the bar got up to leave. They paid the proprietor, but before they left one woman stopped in "les toilettes." While waiting for her friend, the second woman ordered another glass. Before she finished, the first woman finished her business and came out to leave, but seeing her friend enjoying another beverage ordered one more herself!

Seems that too much conversation and too much waiting for friends is good for the cafe business.

You must wait a little longer, and I will soon post the next part of this trip. Just don't wait at the cafe. :-)

In the mean time, enjoy these pictures: http://scottshots4.shutterfly.com/424