Damn! Rouen is Beautiful!

Gayle and I woke up late today.  We were both surprised by how late it was when we got out of bed.  I guess the block-out shades in this AirBnB are effective.  We took our time getting ready.  An Uber delivered us to Place du Vieux Marche at 11:30 a.m.  We were looking for coffee and some breakfast.  It turns out that breakfast ends at 11 a.m. and restaurants don’t start serving until noon.  So we wandered around the plaza.  This is where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake.  There is a church here in honor of her — Eglise Sainte-Jeanne d’Arc.  It is a modern church of incredible architecture.  It is meant to evoke both the flames that consumed Joan of Arc and an overturned longship.  It is impossible to get a full photo of the church. It is long and thin and goes for several blocks.  Part of the roof of the church houses a Sunday farmer’s market.

This garden outside the church is the spot where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake.

The roof of the church juts way out to the side, a full block from the main church building and houses a staircase and walkway down the church.  

All around the church is a plethora of restaurants in half-timbered buildings.  It is stunning.

We waited until noon and then ate at a brassiere looking out on the church.  Gayle had avocado toast with a poached egg and pomegranate seeds.  I felt like I should try Cordon Bleu while in France. I wish I would have had the avocado toast.  

We were hoping to get inside the church, which wasn’t open for tourists until 2 p.m.  Gayle was ready to return to the rental.  She is saving her energy for tomorrow’s trip to Monet’s Garden in Giverny.  I promised her I would take photos.  I was waiting at the door at 2 p.m. and was able to experience the church without a ton of other people.  The stained glass windows were removed from a nearby church during WWII and then later that church was destroyed.  The architect salvaged them for this church.

This area of prayer candles is watched over by Joan of Arc.

Depictions of her are found throughout the church.

When I got back outside, I started walking towards the Cathredral of Notre Dame because I haven’t yet been able to go inside it yet.  Any building or side street that interested me I went down.  It is a warren of narrow streets with half-timbered buildings that are storefronts for record stores or weed shops or McDonalds.  There are approximately 2,000 half-timbered houses in Rouen.  Notice the one that leans out.  It must have been built before 1520 when that kind of construction was no longer allowed.  There was concern that buildings that leaned out over the street blocked breezes and allowed disease to spread more easily.

I wandered into the courtyard of this hotel.  I am mesmerized by this city.

I headed down Rue du Gros Horloge towards the clock tower, which was once the City Hall of Rouen.  Notice the building that leans out on this street. 

The clock has only an hour hand.  Once upon a time knowing the hour seemed sufficient.  The orb at the top rotates once every 29 days.  Knowing the cycle of the moon and therefore the tides was a helpful thing for this port town. 

As I was walking down this street I found a grocery store.  I have been needing to pick up some supplies and was tickled to find it open on Sunday.  So much of Rouen shuts down on Sundays and Mondays (the two days we are here).  I usually enjoy going to a grocery store in a foreign country.  It was interesting but the hard part was checking out to leave.  Self-check out is the only option.  It took me a while to find a button that would allow me to check out in English.  But then I couldn’t find an option to pay for the fruit I had purchased. There was one man standing there watching all of us.  I thought he was there to help but learned he was there to make sure we didn’t steal anything.  I asked if he could help me.  He just shook his head.  After five minutes of being completely flummoxed he told me I needed to go back to the produce station and set my bananas on the scale and it would spew out a bar code that I could then scan.  When I finally finished a woman near me asked me if I spoke English and if I could help her.  I tried but I couldn’t figure out her machine either.  Another customer came up and tried to help so I quietly bowed out.  

By the time I got to the plaza in front of the Cathedral of Notre Dame the sun was out and the day was gorgeous.  I have rarely seen the sun on this trip.

The cathedral is vast.

There is construction going on outside the building.  You can see cracks in the ceiling with only this thin sheet to save us from falling debris.

All around the interior are statues of the gloomiest looking saints.

The stained glass is stunning.

This one tells the story of Julian.  When he was just a boy a deer predicted that Julian would kill his parents.  He ran away to escape this fate.  His life takes some twists and turns until we find that he is now a Lord and married.  One day he goes out to hunt.  His parents, who have been searching for him for years, show up at his home.  His wife gives them the master bedroom as a sign of hospitality.  Julian comes home and thinks his wife is cheating on him and kills them both with his sword.  When his wife tells him that he has killed his parents, he decides to leave everything behind.  He and his wife set up a hospital and Julian serves as the ferryman to transport people to the hospital.  One day Jesus comes, disguised as a leper.  Julian treats him with hospitality and Julian is redeemed.

After I left the cathedral I walked down a couple streets and arrived at St. Maclou Catholic Church.  There was a man standing on the steps of the church with people in chairs all around the base of the steps.  It looked like a concert was about to begin.

I headed into the church and was once again in awe of the architecture.

The stained glass windows are interesting to me.  They feel very different than those in the other old churches here.

Modern art graced the same space as the stained glass in several of the alcoves.

The organist at this church you have to be a person of small stature.  The door is tiny that leads up to the organ console.

Back outside the concert had begun with a singer/dancer.

My next stop was Aitre Saint Maclou or otherwise referred to as the plague cemetery.  In 1348 the Black Death killed around 3/4 quarters of the St. Maclou parish.  The church needed a new cemetery and so this place was dug and filled with victims of the plague.  When space was needed for new burials, the bones of the previously buried were dug up and transferred to the roof space in the galleries.  

The wood was carved with depictions of skulls, shovels, bones and coffins.

In the 17th century schools for the poor were needed and so this area housed two schools, one for boys and one for girls. Funerals and the school coexisted for 121 years until it was decided that for reasons of hygiene the cemetery would be transferred out of the city.  Today it houses art workshops.  As I entered the area I saw a sign for a “Hula Hoop” installation.  I decided I would look that up when I got back to the apartment.  No need.  It was obvious what it was.  This man was doing a sound check for a concert that was scheduled for later in the evening.  The hula hoops were moving in all kinds of fascinating configurations.  I stood and watched for quite a while.

I was pretty tired by then and I walked back to our rental, stopping only to purchase a couple croissant pastries for tomorrow.   On the way back I mused on how many times I saw modern art and music connected to ancient spaces.  Rouen intrigues me.

I tried to research where Gayle and I could find dinner in a town that rolls up its sidewalks on Sunday and Monday.  Madame Restaurant was one of the few places open.  Our dinners were good and we ended the meal by ordering carrot cake.  It was nothing like carrot cake in the US.  It had no icing and was very dry.  One of the ingredients was tonka beans, which we read have a slight bitter taste. I can verify that is true.  Back in our apartment we planned for our trip tomorrow to Giverny and headed to bed.