France 2018: Rouen

The train left Cherbourg at 10.35 am and after a quick transfer in Caen, I arrived in Rouen at 2 pm. The hotel Astrid, shabby from the outside and quite nice inside, was right next to the train station. A single room was €50, breakfast not included, and I did not hesitate to take it. Looking for something better was probably a waste of time.

Armed with a city map from the hotel reception, I went to see the attractions. The nearest one was the tower of Joan of Arc, the only remaining part of the large castle of Rouen. Despite the name, Joan of Arc was not imprisoned in the tower. She was at this castle for the trial. I had no intention to climb the tower since there was nothing historic in it. When I approached the tower I overheard a family speaking among themselves in Russian that the entrance that day was free. That changed my mind and I went inside. The tower was set for a treasure hunt game. Its interior was decorated with medieval furniture, armor, genuine furs, and various everyday life objects. I was warned not to take photos and not to touch anything because it was important for the game to keep all the items as they were placed. I did not know who played the game and its rules, but the setup looked intriguing.

Up next was the lofty Cathedral of Rouen. Claude Monet painted it over 30 times in the course of two years. The Cathedral boasts too many interesting features to list here. For instance, the heart of Richard the Lion Heart is buried in it. My favorite was the statues of the Saints.

Lots of beautiful buildings are around. I particularly liked the Hotel de Bourgtheroulde with very medieval exterior and totally modern interior. In fact, many buildings have been renovated that way. In one pedestrian arcade, I stumbled on a supermarket that I would never expect to find in such place because the building looked too grand to house something prosaic like a store. Curious to see what was sold there, I walked in and bought myself a snack – a package of dates. Enclosed was a plastic stick with a sharp forked end designed for eating sticky dates without getting fingers dirty and I already ate half of the dates not knowing that this tool was inside the package.

Walking the streets of Rouen, I admired the French ladies of all ages. They were not beautiful the way we usually perceive beauty.  However, there was so much charm in them that I could not stop watching their slim and graceful figures to the point of being impolite. Every single of them was dressed with a great taste and care.

The fashion hit of the season clearly was a one-piece garment that consisted of shorts and a short-sleeved or sleeveless top, something like a romper but an adult version, decorated with frills and lace and made of lightweight dress fabrics. Later when I went from France to other European counties I did not see anyone wearing this kind of clothes. The French were obviously in the avant-garde of fashion.

Several places in Rouen are associated with Joan of Arc. She was imprisoned there for 5 months, trialed, declared a heretic and a witch, and burned at the stake on the Old Market square. Joan was 19 when she died. The cause of her death was smoke inhalation. Joan’s body was not destroyed by the fire. So a second and then a third burning were ordered before her body turned into ashes. Joan of Arc, also called “The Maid of Orleans”, was later recognized as a national heroine. In 1920, Joan of Arc was canonized as a Catholic saint. It is still an unsolved mystery how the illiterate peasant girl led the French army to victory over the British and who she really was.

Today’s Old Market square is a lovely place with restaurants and 16 – 18th-century houses with one modern addition – a church to commemorate St. Joan of Arc. It is a long, gloomy structure with a black roof. Its curved design is supposed to mean the flames. To me, the church looked out of place among the old half-timbered buildings.

I returned to the hotel; Wi-Fi was down. The day was Saturday and nobody works on weekends in France. So it was not going to be fixed until Monday. I went to the train station to use their free Wi-Fi to call home.

The weather became much warmer. I left the window open at night and the street noise woke me up at 4 am. I drifted in and out of sleep until breakfast. The food in the hotel breakfast area was mostly pastries and yogurt, and no bread. When I was checking out the receptionist apologized. They forgot to buy bread; so she only charged me €5 for breakfast. I paid, walked across the street and bought a train ticket to my next destination, Amiens.