Post It from Rouen, Normandy, France. Tuesday 24th June, 2014

As a rule I do not post stories from visits to campsites I have previously described but this will be an exception. On our way homeward bound we decided to stop at again at Camping Eure, Pont De l’Arche and visit Rouen for the day by bus. Thanks to Catherine at camping Yelloh Saint-Emilion we had a reservation booked over the phone for two nights and it was probably just as well we had asked for her help as the site was full that night.

The next day we caught the bus for the 18k ride into Rouen where the bus station is in the very centre and close to the historical buildings. The cost was only 4 Euros per person each way and we shared the journey with a Portuguese couple from the camp site.

We have driven through the centre of Rouen many times but never stopped and as we had not actually planned this day visit our first stop was the local tourist information office to get a City map and some idea of what there was to see. We managed to find the office after asking a shop assistant in my best French and found it right opposite the Cathedral of Notre-Dame, a very impressive 12^th Century Gothic church from the outside but we thought it was somewhat lacking inside and had seen many, more beautiful churches, on this holiday. It was undergoing some external renovation and this enabled the very ornate carvings to be fully appreciated.

From here we wandered the old streets where the buildings were made with timber beams exposed and many had been painted to give a bright display of colours. Then it was on to the Abbey of Saint Ouen and I thought this church was much more impressive to the eye, set in gardens and surrounded by trees, but not as detailed in the stone carving, we could not go inside at the time we were there. The local council now use the attached Monk’s dormitory as offices and close by is the Hotel de Ville.

The old part of the City was full of similar old buildings, restaurants, cafes and bars. We had a rather expensive coffee in one overlooking the entrance to the Cathedral but had we gone just along the side of the church to a less pretty plaza we could have enjoyed one for less than half the price with just as pleasing views. To be fair the restaurants were advertising lunches at very reasonable prices but we did not have the time to indulge and settled for a baguette and pan au chocolate with a soft drink instead.

We then wandered a little bit away from the centre to find the last remaining visible parts of the castle, dated 1204, which was the tower where Joan of Arc was held prisoner and tortured. We also visited the Old Market to see the large cross to mark the place she was later burned at the stake on 30^th May 1431. A new church has been built there as well in commemoration of her.

Further on our tour we saw the spending Palace of Justice which is said to be the largest civil Gothic edifice in France and was built on the once Jewish quarter after their expulsion in 1306. It houses Normandy’s Parliament as well as the Court House and we saw detained persons arriving with the Gendarmes to appear before the Court.

Lastly we visited the Great Clock, a very large unusual golden faced clock dating from the 14^th Century and it had kept working non-stop until 1928. It was fully restored in 2006 and what I found particularly interesting was the stone carvings to the arched roof below the clock face itself and the City bells were in the belfry above it. We were actually in the gardens of the Abbey at midday and heard all the different bells from the many locations around the old City ringing out together.

The day had been a good one, if a little tiring and with more time there would have been many more things to see and do in this pretty City. I would have liked to walk the banks of the River Seine but unfortunately it is not all that easy to access from where we were so I had to settle for watching the barges head up river from a distance. I will post the photos in order of mentioning them above for those who may be keen to know which church is which.

We head off for Wimereux tomorrow, a place we stayed last year and then cross the Channel and stay at Abbey Wood in London for the weekend to visit our son and his girlfriend so I shall not post stories from either of these places, unless something special happens to warrant one, so my next post will be from home with a roundup of our holiday this time.

Regards, Roy