A Day in Rouen

June 22nd, 2018

Caroline was leaving today, so Glenn and I played hooky yesterday from work and went with Caroline and Anna to Rouen, a beautiful city in Normandy, a bit more than an hour from Paris by train.  Kate still had school, so it was only the four of us.  Our day consisted of some of our favorite activities:  walking around well-preserved medieval streets, popping into a few museums and churches, and eating.  

Rouen, an important port city on the Seine, experienced periods of great prosperity and relative poverty over the last several hundred years, which can be traced through its architecture.  Its cobbled streets are lined with half-timbered and stone townhouses, punctuated with bright, sunny squares, parks, and markets.  The 19th century make-over that Paris received courtesy of Baron Haussman is largely absent here.  Ornate and elaborate government and church buildings date mostly from the 14th-17th centuries.  In particular, it boasts a ridiculous density of  Gothic churches, notably among them the famous Rouen cathedral, immortalized in a series of paintings by Monet.  We enjoyed the striking contrast between the feel of the streets of Rouen and those of Paris.  

We visited three different churches, the aforementioned cathedral, St. Ouen, and a third whose name I forget.  (All of these are 5-10 minute walk apart.)  

We also stopped by the French museum on the history of education and found a very interesting exhibit of class photos over the last 150 years from all over the world.  One can infer a lot about cultural and political differences across countries and time by looking at the ethnic and gender compositions, the clothing, the settings, even the facial expressions and the poses in these photos.  It was an interesting idea.

Rouen also has a museum of ironwork in a repurposed old church.  I loved it, both the diversity of the individual objects displayed as well as the overall aesthetic of the museum.   

I was eagerly anticipating the gift shop, but all they had were postcards.  (What a remarkable missed opportunity.)

Finally, before catching the train back, we grabbed some very good ice cream at a small shop and enjoyed it and the sun at a sidewalk table.  (The honey-rosemary---miel et romarin---was, perhaps, the best one we tried.)