Rouen

 

On day 5 of the cruise, the captain turned the ship around and headed back down the Seine, stopping at the city of Rouen. Rouen, which is the capital of Upper Normandy, is best known for its connection to Joan of Arc, who lived, was imprisoned, and burned at the stake in the marketplace in 1431 at the age of 19.

 

First we took a walking tour of the town which reminded us so much of the German style yet with the obvious French architectural influence. Below is the Gros Horlage astronomical clock dating to the 16th century. Still a bit rainy and cool but great for walking and sightseeing.

 



The churches of Rouen were the subject of several of Monet's paintings and walking through them was a real treat. The picture below was also fascinating. This explanation was on an easel and explained one of the stained glass windows above you in one of the cathedral. It's really a story, read from bottom to top of the life of a resident of Rouen (Julien l'Hospitalier) who murdered his parents and then became a saint ... I'll let you work out the details on your own.

And then on to the market place in the center of town. This more modern church is remarkable for the Norse styling with sails and the market has the same theme. The real historical part of this spot though is that it's where Joan of Arc met her fate supposedly where the statue of her is standing in that alcove of the church

We continued walking around the market and were impressed by a lot of the half-timbered houses ... this one being the most ornate and appeared right out of the Black Forest in Germany. Now it's a pricy restaurant on the square.

The little carousel was charming and the rules were, "Put your child on the animal of choice and then the wheel to the left is spun and if it hits the picture of that animal, the ride is free." Cool.

And as we concluded our walk through town this shop of fine ceramic wares caught our eye. Yup, expensive hand made porcelain bed pans .... gotta have one, eh.

After another wonderful lunch on the ship and of course nap time, we spent the afternoon exploring the vessel. Below is our captain explaining his trade in his "office." The first question of course was, "where's the big wooden wheel?" He's pointing to today's version ... a tiny silver joy stick. The many flat panel displays gave him a multitude of inputs from many sensors, satellite and on board, that helped him guide us down the river. A side note here. Just above his head is a sliding hatch. Because the bridges can be quite low, the whole glass portion you see here slides down so that it touches the top of the dash, and he can still guide the boat by sticking the top of his body up through the hole!

And finally two stories below the wheelhouse was the kitchen with our young and animated chef giving us the tour. This place isn't much bigger than a kitchen in a large home yet had to churn out gourmet dining for 100 folks three times a day plus other eats 24/7.

The signs on the fridge were particularly interesting ...