From Dieppe to Joan of Arc
Trip Start
May 05, 2007
1
8
11
Trip End
May 15, 2007
Rouen,
Normandy,
France
Friday, May 11, 2007
We headed out on foot, looking to explore the various areas of town. My parents were following me as I led us on a bit of a wild goose chase -- I wanted to see the "old" neighbourhood of Le Follet, across the Pont Colbert, but quickly realized that apart from streets and buildings similar to the rest of town, there wasn't anything special to see... So back we came, and focused on the centre of the city.
We went to the tourist office to collect various brochures, and stumbled across the Maison Miffaut, which I had been actively seeking. Maison Miffaut is a historic site (which is saying alot, in a country like France, and a town like Dieppe!), by far the oldest building in the city. It is a few centuries old and looks like it wants to crumble any day now, but it's holding on for dear life
Architecture in Dieppe
!We stopped at the Eglise St-Jacques, the old church right in the middle of town. Entering the church, we immediately realized that a funeral was in progress, and we made a hasty retreat. A couple of corners away, we found Eglise St-Rémy, which was hosting a fair where young students were putting on display various trades, such as carpentry, smithing, sculpting, glasswork and other artful and useful pursuits they were studying in school. Very interesting, and beautiful!
We found that the Memorial du Raid sur Dieppe was not yet open for summer, so ended up finding a place for lunch on the main pedestrian street, before heading out of town.
A slightly longer drive (well, not really that long...) took us to Rouen, a large city on the Seine, well on our way inland back to Paris.
Rouen's claim to fame is as the hometown of Joan of Arc. It also still boasts the tallest church spire in France. Arriving in Rouen in rush hour was a bit stressful... Lots of traffic, difficult navigation, and restrictions on where one can turn made for a challenging arrival at Hotel de Quebec
Fountain in Dieppe
. But - once we got there, all was well! We parked safely in the courtyard, and made ourselves comfortable in our small room.We went out exploring. Once again, the sun was very timid and it looked like it might rain... We walked to the cathedral, with its two disparate towers. One, the "Tour de Beurre", or "Tower of Butter", was named thus due to the fact that it was built with the proceeds of a substantial tax that was imposed on the people of Rouen (this is waaaay back when, mind you) on all dairy products, so that the Catholic bishop could build himself a tower on top of his church, and have himself the biggest baddest church around...
We came across the fantastic Rue du Gros-Horloge, a fun street of shops and restaurants, open only to pedestrians. We visited the beautiful (inside) modern Eglise de Ste-Jeanne D'Arc, built on the site where she was burned at the stake. The whole neighbourhood of very old Norman buildings, restored in such a way as to preserve their historical integrity, was awesome. The market was still open, with local farmers peddling fresh vegetables and fruit.
We continued to walk around, and ended up in front of the Palais de Justice, a building from the 16th century, still in use today. Its façade showed serious pock-marks -- and once more, we were transported to the 1940's when the building came under fire.
Of course, as we made our way back to the hotel, it started raining, and we faced the fact that we didn't have umbrellas or rain coats with us... Trying to find a pub or cafe for shelter proved challenging, somehow. Every place in sight was a cafe closing for the day. Getting soaked, we resume our way, and suddenly came across a wonderful German pub called La Walsheim. Great atmosphere, really nice food (not so German, apart from the schnitzel), and friendly service.
The rain had relented somewhat by the time we walked back to the hotel - but our wet clothes would take the night to dry out... I filmed quite a bit in Rouen, but didn't bring the still camera - hence the lack of pictures - sorry!
