Our Day in Rouen

We caught the city bus to Gare St. Lazare at first light.   Allowed plenty of time before the train was due to leave.  We shared a small b'fast of espresso & a chocolate pastry at the Gare then had a 45 minute wait when I noticed an earlier train also going to Rouen.  I checked with Information to verify that our changeable, refundable tickets would work, they would.  So we boarded the earlier train but found out it was a local that left 33 minutes earlier, but arrived only 11 minutes sooner.  Still a good deal because the train seating was far more comfortable than in the gare.

Arrived Rouen & got a tourist map of the city that was pretty good.  The weather was very chilly & partly sunny.

Off we went into a residential area of very old houses.

As we were consulting the map, a kindly gentleman asked first in French then in limited English if he could help us.  He then took the map, put on his spectacles, reached into a coin purse to fetch an ancient one inch stub of a very dull pencil and proceeded to give us a guided tour of the city on the map, all in rapid French that we didn't understand.  Apparently the English he used was all he knew.  But he was pointing consistently down one street so we got the message...to see Rouen, first go that way.  We did and came upon their Beaux Arts museum.









It's sort of a Louvre & Musee d'Orsay rolled into one but much smaller.  So we decided to have a look.  It had a little bit of everything including the Impressionists, Monet, Renoir, Morisot, etc.

The next photo I cribbed from Wikipedia.  It is one of Renoir's most famous, Bal de le Moulin de la Galette, famous for the dappled sun shining through the trees.

He painted it in 1876.  The reason for including it here is the next piece at the Rouen museum.




 

This piece by Albert Fourie painted in 1878 has the same dappled effect to a lesser degree.  It may be a wedding reception, the title wasn't specific.   Only an art historian knows if he was inspired by Renoir.

This piece was in a courtyard, photos allowed.  Photos not permitted in the rest of the museum and there were docents in every room to make darn sure.  They looked like art students to me & very bored...nothing to do but be there.

They had a Modigliani room but none of the few works there had the almond eyed subjects he was noted for.  We dashed through the 14th thru 18th century art.  Not much interest in the grand scenes of barely clad subjects doing good things, violent things or not doing anything at all.

Off we went towards the Hotel de Ville...the Rouen city hall.  By now it was getting on to noon & we were hungry.  While Paris seems to have eating places everywhere, we came to an area that had almost none.  We spotted a pizza joint & decided to try.  We each ordered the same...capers, anchovies, olives & garlic...with an egg plopped in the center.  The nice man who made them loaded each up with toppings, far more than the sparse toppings we've always gotten.  The cheese-laden circles came piping hot and turned out to be the best pizza we've ever had in France.  We dug in so quickly, I forgot to take a pic. I've done that most of the trip.

While having lunch it started raining but it quit by the time we finished.  Off we went to the H de V.

There is it, big is about all you can say for it.  Gotta have a look at the statue in front.

Yup, there's our boy...Napoleon himself.

Next to the H de V is a large church.  You can see the statue as a reference point.  It is large & badly in need of sandblasting.

Here is the official entrance, locked.

We finally made it to the Cathedral of Notre Dame (the one Monet painted) but it is so large and the city is built up so close around it that it's impossible to get back far enough to get a good overall shot.  Add to that the grayness of the day washed out the recently sandblasted stone & you get boring pics. 

In the small Place in front of the cathedral was a restaurant with a very politically incorrect statue.  Couldn't resist taking a photo.
















We walked towards the town center, strolled through a Galeries Lafayette department store  (a much smaller version than in Paris) and stopped off for a hot drink.  The sun was peeking through the clouds when there was a very startling, very loud thunderclap...seemingly out of nowhere.

Well, it wasn't out of nowhere.  LSS, while having our tea/hot chocolate it started pouring & wouldn't let up.  It was a bit after 2:00pm, our ticketed train wasn't leaving until 8:00.  But there was a 3:00pm train back to Paris & we decided to be on it.  We dashed a couple of blocks through the rain to a Metro stop & with the help of a very nice young man, coaxed tickets from the machine and two stops later we were at the gare.  By 5:00pm we were back in our apartment in Paris.  The weather was clear because we had outrun the storm but by dinner time it was upon us, again.

Not wanting to schlep in the rain once more, we had dinner at Chez Clement, a chain restaurant immediately below our apartment.  I had a hankering for fish, Susanne had escargot, we shared a salad & a half bottle of house wine.


The next day was windy & chilly, very little sun.  We went to the Polish Cultural Center to see their Chopin Museum.  That may be my last post and may not be sent til late this week when we're back in Scottsdale because the next day is packing & cleaning & Thursday we're off!