September 9 -- the end of our day in Rouen

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More different kinds of construction.

Shop window.

See this, bottom left, above?

They had lots of windows with pics from movies.

Like La Rochelle, Rouen has a gros horloge.  According to Wikipedia, Rouen's big clock is an astronomical clock, (dating back to the 16th century) though the movement is considerably older (1389).

Looking right, flowers for sale.

Under the archway under the gros horloge, looking straight up.

Love the sheep scratching its ear.....

I believe there are more colors of paint on the half-timbering here than we saw elsewhere.

As well as more varieties of architecture and construction methods.

The other side of the gros horloge.

Do we get the full arch (and the wire), as above, or avoid the wire?  A conundrum.....

Time for a coffee.

They didn't have any pastry with apples (specialty of the area) where we got coffee, so we were on a mission to find something appley.

Apples *and* cream (another Norman specialty).  We'll take one, please.

(Here is what Wikipedia has to say about crème chiboust)

Our tarte Normande was very nice.  We sat beside a new church to eat it, and only afterward discovered we were sitting in the space that once was occupied by the market.  The space in which Joan of Arc was burnt alive after she was convicted of heresy.

Ick.

No pics of that.....................................

Sigh.  War, devastation, and suffering are clearly a very old story in Rouen.



Before we leave the old market square, I'll tell you the story about the Italian.

We were looking for postcards, as always. We wandered into a shop on the old market square, and perused the offerings. As we looked at postcards, and cookbooks, we overheard the proprietor talking to another customer. He talked about being Italian, and about how he had had to learn to speak French.

When it was our turn, the conversation turned to our nationality. He turned to me, and said that we were obviously mother and daughter, and that my daughter was very beautiful. He thought she must be Italian. I thought perhaps it was the highest compliment he could make. I thanked him, and I smiled, and I'm smiling now, remembering.....



Walking on.

We found the market (you knew we would!).  Only a few stalls were open, late in the afternoon.

We'd seen these flat peaches in lots of places, and I wanted to try one.

It was ok, but this particular one was nothing extra-special.

A bit more wandering.

Several building materials here, including tile.

And 3-d flowers.  I think they were ceramic.

I bet that's the hotel de ville.

I noticed that the brick is new, and then decided that all of this may well be new....

Walking back up toward the gare.  Love the street.......

A beautiful day.

You can see my beautiful daughter's take on this lovely day here.


In order to facilitate chronological traverse of these posts, here is a link to the post that comes after this one.

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