Rouen

On the 5th of December we took the TGV from Gare Saint Lazare out to Rouen for the day. We started our tour at the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Rouen. Apparently something like 80% of Cathedrals in France are named "Notre-Dame."


The tower on the right is called La Tour de Beurre or the Butter Tower, because it was built in part with funds that citizens payed for the permission to eat butter that was forbade during Lent. At first I was confused by why people would pay when Lent is just 40 days, but then I went to lunch. Butter in this area of France is really, really good.


Monet chilled there for a little while, and painted the Cathedrale from basically the same point of view, but at all different times of day/weather. It was fun to see two of Monet's subjects, Gare Saint Lazare and the Cathédrale de Rouen in one day.






There were Christmas shops set up all around the Cathedral, with this band playing out front. Despite the creepy clown, it was festive and pretty adorable.


The interior was so beautiful. If you look closely, you can see that the door leads to the Bibliothèque. I guess a Cathedral is a sufficient foyer . . .


These statues of prophets lined one side of the cathedral.


The sun came out for a little bit, and we got to see the beautiful shadows cast by the stained glass windows.


Next we headed to what we thought was just a small courtyard. Turns out that this was a mass grave during times of plague.

They would pile the old bones into the space between the inside and outside walls, which were engraved with sculls and various bones.


The streets were small and winding, lined with old buildings that were more than slightly crooked, and everything was all decked out for Christmas!


This little statue was on a fountain attached to a church. Now I see where the Parisian men get it, apparently peeing in public is not only deeply ingrained in French history, but also endorsed by religion. Parfait.


As it turns out, Jean d'Arc was burned at the stake in Rouen. This Church is constructed on the site where she is believed to have been executed.




The blue and white flag is for Jean d'Arc.



After walking around and going to lunch, we headed to the Musée des Beaux Arts, which had a nice collection of Impressionists, as well as some pretty gruesome Géricault studies for Le radeau de la Méduse. My favorite thing in the museum was the stairwell, which was painted with seemingly haphazard orange lines. But, when you looked at their reflection in the rounded mirror, the lines became a perfect bulls-eye.