Quick Story

I forgot to tell you that two days ago while exploring Caen, we had a nice little chat with an older French gentleman we met on the street. He could tell we were tourists, and when he found out we were Americans he stopped and talked our ears off! (His English was very broken, but we all understood each other pretty well.) He was about 80, which means he was 9 years old when D-Day happened. He told us about having no food during the war and then the Americans setting up the Marshall Plan after the war to feed pretty much all of Europe and how much his family appreciated it (although he said they did have to eat yellow bread made of corn instead of wheat, and he wrinkled his nose at that)!!! He spoke so kindly about the U.S. and you could tell that the people here really appreciated everything we did for them.

He also mentioned, with some sadness, the bombing of Caen (which was done by the Allies). It was in the weeks leading up to the Normandy invasion to cut the Nazi supply lines before D-Day. (In the Caen Memorial Museum, it said that 20,000 French civilians in Normandy were killed during the summer of the Normandy Invasion by Allied bombing runs. I think usually we know of the liberation of Normandy by the Allies, but maybe we tend to forget how much damage we also did to civilians in the process. The more I travel in Europe, the more I see how terrible war was for everyone in these countries, not just the soldiers on the battlefields.)

He also was very funny when he talked about the weather here. All three days have been cool (mid 50s), windy at times, and overcast. The day we talked to him the wind was quite harsh, making the air very cold. He said the wind comes from the English Channel so the people in Normandy call it an "English wind" (which he was laughing about with a wicked glint in his eye because it was a subtle slam against the English)! :-) In Normandy, unlike the rest of France, the weather is much more like England (and Seattle). Much cooler and cloudier.

OK. We're moving to Bayeux today. I'll write more tonight if the wi-fi in this new hotel is working well!

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Day Trip to Rouen

Our excursion to Rouen began by navigating the train station in Caen. We decided to train on our day trip instead of drive because Rouen was having an Armada festival (tall ships) and it was going to be so crowded there would be few places to park. Plus riding the train is a treat because its a relaxing and leisurely way to see the beautiful countryside along our way. Also, when you ride a train you get to see all the little cities the train stops at along the way to Rouen. Tammy bought the tickets and I stopped at a little shop in the train station to buy brunch (it was 10:00 AM). Apples and baguettes with jambon (ham), emmental (cheese), and beurre (butter)! Yum!! Our favorite French lunch! The baguettes were to die for! So soft and light, and the butter is heavenly! (Did I mention yesterday that Normandy is known for its butter, cheese, and apples? There are cows dotting the pastures everywhere in the countryside. I don't know how to explain how good these food items are! Imagine the best butter you've ever had, and then multiply it by five! It's so sweet and salty and so much butterier than anything I've had in the states. And the cheese is heavenly! Now, in case you don't know, Tammy and I could live on cheese, fruit, and charcuterie! It's our absolute favorite, and the smellier the cheese the better! So you can imagine how heavenly it is to be here! Today we ate cheese that was so pungent it smelled like a barn at the Waterville fair. And unlikely as it sounds, the barny cheese is delicious! OK. That's enough food talk for now.)

Once we arrived in Rouen we had a 10 minute walk from the train station down Jeanne d'Arc Boulevard. Our first destination was a pedestrian street called Rue du Gros Horloge, which led to the site of Joan of Arc's execution. It was a narrow street lined with half timbered houses on either side. Some of the medieval houses are cantilevered so that the upper floors hang out over the street above the upper floors. This was because in the Middle Ages the homes were taxed on the square footage of the ground floor. So they made the upper floors larger. Smart cookies, aren't they?!!!

 

On this pedestrian street we ran across a really upscale patisserie (macaron shop). The French macarons (this is the way they spell it) are much different than the American ones that are usually coconut clusters. The French ones are soft, two cake-like meringues filled with some sort of gooey filling like chocolate ganache, lemon curd, etc. They melt in your mouth they are so light, and they have become Tammy's favorite thing. So we stopped here and bought a couple to try. They were fantastic! One citrus, one salted caramel, and one chocolate.

 

We walked down this narrow street, doing a little browsing and window shopping, until we arrived at the Renaissance clock tower over a gate that used to house city hall. It's also the part of town that holds the famous cathedral called Notre Dame de Rouen. (You can see the cathedral spire in the background.)

 

 

 

Below is another part of the street that leads to the cathedral.

 

Notre Dame de Rouen! It's the famous cathedral that Monet painted over 30 times! Part of the main facade was covered in scaffolding because they're working on it. But we could see half of the front and then all of the inside. It's hard to get a picture of the whole front (even without the scaffolding) because it's so huge! I couldn't back up far enough to get the whole thing in the viewer. There are a lot of old buildings all around the square in front of the church so you can only back up so far.

 

 

 

 

 

The pic below shows some of the buildings on the church square.

 

 

 

The cathedral is so beautiful and actually very light inside for being such an old Gothic cathedral. This is because many of the dark stained glass windows were destroyed during WWII and they couldn't afford to replace them with colored glass; they opted for clear instead. So it actually makes it very bright inside, which is nice. We saw pics of what the cathedral looked like during the bombing of WWII and it's amazing that they were able to restore it to such a beautiful state.

 

This is a pic of the tomb of Richard the Lionhearted (the good king that was away on the Crusades in Robin Hood). At his feet is a lion all curled up.

 

Below is a picture of the nave (main hall of the cathedral). I'm standing behind the altar and crucifix looking back towards the organ which hangs above the main entry. The nave is just awe-inspiring!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This pic is of a beautiful staircase off to the side of the cathedral. I think it goes up to one of the side towers. It's beautiful!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This picture is of the side of the cathedral, looking through the church garden area. I think the tower you see is what the stairs in the picture above lead to.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After Notre Dame we walked down Rue St. Romaine which is a narrow little alley like street that is just the quaintest most beautiful thing. The side of another huge cathedral bordered it on one side, and the other side had more of the beautiful half timbered shops. By this time it was late afternoon and we stopped for dinner at a creperie recommended by the Rick Steves guidebook. He has never steered us wrong and it was so yummy. We had cheese, spinach and ham gallettes, which are the type of creperie that's typical for Normandy. They're a little darker because they're made with buckwheat flour. A little nuttier tasting than normal flour and so yummy! The creperie building is pictured below. Adorable, isn't it! :-))

 

After this we just wandered through more narrow, mostly pedestrian streets and saw more beautiful buildings and lots of interesting people. It was a long day of walking, but it was such a fun time!!

I have to just say that no matter what you've heard about the French, we have only encountered friendly and helpful people. We always greet them with "Bonjour" and make an effort to use a few French phrases. Every single person that we've talked to has been so kind and tried to answer our questions even when they couldn't speak much English. Weve gotten very good at hand signals, too! :-)

 

 

 

The last picture I have for you is of the St. Therese Basilica in Lisieux. We saw it up on the hill above Lisieux at one of the train stops on the way back to Caen. It's absolutely breathtaking! It's modeled after the Basilica of Sacre Couer in Paris. I wish we had time to go inside it!

OK. That's all for tonight. Tomorrow we check out of Caen and head to Bayeux (about 30 minutes away). It's the biggest village closest to the D-Day beaches. So the next few days of my blog will be all about D-Day and WWII.

 

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