10/10/10

Yeah that’s the date, but it’s also the score I’d give this past weekend. The weather has been perfect these past couple of days (if anything it’s been pretty hot) and it’s supposed to continue into this coming week. The other English assistants and I decided to take advantage of the nice weather and headed to Rouen for the weekend.

On Saturday morning Alex, Liz and I navigated our way from Louviers to Rouen via the bus and the train. I don’t think any of us were aware of how simple it would be, and now that all is said and done pretty much all of France is open to us on the weekend. Rouen is only 20 minutes away, and Paris is just under an hour. We hadn’t booked a place to stay, so when we arrived that was our first goal. However, we were sidetracked as we made our way further into the center of Rouen in search of a map at the Bureau de Tourisme. After wandering around for a half hour or so following the signs that proved to point us in the wrong direction, I stumbled upon a group of older women who were just as lost as we were. Since English now a foreign language, their conversation caught my ear and I went to ask them if I could look at their map, or if by chance they might be able to point us in the right direction. Turns out one of them did grab and extra map before they left their ship and she gave it to us to use.

From there on out we pretty much covered all of Rouen’s points of interest including the Rue du Gros Horloge, a street that features one of Rouen’s best-known sights, the “Great Clock-Tower” built in 1527.

This street led us to the Place de Vieux-Marché where Joan of Arc was martyred, and now the spot where she was burned at the stake is marked by a 65-foot-high cross. We also checked out Rouen’s Notre Dame Cathedral, which features a 16th century spire 490 feet tall and a gothic edifice dating back to 1140.

Part of the ceiling of Notre Dame.

We did visit a few other churches whose names and significance I don’t remember, but I’m sure I’ll be in Rouen again soon to take more time to appreciate them.

Church of Saint Ouen, currently being used as an art gallery.

Once we had finished all of the touristy stuff we made our way across the Pont Corneille to the Rive Gauche (aka the left side of the city) where we found a hotel to spend the night in. After a power-nap we got up in search of food, which has proven to be the most difficult thing to get used to in France. Most cafés it seems, in spite of having prominently displayed menus out front, do not serve dinner. For the most part it’s pretty difficult to find a decent place to eat after 3.00 PM because the whole “restaurant” concept we have in America doesn’t exist. Eventually we did stumble upon a brasserie that served dinner, although not until after 7.00 PM and I had the most amazing piece of pork I’ve ever had in my life: “Filet mignon de porc” with caramelized apples on top covered in a cidre cream sauce. Wow…just wow. Although I seriously appreciated the deliciousness, it was kind of a shame because I was so hungry I finished the entire meal and sopped up the sauce with a roll in about 7 minutes; that and it didn’t even make a dent.

Afterwards, we headed to a bar in the Place de Vieux-Marché to have a couple of drinks before we met up with some other English assistants. In Louviers, the Americans outnumber the English so we enjoy making fun of the accent, but last night we were outnumbered 8:2 by kids from all over England and Ireland. While listening in on their accounts of “Uni” life and “Freshers week” I picked up some new vocabulary that might get mixed in here every now and then. We went our separate ways after getting booted from the bar at 2.00 AM and got back to the hotel around quarter of.

This morning we left Rouen and headed back to Louviers, after which I went to the Fête de Pomme (Apple Festival) in a neighboring town with Sylviane and Jean-François. There I had all things apple/cheese/honey/cidre-related including the incredible "beignets" or apple fritters. It’s nice to be able to eat whatever you want, because I had 15. Once we had made a couple of tours of the grounds, they took me on a tour of Normandy’s countryside. The fields reminded me of home, although here, with the exception of the plateau, everything is much hillier.

They explained the unique characteristics of Norman architecture and we stopped at a couple of medieval chateaus and homes that were built before the Americas were even discovered. Ridiculous.