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Published: March 30th 2009
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Well, I remember being told the stories about Joan of Arc when I was just a kid in grade school. That was back when the nuns thought they could motivate the kids by giving them balloons and gold stars. Thank goodness, todays employers of high quality professionals would never insult their employees with such a tactic in todays highly competitive work place.
But, as usual, I digress. Rouen is evidently where Joan of Arc, a 19 year old was captured, tried and burned at the stake for heresy.
Of course, a few years later the Catholic Church thought better of it and canonized her a saint. Hey, my bad!!!! Nothing personal, ok???
Rouen is a good sized city and they say it is the fifth largest port in France. I guess the same way St. Louis is a port. It is miles from the sea. I got to Rouen which I found out, as always the hard way, is pronounced Rrruah. Don't worry, no matter how you pronounce towns over here., somebody will correct you. And then you will say, Hmmm, isn't
that what I just said??" Just smile and thank them. It is much easier that way.
Anyway, I got there in the pouring rain. Luckily, as I was pulling out my umbrella, the rain stopped. I started the hunt for my hotel. Someday, maybe, I will learn to pull up a map to the places I stay. But that would take all the certainty out of the search.
Once agan, the web site said 500 meters from the Gare de Rouen. I swear, a meter must be 10 yards at least. I walked at least a mile and finally found it. Not in a "handy" location, but not bad. I was in the old section of the city with all the sights, so, I did have far to walk to see things.
When I got to the hotel, it was sort of bizarre. I had to ring a buzzer to get in....usually not a good sign...then the lady told me my room was not ready..even though it was 2 pm. OK..well either my room was not ready
or I had no room. I was a little shaky on the translation.
Well, anyway, I went to grab some lunch. As I am sure you know, meals over here take forever. I figured that by the time I ate, the room would be good to go. I went to a little were I knew the service would be ungodly slow. I was not disapointed!!!!! It took about 20 minutes to get me a menu....another 25 to get my order....30 to bring out the first course....which by the way....was incredible. I got the Plat du jours..always a good choice. It was two eggs hard boiled, perfectly. swimming in a bath of the best mayonaise type sauce I have ever had. It was incredible!!! After that they brought out a salmon plate that was equally delicious...all followed by a vanilla custard something or other....also perfect!!! After the obligatory 3 tmes asking for "l'addition SVP" I got the bill. I wonder how long I had to pay it. Well, enough time had passed, so I left the money and took off.
Just as I had guessed,
when I got back, my room was ready and up I went. It was not too bad. Big bay type window with a sliding glass door that made it into sort of a porch. Strange, but okay. The place advertised satellite TV.....I have no idea why....perhaps just a dream of theirs!!!!
I dropped my backpack and off I went. The first thing to see was, of course, Gros Horloge. It was built around 1389, and only has one hand. The book says that was because the mechanism was not sophisticated enough to measure minutes accurately..ok.
Then I just walked all over. I saw the Vieux Marche, where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake. It is funny...or odd. When you are told the story of someone being burned alive, at least when you are a kid, it really has no effect on you. It is no real big deal. But, as an adult, to think that somebody could do that to another person....especially when the "doers" are supposed to be religious, God fearing men, it just makes you wonder.
After a brief stop at
the market, where I checked out all the strange offerings, at least for me, of the many vendors, I walked down to one of the many Cathedrals in the city. This town, per capita has to have more churches....and I mean BIG ones, then any other place I have been. Rome has several hundred. But not as many huge ones as Rouen.
I walked by the tourist office and noticed they had audio tours. I asked about them and it turned out I had just enough time to get one.
So, after dropping off my Missouri Drivers License. Which I have not used in a long time, I went for my guided tour.
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Kevin Bryant
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What the heck is a Tex Mex doing in Rouen? Nice Pictures