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Published: June 16th 2017
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Notre Dame in Rouen
Thought Marilyn would like this. We did a quick tour inside.
Richard the Lionheart's heart is buried here. Geo: 49.4424, 1.09849
Started early with taxi pickup in London at 5:15 am. Eurostar to Lille, then train change to Rouen. Dot had a minor panic attack on the train from Lille to Rouen. She thought we were supposed to go through Paris and when we didn't, she couldn't quite figure what happened. but it all worked out.
to my sisters: had to pay 70 pence (about .90 US) to use the toilets at the Eurostar station. At the Rouen station it was .70 euro. I better stop drinking soda. BTW-Dot made it 4 hours on our bike tour without any water, food or pit stop. I think that is a record.
I already Facebooked about my language barrier at McDonalds in Lille. the cashier couldn't understand my English or French. It didn't get any better. In Rouen, there we found no English speaking people. We managed to order our desserts by pointing.
So we walked around Rouen this afternoon exploring and eating desserts. I had only sweets all day until dinner. Oh well. You can see the pictures of our stop at the wonderful dessert place. My family will be jealous.
Also in Roeun, we toured the plague cemetery. They had a dead black cat
Dame Cakes in Rouen
A Rick Steves recommendation. Cute little dessert place with a Jane Austen feel. Wonderful desserts. corpse in a glass enclosure in the wall to ward against bad luck. They even gave the cat a little mouse corpse to play with. the things we find amusing.
We brought Dot's GPS so we wouldn't have to rent one. But it wasn't working, so we paid for one with our rental car. We picked up our rental car at the train station in Rouen and the driving adventure began. Getting the GPS set to English was the first challenge. Getting it to talk to us was another. Then, getting out of the parking garage - we were parked 2 levels below ground and we drove up a circular ramp to exit. However, it was extremely narrow and dark and I think my tires were rubbing one side. It was also a stick shift. always fun.
Leaving Rouen was a little difficult to navigate. Narrow streets and traffic, but the GPS eventually kicked in and we made it out of town onto the highways. Of course, then Dot's GPS finally started working so we had 2 GPS and a map. Overkill?
The tractor trailer trucks must have a different speed limit than the cars here. They all drive in the far right
lane and they all drive slower than the cars. It makes it a little difficult to navigate around them and stay out of everybody's way.
We made it to Honfleur, france where we will spend 2 nights on the top floor of a small B&B. This is a small port town with an Italy look and feel. Quick walk this evening, it looks like lots of galleries and unique shops to explore tomorrow. I hope Gary isn't reading this, because we found some really nice jewelry we want to go back to tomorrow.
Since I was starving and in a port town, I was hoping for a nice dinner of fresh fish. We went to 2 Rick Steve's recommendations, one was closed today and the other said they were full when we walked in. The place was empty and we were wearing our typical American caps and hiker pants. But, Rick's book side you often have to make reservations, so maybe they really were full with reservations. So, we went to his final recommendation, a more casual Italian restaurant. For the first time all day, our waiter spoke some English, plus they had an English menu. We had a lovely
Yummy
For those of you not on Facebook, Dot had the pistachio fruit tart (yuck). I had the chocolate fondant with creme anglais. Bowl full of solid chocolatey goodness, which a little pitcher of creme sauce. Nothing lost in translation.
meal.
The lady running our B&B is not understandable at all. I had to park the car in the parking garage down the street. From her directions, I didn't know if I would ever find it and make it back.
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Mary
non-member comment
A lot of restaurants only cook with fresh food and buy only for what they'll use that night, so it's possible they only bought groceries for their reservation diners. Or, they could have discriminated against you because your obnoxious Americans. You're
right, it's probably the latter.