One really amazing thing to me about living in France is the fantastic train system that allows me to travel where ever I want to go without ever having to get into a car. The other thing is that I found not one, but two life friends here - with whom I have had several amazing and mundane experiences - all of which I cherish more than anything else I experienced here. For example, after I caught the bus to the RER station and had taken two trains to St. Lazare (total 50 minutes and ~$5), I met Carole for our great adventure to arrive by train in Rouen 2 hours later (~$55 each, r/t). We chatted, read, giggled, and planned all the way without worrying about the route, the traffic or stopping for gas. When we arrived in Rive Droite Rouen we walked to the place where the Rouen Cathedrale - best known for being the subject of Monet's fantastic series of paintings displaying the effects of color and light - sat majestically awaiting the constant flow of tourists who came to shower this landmark with attention.
But this is not Rouen's only commitment to history - Rouen is known for its history of faience - painted porcelains and JOAN OF ARC's tragic death here in the flames of hatred and fear.
Oh sure, Joan's reputation was restored by her murderers - the catholic church, 25 years later or so - when they decided in fact that she wasn't the heretic or witch that she was accused of being but rather was in fact the soldier of her god - delivering France from the evil hands of the British - and then finally they called her a saint in the 1920s. But long before that she had been burned at the stake in the center of Rouen after having spent several months in the tower of Phillipe Auguste - a sort of keep converted to a prison to keep this "dangerous 19-year-old" locked away from freedom.
You really have to read Mark Twain's account of this history to understand a lot of the irony of the times, but I have also thought the larger the monuments - the more mea culpa one is expressing. This monument was enormous.
Carole and I arrived around noon with a mission. We were looking for Monet and Jeanne d'Arc connections - and we followed them all. We visited the cathedrale, then Eglise MaClou, where we found some porcelain that Carole just had to have, and then had a great little lunch before we returned to see the afternoon light on the cathedral, and then head for the tower where Joan was held.
We knew there was another site, but we weren't sure where until we were at the tower and found out there was also some kind of monument where she was burned at the stake, so after a brief stop to see Rouen's Monet collection in the Musée de Beaux Arts we headed to Eglise Jeanne d'Arc
- the church erected in the old marketplace of Rouen is a beautifully designed modern building in the shape of a ship. There is a garden marking the spot of her fire, and inside and out statues of the daughter of the farmer and his wife.
After shopping for a few more souvenirs, taking pictures of Rouen's beautiful old streets, and the famous "gros horloge" we headed back to the train station - stopping to buy some Irish beer for our favorite beer drinkers, and then a cold drink before remounting the train to come home. Two more hours of recapping the day, musing about history, examining the lives of Carole's children, and watching a couple of young boys get tickets for sneaking on the train, we arrived back in Paris around 8:30 p.m., tired, but thrilled with our adventure. It was a really delightful day, and one which defines the great friendship that has come between two gals from Ohio who found themselves living in the surreal world of expats and very thankful they had found each other.
To see more photos from this trip check out the Flickr page for this set.
