Day 7 (Oct 8th): Rouen in Paris and Normandy travel log

Today we spent the day in the Medieval city of Rouen. We had a late day - the day started at 10, when we took a walking tour through the Medieval part of the city. It was a long walking tour, though; by the time we were done it was already noon. La Professeure had jaw pain, and her parents did not sleep well either (though they seemed to be fine as the tour went on). We went through the Notre Dame cathedral there and the Joan of Arc church, and walked through many narrow, cobble-stone streets lined with half-timber houses. I quite enjoy the experience. I was mostly impressed with the sizes of the churches… Within 10 minutes of walking we got to the Saint-McClou church, Saint Ouen, Notre Dame cathedral, and the church of Joan of Arc (where she was burned at the stake). The Joan of arc church looked like a modern construction (reminded me of the mega churches in the US), but the others were big Gothic cathedrals. La Professeure wondered how come they needed three cathedrals to support such a small population.

After the tour we walked back to the ship for lunch, rested a little (I had a full nights’ sleep but the previous few days were catching up with me), and then La Professeure and I went back out to explore the churches of Saint-McClou and Saint Ouen. But, before that, we ran into her parents and was instructed to get some Immoblin (?) for her dad. We also took pictures outside the ship because it was docked near a bridge. Anyway, we found our pharmacy, and found that our phone’s Google translation app, which you can point your camera at a sign (or a label on a drug box), and on the screen, it would automatically translate that sign for you and put the translation into the same place in the same font and same colour, to be very useful. We scoured the drug section and found all kinds of drug, except an anti-diarrheal, and so had to talk to the pharmacist anyway. Google translate was still useful because it translates diarrhea for us (which La Professeure was embarrassed to say). Turns out it was kept behind the counter.

With the Immoblin in hand, we set out exploring. On the way, we stopped at many souvenir shops, and La Professeure got her share of souvenirs, so it was a productive outing. The churches, as I’d said, was very huge, and some of them, especially the St. Ouen, was in serious need of a cleaning. You can tell that the Notre Dame receives the most attention - probably because it was a subject in Monet’s painting, and the St. McClou church less attention (the facade was clean, but the rest wasn’t), and the St. Ouen church was just covered in soot. We couldn’t go inside St. McClou though. Inside St. Ouen, there was a pathetic little visitor kiosk, manned by one very uninterested-looking worker, with a handful of flyers on a rack. There were maybe half a dozen visitors in the church while we were there, and practically no parishioners. So you get a sense of the size of that space. La Professeure said she enjoyed it.

After the second outing, I was very tired from the walking, and collapsed in my cabin for a whole hour before heading back out for briefing and dinner.

The next day, we will go to the Normandy beaches.

Last updated October 23, 2015