Back on the road, we backtrack our way out of Giverny and onto the A13 to Rouen. It takes a little over an hour to get to the city, and we have competing directions again. We follow Alice and wind up in the city heading toward the Cathedral parking lot. I’ve researched all the lots and we are heading to the 2 closest lots. We get screwed up once we cross the Seine into the city when we see a sign for the cathedral lot that says “complete.” Crap – it’s full? Bummer. Instead of following the sign anyway, we turn in the opposite direction and end up pretty far from where we want to be. After a few unsuccessful turns and twists – and one point when I think we were in bus only lanes – we finally make it back on the road that follows the river and head in the direction of the cathedral again.
I’m following along on the car GPS now because it actually shows parking lots. we manage to somehow find our way through a bunch of little narrow one way roads, circling around a huge crowd of people in line – waiting for buses? - and into of all things – the cathedral parking lot! It’s packed, but not full. Yay.
We score a space in the outside lot within view of the cathedral. Nice going. Getting our bearings, we consult our map, then head up into the square by the cathedral. We decide we want a bite to eat since it’s almost 1:00, and stop at one of the cafes on the square. We know it will probably cost more, but you can’t beat the atmosphere – or the convenience! Plus I love the tables. They are so brightly colored and Monet-ish.
Called Cafe Cosy, the menu is a combination of snacks, lite bites and sandwiches. I choose the goat cheese quesadilla (only 4 euros!) and Ed chooses the burger, no fries and we settle in for a lovely little meal.
Now that we are refreshed, we can wander. Our first stop is the Notre Dame cathedral itself. It is massive and beautiful with such ornate Gothic architecture.
Inside it is just as impressive. Classic Gothic with the nave and the high domed ceilings. There is a great carved staircase here that seems to be made of ivory and float right up against the wall.
The cathedral was heavily bombed in the war and there is a nicely done pictorial display of the damage and the efforts to rebuild afterward.
We exit through the main doors, out onto the main cathedral square to find a festival of sorts going on. Lots of booths and vendors selling local products. We stop at a sausage stand and buy 20 little dried and smoked sausages for 5 Euros. They are totally different – Goat cheese, Camembert, Walnut, Chorizo and one other kind we can’t remember. All excellent – and all will be great snacks for us on our next two days of touring around.
We follow Rick Steve’s walking tour, but really don’t need the map much. It’s a trek up one pedestrian street – where there are sidewalk sales and tons and tons of people out. We pass under Le Gros Horloge, the big clock. It’s a huge Renaissance clock from the early 1500’s that spans the entire street.
Further on we finally arrive at our last destination, Place du Vieux Marche – the place where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake. There is a little memorial park there, surrounded by half timber houses and tons of cafes and restaurants. The Joan of Arc church is also located on the square – a 1979 Scandinavian designed building shaped like a ship‘s hull with incredible walls of stained glass
We once again see John and Chris at the memorial – we swear they are stalking us – and take a picture to prove it.
This is a lovely town, full of beautiful buildings and we are very glad we stopped here. It’s time to head back to the ship though, with a little detour along the route of the Ancient Abbeys. We make our way through the throngs to the car lot only to find the exit blocked by some dope who couldn’t successfully navigate the turn and has rammed her car up against the pay machine. She has the entire place blocked and when she finally extricates the car and lines up with the pay box, she can’t figure it out and it takes her forever. Argh. We’re sort of blocked in, but fortunately the guy in front of us leaves, so we can pull through and around (and not suffer the same fate of not making the turn correctly in our slightly larger than we’re used to Ford Focus). We’ve already paid for our parking – because that’s what you do, right? You go to the pay machines at the top of the lot and pay first, then get into your car and go. Why hold everyone up at the exit by trying to pay there? Apparently not everyone got that memo, because at least 2 other cars in front of us take forever to pay and leave. Sigh, we may not make it back to the ship for our sail away at 10 pm at this rate!
Finally we escape the confines of the lot and make our way out of Rouen, heading toward the abbeys.
No comments:
Post a Comment