Rouen

Rouen is beautiful.  A medieval treasure of Normandy a bit NW of Paris.

August, noon, empty streets as if towners deserted it completely, leaving behind a fantastic decoration after the finished play.  Strange feeling of overwhelming quietness after overflown Paris.

Only between Cathedral and Market Place a few groups of tourists, mostly German, filled narrow street with sound presence.

Otherwise the whole city is asleep, paused in time like  castle inhabitants in Sleeping Beauty. Stopped on the move: store doors open, flowers blooming, sweet aroma from pastry shops whiffing  and almost no people around. The restaurants where closed by 2pm probably until evening, open only for drinks.

The quiche, croque monsieur and mille-feuille gateaux available  at the pastry shop for take out under café umbrella were fantastic.

Maybe it was traditional vacation time and everyone  is blown away with travel rush. Or maybe it was rain on and off all day long, light or heavy at times. It made me juggling with umbrella and camera and still it was wonderful. We had the city to ourselves. The same impression was with Bourges.

Please walk with me, touch the walls of maisons de bois -  half-timber houses. They are real. So many where destroyed during the WWII in heavy fires and bombing, almost a half was gone and the scars left forever. What could be saved is restored lovingly like a magnifiscent landmark Palais de Justice.  Built at the very end of XVth century  with all attributes of flamboyant gothic architecture  it was almost destroyed in the XXth but slowly revived to be sincerely admired.

The city today is beautiful as ever even if it took the tromp l’oeil murals to bring back the Market Place  close to the original look. Today this square is dominated by a huge  ultra modern chapel/museum  of Joan of Arc. Gigantic structure for this space. It makes surrounding buildings look like pigmies theme park maquette.  It’s beautiful but it’s just the scale that is utterly wrong.

Poor courageous girl Jeanne d’Arc. She was what today is defined as a charismatic leader with obviously paranormal abilities. A brave girl with military talents eager to save her beloved France from English occupation and stop an endless war. She wasn’t only cowardly betrayed by a miserable king Charles VII, she was actually sold to English for money by duke of Burgundy. The tragic end of her short life in May 1431 is well known. She became a legend for eternity.

And Rouen, the capital city of Normandy since medieval times, a prosperous trading city on the Seine then, today is capitalizing on this legend heavily.

500 years later the heroic  girl was proclaimed the Saint  Jeanne d’Arc. Her images are everywhere slightly varying between Mila Yovovich and Barbarella, most of the time it’s a sexy Barbie in shining armor with angelic face, or Xena the warrior with the triumphant look of Amazon winner. Usually it’s a funny kitsch, but whatever it takes to help sell the goods. St. Jeanne became a trade mark.

Street signs are antique and touching traditional, some are modern designed logos over the chic windows.

Contemporary urban sculpture interacts so well with medieval square. I like when present doesn’t dismiss but respects the past, they made pretty good friends in here.

Famous for it’s traditional faience and porcelain production Rouen carries on. There’re many shops around town with artists in the windows  mastering their craft, richly ornamenting with delicate flowers plates and cups and saucers right in front of by passers’ eyes. There’re many beautiful fragile pieces to admire. The same style for ages. This tradition is very much alive despite the slow demand I believe. The craftsmanship is amazing.

Hidden narrow passages and tiny courtyards covered in unstoppable vines are very cute and cozy.  Several beautiful churches grace the sky with their spires. I’ve posted about Notre Dame de Rouen Cathedral here. This is the heart of the city along with the Rue du Gros Horloge. The huge golden gilded and ornated clock is tirelessly ticking since 1389. And the rhythm of life obviously hasn’t change much since.

Rouen is relatively a small city today but well loved and cared by Rounnaises.

It’s historical core is a wonderful day walk not far from Paris.

*All images © Natalie Rapoport

Rouen Cathedral

I can’t even tell how many happy hours I spent  in various museums near the Rouen Cathedral by Claude Monet. In National Gallery in Washington, in Musee d’Orsay, in  Paris Marmottan museum, in  Pushkin Fine Arts Museum in Moscow  when I was a teenager fascinated with his light and sun and shadows, pastel tones and vibrant morning splashes, fading sunset colors  and melting forms, anticipating, guessing, feeling, flying…

Monet loved to immerse himself in series of enamored subjects.  It could be  a Rouen Cathedral which was immortalized by the artist in 30 paintings , a tantalizing task to catch the ever-changing  daylight bit by bit. Or endless variations of water lilies in Giverny, from tiny sketches to huge canvases.

Therefore many renowned museums throughout the world can proudly exhibit in their collections one or more of his Cathedrals  painted in Rouen  in 1892-1894.

 

 Before France grew to love Impressionists  many of their masterpieces unaccepted by the contemporaries  were acquired by visionary collectors  in States and progressive connoisseurs in Russia at the dawn of 20^th century and brought the artists success, fame and recognition.

 There’s no other building in the world which had the same honor of being painted so many times  by the Master. Even Notre Dame de Paris can’t compete. There are so many other beautiful cathedrals in France sort of very well known but kind of little bit put aside by the history and locations.

 This won’t be ever the fate of Rouen Cathedral the genuine masterpiece of gothic architecture.

Being the main Cathedral in the capital city of Normandy since the 12^th century it had such a tumultuous history of construction and reconstructions, fires, destructions, looting, lightnings and burnings, devastating bombing during the WWII which caused unforgivable damages, relatively recent natural disaster and never stopped restoration since.

And it’s proud spire still points to the sky, beautiful rose windows grace the facades. Magnificent structure!

Always wanted to see it once for myself and last August we made a day trip from Paris.

I’ll show you the medieval and quiet city of Rouen in the next posts meanwhile enjoy the  architectural details and stone carving, masonry and grandeur of the Cathedral admired by Claude Monet 120 years ago.

Have a wonderful weekend my friends.

See you soon.

*All images (except C.Monet's paintings) copyright Natalie Rapoport