Rouen: City of Spires

Ahhhh, France. Let me start by saying no, I do not speak French. And, no, neither does Aaron. I have been really nervous about this since throughout all of my traveling, I have never traveled through a country without speaking the language. Half of the people I talked to in the planning stages said it would be no big deal at all, the other half said we’d struggle continuously. Based on two days experience I would say it is somewhere in between and will only get easier over the weeks to come. I realized that the most wonderful thing in the world is being literate – turns out I can read French signs and automated atm/ticketing machines like a champ. We had to take five trains yesterday to get from Orly airport to Rouen, our present location, and were able to do so without any trouble. What a huge relief.

Rouen is our first stop on our way through Normandy. It is called ‘the capital of light’ on the map given out by the tourist center, a reference, perhaps, to the overwhelming number of towering gothic churches built in cream colored stone. There are five marvelous churches within the small city center, an amount that makes it possible to see spires at any given turn. The city is old, this is where Joan of Arc was tried and executed, and it bears the modern scars of World War II. The Cathedral Notre Dame, which Monet captured, is still in repair today and throughout the city there are walls that come to sudden ends, foundations of buildings that no longer stand and doorways that lead nowhere. As the capital of Normandy it sees a lot of tourists and expensive shops line the cobbled streets, creating an interesting mix of old and new.

Tonight we are going to the Cathedral Notre Dame, where they project a show of Monet’s work on the exterior wall. Tomorrow we will travel to Bayeux where we will visit the Normandy beaches.

The cathedral's right tower is known as the Butter Tower. It might be because of the color of the stone, but popular story has it that the funds to build it were raised by selling forgiveness for eating butter during Lent.

From London

When planning this trip I discovered that it would be hundreds of dollars cheaper to fly into London than Paris, even after factoring in two nights in a hotel and the flight between the two. I was pleased to have the opportunity to see another city in Europe, but didn’t think I would honestly see that much in 48 hours. Now I know that I was wrong. I still cannot believe how much we crammed into those two days.

We landed Tuesday morning and within a couple of hours had dropped our bags off at our hotel. Immediately we were off to Harrod’s, where after several laps around the enormous rooms of food we bought the makings of what turned out to be a pretty spectacular picnic, which we ate in nearby Hyde Park. From there we walked through the parks to Buckingham Palace (where we stopped and watched the marching guards and admired how centuries of sitting tourists have smoothed the edges of the fountain), to Westminster Abbey and to the Houses of Parliament (where we took in a session on Iraq and where I took great pains to step on all of the markers that showed where people like Sir Thomas More were sentenced to their deaths). We had classic English fare in a pub with Wimbledon on in the background before taking a stroll around a lit up Piccadilly Circus.

Wednesday we stood in line for discount theater tickets and then spent nearly the entire day at the British Museum. I was impressed by the things that I knew I would see there and thrilled by the things I stumbled upon by accident. And I took TONS of pictures. I very rarely take pictures in museums and when I see people doing it I often wonder what they plan to do with them, but I know exactly what I will be doing with mine. Although it seems like there are images of everything online, I often cannot find pictures to accompany my lectures. I either resort to descriptions that can’t suffice or subjecting my students to my terrible drawings. But now Athens will have the pediments of the Parthenon, Persia’s Persepolis will be more than just foundations and the Kingdom of Benin will have its plaques.

We ended the day with Les Miserables at the Queen’s Theater, just the thing to get the gears switching to France.

Do you think he is going to make it?

Au revoir.

Within the hour we will be leaving for O'Hare airport. I am finding the packing process difficult, even more so than usual. I am not sure what to bring or how much to bring and I just want to get going!

We fly into London and will arrive there in the morning. I am incredibly looking forward to the British Museum. How many times have I mentioned items in its collection in my classroom? And now due to a lucky layover I will be seeing them myself.

I am going to complete a test run of the video camera I will be using for interviews and then back to packing. The next post will come from Europe!