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Salut! I’m back
with the last instalment of my three-part series about my adventures during Toussaint. This time, slightly shorter.
Let’s get
down to business.
Saturday
the 29th was a pretty busy day. We were knackered from all the
travelling we’d been doing, but decided to make the most of the last Saturday
Dad was around. First things first, we went to Aldi with the car to do a
massive grocery shop. We were running low on food and it was great to have Dad
pay the bill for me and have a car to carry all the heavy stuff like cartons of
milk and bottles of water. After that, we headed into town. First we popped by
the Library because I needed to print out some paperwork for my house in Bath
next year (I’m not homeless anymore woohoo!) but since the centre where I work was
closed, I had to find another way of doing it. It was fairly easy; I had to
sign a form to use the computers but other than that we got it done quickly and
headed towards Cinema Grand Large where the Saturday market was taking place.
We wanted to buy some fresh veggies since in Aldi there wasn’t much of a
selection. There were so many people it was kind of stressful, but we managed
to get everything that we needed. We bought so much food I had to re-locate
some of my things in the kitchen because they didn’t fit the cupboard anymore!
After lunch
we went to Intermarché to grab a couple things we were missing from the list
for some cooking we were doing on Sunday, and then took off to Rouen. The city
is about an hour away from Fécamp, so we took the high way. Apparently people
don’t like paying tolls because the high way was literally deserted and, to top
it off, didn’t actually appear on our sat nav because it was so new. It was
quite confusing but we just followed the signs and got there alright. It was,
however, utter madness getting into Rouen itself. The combination of it being
Saturday afternoon during public holidays and there being a fun fair where the
diversions from the high way are made it really confusing and full of cars (and
people) in all directions. We took the wrong lane and had to loop around to get
to the right place, trying to find spaces between the congested roads.
Eventually we managed to get to the parking lot underneath the Jeanne d’Arc
church, which was full to the top – luckily enough, a car pulled out just as we
went by so we quickly got its place.
This time,
we took a Jeanne d’Arc guided tour suggested on our travel book which followed
her journey from when she was captured to where she was burned. It was really
good because it covered the whole of the old town giving explanations about
each place and finished at the parking lot where we’d left the car – ace!
First, we went by the Donjon Tower where she was incarcerated and tortured
before her trial. The tower is the only remaining out of four of an old castle
that used to stand there. The Donjon is very well preserved none-the-less. Then
we continued to walk along the streets, which are full of medieval houses, a
fact that surprised me because of how modern Rouen is at the same time. We
stumbled across a random Cathedral which was tarnished with black from the smog
(like numerous other buildings) and then made our way to Saint-Maclou Church.
It is such a pretty church! All white with a very unique façade. Unfortunately,
we weren’t able to go in because a wedding was taking place, but the exterior was
worth it. Then we looked for the Aître de Saint-Maclou, which is a cemetery and
ossuary dating from the 14th century. It is a strange atrium
construction with a yard in the centre and the building is decorated with
wooden carvings of skulls and bones. Apparently, they used to take the bodies
of the Black Death victims and bury them in the yard with quicklime and then
unbury the bones and store them in the loft. The place is now an arts school
but it was such a weird and unique place – there is also the mummy of a black
cat that they found between the walls, allegedly there to keep the bad luck
away.
After that
we went past the monastery where Jeanne d’Arc was sentenced and headed over to
Rouen Cathedral, subject to Claude Monet’s famous series of the Cathedral under
different lighting throughout the day. To be honest, I thought the façade was
way too jam-packed with statues and gargoyles and it just made the building
look extremely heavy. The inside was really dark and nothing too special. It
was good to see it, but not my favourite cathedral out of the ones I saw over
the week.
We also found a medieval alley just wide enough for a horse to pass
through. Our guide said ‘if being horse chased by the authorities, this
alleyway would have been the perfect escape route to veer them off’… We also
saw the Gros Horloge which is a big golden clock; a building filled with bullet
holes that we did not recognize; and the new Jeanne of Arc church which is
supposed to look like an upside down boat and has a food market next to it.
Since there
were many shops, Dad was lucky to find his crêpe ‘T’ as he called it, that
little tool to spread the batter. And I found the best shop ever, a vintage
kilo shop. I had to stop myself though because I really don’t need any more
clothes (nor will I be able to fit them in my suitcase to be fair) but I could
not avoid getting myself a big comfy Wisconsin Football jumper – just to lounge
all day in it! I quite liked Rouen. Since it’s a city, there are so many
different people and, although you can see there are a lot of homeless people
and the buildings and streets are quite dirty, it was full of families,
students, couples and old people too. Everybody had their own style and there
was that kind of no-f***s-given attitude that I love about London, so I was
happy to see that.
Sunday was
more of a chill day since everything is generally closed. We decided to stay in
Fécamp and take Dad to the few places he hadn’t visited yet. First we went to
the Abbatiale, which was open this time. We actually met Liam and his grandma
and her friend while we were there… Everybody had the same idea for a sunny
Sunday. Dad liked the Abbatiale, which was beautifully lit up by the Sunday
sun, but he thought it needed some extra tlc which is true; it is a lovely building
but it is full of dust and partially closed off to the public because they are
doing some renovation work on it. After the Abbatiale we went over to the
Bénédictine Palace to find it was closed until 2pm, so we had to change plans
and look for somewhere to eat in the meantime. Unlucky though, because as a
public holiday sunny Sunday everything was full to the brim and there was not a
single free table. We looked in the restaurants in the beach and by the port –
all complet- and slowly made our way back
home – even the kebab place was also closed. We ended up eating at home and
then heading back to the Bénédictine.
The Palace
is so over-the-top! It was commanded by Alexandre le Grand who got rich by
rescuing the recipe and producing Bénédictine liqueur. Inside the Palace all
the rooms are decorated with a different excessive style – gothic, Arabic,
baroque… And there is a different type of collection in each salle: Gothic paintings, religious
relics, iron work, hand written medieval books… So, so over the top. We
proceeded our visit and learnt how the liqueur is made and got to see the
distillery and cellars (we also happened to bump into Lara who works there as a
visit guide some weekends – who knew?), before reaching the end of the visit.
There was a modern art exhibition with photographs by Michel Lagarde which were
super fun and I really enjoyed them. The montages reminded me of the Jeunet and
Caro films, unique and bizarre. We then had a Bénédictine taste test. I had the
original one whilst Dad chose the B&B – Bénédictine and Brandy. I didn’t
like it so Dad drank them both.
Back home
Dad taught me how to make a mock paella, more like ‘yellow rice’ and then we
met Liam, his grandma and friend for dinner. We hadn’t made any reservations,
which was a huge mistake, so we wandered around for a while until we managed to
get a table at La Matelotte. The food was alright but the service was horrible,
they took absolute ages to serve us! I had white fish with veggies and some
ice-cream for dessert. Dad tried the duck which apparently was really chewy and
gross, do not recommend. It was a nice evening though.
On Monday
the 31st it was Halloween! Sadly for me, no actual Halloween plans.
It is a pity though, because it is one of my favourite holidays. I was woken up
at 9:30 by a knock at the door which my Dad answered to: a little ghost asking
for treats. We realized we didn’t actually have any candy other than some
chocolate, so before I even had breakfast we went on an emergency sweet
shopping spree just so we had sweets for children knocking at the door. We
ended up buying too many and I now have a ton of candy in the cupboard. It is
funny though because the children don’t actually ask trick-or-treat, they just
offer you their bag for you to chuck the candy in…
I used up
the morning to do some cleaning upstairs and download the pictures we’d taken
so I could copy them on Dad’s pendrive and viceversa – I took way too many
pictures, and the fact that I had my Nikon camera this time thanks to Dad did
not help (great pictures but excessive quantity)… Anyway, after lunch we packed
Dad’s suitcase and left for Le Havre to check into Dad’s hotel next to the
station and return the rental car. It was a lovely sunny afternoon and all went
smoothly (not as stressful as the last time we were in Le Havre, since we’d got
used to driving around by now). Dad had suggested doing some tourism around Le
Havre but I was quite tired and didn’t want to do a lot of walking so we went
to his hotel and had a coffee instead while we waited for my train back home.
Dad left Tuesday morning but since Tuesday was a public holiday we didn’t want
to risk transport problems so he stayed the night in Le Havre. This way he
could rest well before the long journey to Switzerland. The hotel was amazing!
The room was super functional and it was all controlled through a tablet: you
could move the beds around, watch TV projected onto the wall, control the
blinds and lights… Insane. It was sad to leave Dad but I had a fantastic break
with him and I’m so glad he came over to visit and we rented the car and
visited so many places! I wouldn’t have been able to do so otherwise and it was
great to have him around; getting to Fécamp is a pain so thanks for coming Dad!
After an
hour-long journey, I got back to Fécamp and literally showered, did some
cooking and chilled on my bed and started sorting out the bazillion pictures I
took over the week. The next two days I was still home alone since Monika was
still in Glasgow so all I really did was sleep, clean, do an insane amount of
laundry, plan some lessons and do some blog work, upload some pictures…
basically I had to put my life back together. I also got some random contact
allergy with hives on my arms which I’ve been taking medication for but are
still there, not cool at all. Plus, it was really hard to get through to the
doctor because he was on holiday but my hosts were nice enough to arrange an
impromptu visit because my arms itched like crazy. I will unfortunately have to
go back because it doesn’t seem to be getting any better…
On
Wednesday we had a staff meeting for the start of classes again on the Thursday
and we watched ‘Saving Private Ryan’ with Antoine and Vincent, which I’d been
wanting to watch for a while and is a really good film. Not the same can be
said for the dinner, which was a massive failure. Sausages aren’t Moni's or my thing, but the intention was there…
All in all,
I spent some lovely holidays with Dad exploring the north of France; I hope he
enjoyed it as much as I did! And I hope you readers have also enjoyed my
retelling of the holidays! Thanks for following my adventures!
Zoe x
It is a pity your trip has ended....I have learnt so much about that area of France! I don't know if I will visit it at any time in the future but the pics and the info are great! It is just like travelling myself!.....
ReplyDeleteThanks <3
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