Old Town of Rouen France

Rouen was one of the first places that my wife and I traveled to when we came to France and it really left an impression on us during that initial visit.

It was the first time that we had seen a really big old town and the first time that we had seen historic half timber homes and buildings. I especially love the "stepped" ones, as seen below, the ones that expand outward into the street as they rise. In the past, that was actually a building technique to avoid paying taxes. At the time taxes were based on the size of the footprint of the house, so people made the footprint small and just gradually increased the size of each additional floor above it. Tricky and clever if you ask me.

We always felt that the old part of the city had a sort of story book charm about it, even though it is so large.

The endless colorful buildings lining the cobblestone streets may play a part in that.

Most of the medeival quarter has been pedestrianized as well, so it is all very walkable and easy to explore by foot without having to worry about vehicles.

The city is steeped in history as well and is famous for being the place where Joan of Arc was put to death. She was burned at the stake in the city square for being a "heretic" and dressing as a man.

Today there is a church of Saint Jeanne d'Arc located roughly where she was burned. You can just make out its triangular roof to the left hand side of photo above. I haven't been inside it but every time we have gone to the city there has been an outdoor market under the roof canopy right outside its doors. That alone is worth popping by to see.

The Notre Dame Cathedral is absolutely massive in Rouen and its impossible not to be impressed by it.

At one point in history it was one of the tallest buildings in the country.

Of course, after spending three years in France we became quite used to such places and had experienced many other sites that were even more quaint and charming than the city of Rouen.

Nonetheless the city seemed like a good place to bring guests and visitors,

especially since it was so close to our house, only a 2 hour drive away.

We hoped that my sister would like it as much as we had during our first go around so we brought her there the day after we got back from Chamonix-Mont-Blanc.

The half timber buildings house some unique little shops to check out, as well as different types of restaurants and cafes.

I especially like the crooked buildings that look as though they could topple over any minutes if the wind was just right.

Both my sister and my wife bought dresses that day in one of the stores. I remember the shop lady bringing them new items to try on in an almost continuous stream. It was all very friendly and not at all pushy but eventually they just had to say "I'm just going to get this one item, thank you." The shop owner probably would have brought every piece of clothing in the store for them to try on if they let her. I've experienced that before at other sites with my wife.

This is what I look like standing outside the store, waiting for them to finish.

After shopping we found this really cool nook at the side of the Notre Dame Cathedral.

We tried to take some cool interactive portrait shots with my wife and sister

but of course almost immediately after we entered we were followed in by a massive group of people. We couldn't really take any good photos in there of us.

Nonetheless I took a bunch of the church over top of people's heads.

Okay moving on...

There are multiple churches and cathedrals in close proximity to one another in the city, so it's really easy to see some incredible gothic architecture just by wandering around aimlessly in the old town.

Many can be seen from various streets upon approach as well. It creates a neat photo effect when you shoot them this way.

My favorite among the churches was the Church of St. Maclou (below).

It a little smaller than the others but quite grand in its ornate design. It's made of a white sandstone and has a circular sort of shape, maybe an octagon (??). Historically it was used to bury plague victims, which I find interesting.

Another very large church is the St. Ouen Abbey.

It's located at the edge of the old town and is connected to a large public park and garden.

I didn't get a good photo of it full on, but I managed to capture portions of it through the trees.

There are literally so many impressive sites in the city. The old Justice building (above) is a massive gothic palace, essentially, that takes up a full city block or maybe two.

You also can't miss the amazing historic clock tower built within a Renaissance archway that spans the street below.

The tower is a museum that you can pay to go in and see. My wife and I did it during our first visit to the city and thought that it was really neat. It was only 7 euro at the time so very reasonably priced and well worth it in my opinion.

My sister wasn't interested in the museum so we didn't do it this time round.

I don't even know what this next site was other than it was a really old building built around a square courtyard.

It looked like the type of place that would house a market or something.

I liked the detail work carved into the blackened timbers. Notice the skulls and cross bones.

I have little else to say about the town other than we enjoyed our day and made the most out of exploring the old town. We saw the main sites and the ladies did some shopping. All around we had a pretty decent time. And so...

thats it for now. Until next time, thanks for stopping by.