The Portal in the Sun

Rouen is actually pretty disappointing. For a city so big, there’s not a whole lot to do here – there’s not even much shopping apart from women’s clothing stores (and really, every woman’s clothing store in France is in reality a lingerie store). Don’t get me wrong… the cathedral is AMAZING, but there isn’t really anything else. I mean, there’s not even a whole lot of Jeanne d’Arc stuff here, and this is the city in which she was burned. There’s the Jeanne d’Arc church, which is very modern and very hideous, that I didn’t even take a picture of. But there are a lot of old-school half-timbered buildings.

Very narrow streets.

 Rouen was the second largest city in France during the Middle Ages, and therefore has a very prominent cathedral. The cathedral has seen better days, and many of the medieval buildings in Rouen are pitch-black with dirt. Notre Dame de Rouen is at least being cleaned, but that means that I also have to deal with lots of scaffolding and also a construction site directly adjacent to it.

Well, sorry, so the sun's not actually shining on the portal...

 By this point, the cathedral pictures have to be getting pretty tiring. But there’s some interesting stuff in here, I promise. Remember I said that the cathedral in Pau lost its steeples in a storm in 1999? And remember the steeple of the cathedral in Bayonne came crashing through the roof in that same storm? Well, it must have been one hell of a storm because it caused the same problem in this cathedral on the other side of the country.

That white spot's where it collapsed through.

 This cathedral also has a pair of interesting tombs. The first belongs to Rollo. Back in the early 900s, Rollo was a Viking chieftain who enjoyed terrorizing the French countryside. When he was defeated in 911 by the French king Charles the Simple, he agreed to convert to Christianity and swear allegiance to Charles. He settled with his Norsemen around Rouen, and the area became known as Normandy. Rollo became the first Duke of Normandy.

And people have apparently stolen everything but his femur...

 The other tomb belongs to Richard Plantagenet. You might know him better as Richard the Lionheart. He became King of England, but he also happened to be Duke of Normandy, Brittany, and the Aquitaine as well as Count of Anjou. He was famous for his crusade to the Middle East, though most people view it as a complete failure. He died in 1199 while besieging Chateau Châlus-Chabrol.

The Lion-Heart is here, the rest of Richard's body lies elsewhere.

 The other interesting historical site in Rouen is now actually an art school. Back in the 1300s it was a mass grave for plague victims. As I said, Rouen was one of the largest cities in Europe with about 40,000 people living here. About 2/3 of them died during the plague. The regular cemeteries couldn’t keep up with the mounting casualties, so this courtyard was used as a mass grave. Bodies were dumped into the trench and soaked with liquid lime to speed up the decay. The buildings surrounding the courtyard are decorated with skulls, crossbones, and undertakers tools as well as figures taking part in the danse macabre, or dance of death. It was a nice experience because nobody else was there and there was no street noise, so it was deathly silent. I heard that there was supposed to be a mummified black cat there somewhere, but I couldn’t find it.

For some reason, it was much creepier in person.

 Tomorrow will be a busy day. I’m not sure yet whether I’m going to head first to my hotel in Paris and then to Chartres, or if I’m going to try and carry my luggage through the cathedral there. I’m leaning more towards Paris first. I’m just glad I don’t have to book any more hotels.

But I doubt I'll have such a nice view out my window.