Rouen: Risen from the Ruins

With each new city we encounter in France, we are faced with a fresh challenge: how do we pronounce it? Reims was over the top in that category. Amiens had the potential for a few variations. And when we came to Rouen, although we were pretty sure it would rhyme with 'chew on', after coming upon the cathedral, I was tempted to call it 'Ruin'. Monet's 30-some beautiful renditions of the cathedral's west facade prove that Impressionist art is partly successful because it obscures the reality we'd rather not see. The good news is that although time has had the upper hand in Rouen, it has left enough vestiges of the past to charm even this old curmudgeon.

The glorious facade. The inside was another story - hence, it turns out, we took no pictures!

And nothing is quite as charming as half-timbered houses! Those in Rouen date back to as early as the 15th century. Apparently there are almost 2000 such houses in the downtown core which escaped the bombs of the First and Second World Wars. Half-timbered construction is characterized by using large timbers arranged in a post and beam structure to bear the weight, with the area in-between filled with plaster, brick, or wattle and daub, such that the timbers remain exposed on the outside. One of the features we occasionally noted was the cantilevered upper floors that hang out over the street. Although a recipe for spreading fires, it did give owners more square footage than they were actually being charged for tax purposes (and thus were eventually outlawed).

Cath bears the weight

Bearing weight, or waiting bears?

It was such a treat for us to wake each morning and look out across the tops of half-timbered houses to the spires of the Abbatiale Saint Ouen, a Gothic church (14th and 15th century) which stands in a lovely convent garden. And then to emerge on the street below to the sounds of café owners moving chairs and tables out onto the street and a little stream that gurgles by, was enough to inspire us to new heights of tourism.

The Abbatiale Saint Ouen in particular became a special place for us. Beyond its Rayonnant Gothic splendour, it boasts a Cavaillé-Coll organ, (according to famed French organist, Charles-Marie Widor, it is a 'Michelangelo of an organ'), which we heard on two occasions. The first was an organ recital we took in on Sunday night. At the end of the concert Catherine boldly approached the event's MC to try out her French organ vocabulary, only to find that the MC was in fact the titular organist for the Abbatiale, Jean-Baptiste Monnot. That led to Catherine mentioning that our son, Nicholas, would be visiting on Wednesday, and would enjoy seeing the organ up close. I'm not sure whether Catherine ever made it clear that Nicki plays the piano, and not the organ, but be that as it may, her superior French accent charmed the resident organist to no end, leading to an invitation to come watch him practice on Wednesday afternoon. This turned out to be a highlight, or should I say high note, of our time in Rouen. Nicki and Catherine were joined by two visiting organists from the Netherlands, and together they had a grand ole time up in the organ loft, where the pipes are loud enough to keep your ears ringing 'til Sunday next.

The view from our apartment window

The stream on our street

The Abbatiale Saint Ouen in its garden setting

The nave of the Abbatiale looking toward the organ (pipes covered)

Rouen has, along with countless other French communities, laid claim to Jeanne d'Arc, but in Rouen's case, there is more reason to do penance than to celebrate her, for it was in Rouen where Jeanne d'Arc was tried and burned at the stake on May 30, 1431. Canonized in 1920, and shortly after made Patron Saint of France, Jeanne claimed to have had visions of Archangel Michael, Saint Margaret and Saint Catherine (a powerful trio - how do you say 'no' to them?) which led her to seek an audience with Charles VII and to encourage him to continue to resist the English. Charles VII promptly sent her to Orleans to take part in the battle against the English troops. Miraculously the French won the battle and went on to push as far as Reims, where Jeanne was at Charles's side during his coronation. The following year she was captured in an unsuccessful battle against the Burgundians (allies of the British) and was later tried at Rouen on charges of heresy and blaspheming by wearing men's clothes (Mulan fared better, thanks to Disney). She was only 19 at the time of her execution. Ste. Jeanne is recognized with a major statue in the cathedral (I don't have enough fingers to count the number of statues of her I've seen since coming to France), and since 1979, by the Eglise Jeanne d'Arc, which stands a few meters from the location of her burning. The church replaced Eglise St. Vincent, which was destroyed - by fire - during the Second World War. It is no wonder in the 20th and 21st century that this young woman has attracted the admiration of both Christians and non-Christians alike.

Eglise St. Jeanne d'Arc

Architect Louis Arretche designed it to appear like an overturned ship

The spot where St. Joan was executed

Bust of Sainte Jeanne d'Arc

The windows of the church were rescued from Eglise St. Vincent

Statue of Ste. Jeanne in the Cathedral

And so, we return to the Cathedral. Rouen Cathedral's history reads like many others, with a Romanesque building completed in the 11th century, a Gothic version started in the 12th century, and towers added in the 13th (Lantern tower) and 15th centuries (Butter Tower). The latter gets its name by virtue of the method of raising money for its construction: wealthy patrons were allowed to eat butter during Lent if they gave large sums of money to the church. Something tells me that wouldn't work nowadays. Over its 900 year history, the church has had at least 5 fires, was pillaged at the hands of the Protestants, was badly damaged by both a hurricane and a cyclone, and suffered bombing during World War II as the allies prepared for the D-Day landings. Despite all these obstacles, the people of Rouen have been faithful to it, and restored it many times, the last completed in the 1980s.

Nonetheless, on an aesthetic level, I was a little disappointed. The various additions all seemed to be patched on and did not result in a cohesive look. Inside, the stone was extremely dark with aging, and the stained glass windows weren't worth breaking your neck. Many of the sculptures in relief had suffered considerable erosion, and many were missing (some of which are now standing on display in the choir. On top of all that, the church has created a "Luminescence" son et lumiere show in the evenings, which I am sure is entertaining, but to support the show, they have installed large boxes in the main archways at the sides of the nave to hide the enormous lights that are used during the show. Hopefully, a) they take a good look at what has been done at Notre Dame, and b) they come up with a good replacement to the butter drive to raise the funds.

Many statues had been removed from the exterior

and placed inside the cathedral, around the choir

Evidence that not all Frenchmen were short

A light shines in the darkness . . .

and the darkness has not overcome it.

Salome up to her tricks

If pigs could fiddle?

Other highlights included a climb up St. Catherine's Hill to look out over the city, and a visit to a sizeable art museum. And of course, the number one highlight was having Nicki with us. Here are some pics to give you a taste: