France/Italy roadtrip – Rouen | alison richards | graphic designer and artworker

The first "real" day on my roadtrip around France and Italy, and the first place I wanted to stop was Rouen. I can distinctly remember when I decided I wanted to go to Rouen – it was in a high school art lesson while learning about Monet's paintings of Rouen Cathedral. Monet was fascinated with the Cathedral and painted it more than 30 times at different times of day and in different seasons. I remember my slightly-eccentric art teacher showing us pictures of the paintings and thinking I'd like to see it for myself one day. So that was the goal!

It was a bit over an hour's drive from Abbeville to Rouen, but I was up early anyway and got there about 8:30am. I parked in a parking station in the centre, as I find these easier to work out than street parking. However, driving a British van to Europe by yourself does present problems, and I constantly had to keep the passenger seat empty of stuff so that I could jump across the centre console to take a ticket.

I had parked in Vieux-Marché car park, which, at street level, was the site of a fresh food market. I love French markets but they were still setting up when I got there so I thought I could have a look around when I came back to get the camper. I also popped to a bank to get some cash out, as they still use cash a lot in France while I am very used to not carrying it!

The first place I walked past was the magnificent parlement de Normandie, a beautiful Gothic building that has been restored since being damaged in World War II. I ducked down a side street and walked towards the pointy spires of the Cathedral, which did not disappoint - it was glorious! I stood in front of it for quite a while, taking it all in and thinking that I would have been in the exact same spot the Monet would have set up his easel. I had a look inside but there was an early morning Mass taking place, so I quietly made my way out of the doors and decided to explore the streets nearby before going back.

The cute Rue du Gros Horloge on the way up to the Cathedral

Rouen Cathedral, which didn’t fit in my lens, but I wasn’t carrying my wide-angle lens with me that morning!

The detail on the Cathedral was astounding

I wandered around some of the side streets nearby before getting completely lost. Thankfully in most European villages, the churches stand pretty high and so you can usually use them to get your bearings! Getting lost, however, is part of the fun of adventuring and I happened upon some very pretty little places.

I loved the lettering on this pharmacy sign!

All the lovely wooden buildings of Rouen

There were lots of these tiny streets in Rouen. This one was called the Rue des Chanoines

The Gros-Horloge, a 14th century astronomical clock

Someone has taken a lot of time to decorate this shop!

I ended up back at the cathedral again just as people were leaving, so instead of going inside, I instead went to the Office de Tourisme, where I picked up a map of the city. After finding a couple of the narrow old streets, I was hoping a map would let me find the rest of them, as the old streets with their half-timbered houses were just so beautiful.

I went back to the cathedral and went inside. It was quite a bit more interesting than some other churches I had been to (even some famous ones!) because the internal decoration was a bit more special - there was a gorgeous stone staircase, and the interior just seemed so huge!

People were still in the process of leaving a service, though the tourists had been allowed in

After leaving the cathedral and with map in hand, I went in search of the narrow streets. I did alright too, finding plenty of pretty places and what had to be the narrowest street there!

The narrow streets opened up into places like this.

These gardens and the stream through them was just up the side of this pedestrianised street. It was so pretty

I can’t remember which church this was in, but it was not in the Cathedral. Oops.

I felt like I'd seen what I wanted to see in Rouen, so I went back to the car. That's the thing with road trips I guess, you've got to keep moving. Or at least I did if I wanted to cover everything that I'd set out to see! I'm not really very good at slow travel!

I went back to the car, stopping in at the markets on the way there. I bought some bread from a boulangerie and a couple of tomatoes for dinner, jumped in the car, scrambled across the centre to pay for parking and left Rouen. I think you'll agree that it was a lovely place to spend a couple of hours. You can even go on a day trip there from Paris, which I would highly recommend.