NORMANDY 

Rouen-Gros Horloge and Place du Vieux Marché

History and WWII

Cathedral

Gros Horloge and Place du Vieux Marché

Palais de Justice Bourgtheroulde

St.Maclou-Aitre St.Maclou

Church Saint Ouen-Musée des Antiquités

Tour Jeanne-Musée Secq des Tournelles-musee des Beaux Arts

Musée de Faience-Musée Flaubert

Leaving the cathedral, cross the Place Notre Dame, and enter the RUE DU GROS HORLOGE, evidently the most popular street in town. Tall, timber-framed mansions backed by the belfry ornate the street with the charms of the past. When offices close it is very, very animated and on Saturday afternoon impossible to circulate, absolutely packed. Once a main artery leading to the Vieux-Marché, it is now bisected by a modern boulevard, but still rich in Renaissance buildings. But it seems that the rue du Gros-Horloge has lost some of the favour of Rouennais shoppers for the commercial centre “Saint-Sever” which resulted in the migration of luxury boutiques to this center. The level of shops on the old centre fell dramatically.
Spanning the street ahead is the GROS-HORLOGE, a delightful Renaissance pavilion set on a sculpted arch with the most splendidly embellished clock. Probably the most send postcard from Rouen. The gilded lead clock used to inside the belfry in the 14th century, when it was decided it should be showed. That’s why the arch was built in the 16th and the clock given its present richly gilded setting. Have a look under the arch: a sculpted scene of the Good Pastor and his lambs. On the side of the clock, nice romantic fountain of the 18th century, full of elegance, with an appearing nymph.
The clock tells the hour, week and moon phases through a bull’s eye above. The curfew was rung at 9 o’ clock each evening. The bells rang for the people, calling them when decisions had to be made, when their rights were threatened, or revolt was the only way to resist oppressive rule.
The clock being in renovation last time I visited it I hope it is ready now, at least half the year 2000. In the mean time you can still climb the 163 stairs of the belfry.Continue to the end of the street towards the PLACE DU VIEUX MARCHE. Jeanne d’Arc was burned alive here on 30 May 1431, here ashes thrown in the river Seine. It was the place where all condemned were executed in the Middle Ages. Surrounded by tall, timber-framed houses, the square is the most popular and vivid of the city thanks to the gaiety that restaurants, cafés, shops, market stalls and visitors contribute to the market place today.

Near the spot where the flames were lit, traced out in stones and marked by a 20 meters cross, is the CHURCH OF SAINT SAUVEUR mute witness to the scene. Next to it, the EGLISE JEANNE D’ARC (open 10.00-12.30 14.00-18.00, closed Friday and Sunday morning) is decorated by beautiful stained glass windows recuperated from a church razed in 1944. The interior is very successfully arranged, warmly glowing with the brilliant lustre of the stained glass. In fact it is the exterior architecture that is heavily criticized: it sits uneasily under a kind of ski slope roof and pyramid gables.
On the south side of the square, you can hear voices in the MUSEE JEANNE D’ARC (open 9.30-18.0 summer; off season 10.00-12.00 14.00-18.00). About fifteen scenarios with wax figures and taped commentary in four languages that bring nearly to life the characters in her story, from her birth to her dramatic death. Collection of documents, small scale models that children will like.

Bibliography

A holiday history of France, by Ronald Hamilton (London-Hogarth press), Region Normandie, ses merveilles, ses cicatrices, by Louis Letellier (ed. Cloison, Rouen 1995), Routard 1998 (Hachette, Paris), Rouen, ville martyr, by Patrick Deware (Ed. Dargelle, 1998)-France today, by John Ardagh (Secker and Warburgh, London)The Identity of Normandy, by Fernand Braudel (Fontana Press, London)