Etretat and Rouen

Friday, May 3, 2013, Etretat and Rouen, France

We picked up our car this morning and drove to Etretat, a small seaside village north of Le Havre.  Fodor’s put us to it with “its spectacular stone formations famously immortalized in paint by the Impressionists” and by giving the whole town a “Fodor’s choice” star.  It was warranted!  Monet, Boudin and Corbet are among the artists who painted here.  Here are the cliffs looking first south and then north:

 

 

There are a couple of strategically placed Monet reproductions along the rocky beach:

 

As we drove on the back roads, avoiding the superhighways, we came across vast stretches of canola fields in bloom with yellow flowers:

 

Canola is used not only for cooking oil, but also is a major source of biofuel.  Our Renault is a diesel and is getting astonishing mileage while having plenty of pep.  Wonderful!  After lunch we drove to Rouen and checked into our hotel.  We began walking the town, and immediately came to one of the most famous sights here, the Gros-Horloge, a Renaissance clock with two faces, each of which looks down a pedestrian street from an arch built in 1527 specifically for it:

 

 

 

Perhaps the most famous sight in Rouen is the Notre Dame cathedral, a Gothic spectacle.  Construction began in the 12^th century and it wasn’t completed until the 17^th century, some 500 years later.  It is both quantitatively and qualitatively amazing:

 

Inside, we came across an ensemble preparing for a concert tomorrow with ancient instruments and song.  Here is the lute player and the “serpentine” player. 

 

I’d never seen a serpentine before, and asked the musician to play it for me.  Here’s what it sounds like:

 

Finally, this is the town where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake, and there is a church dedicated to her.  Here’s a statue of Joan with the flames climbing up from her feet:

 

And here’s her very unusual church.  The interior has some wonderful very old windows:

 

 

 

Neither of us cared much for it.  So that’s it for today, a very full day!