Fecamp a fishing port

Tags

cliffs, Normandy, postaday2015

   
 
As you will see later with more pictures, Fecamp is a charming port town on the English Channel with breathtaking views of the sea and cliff faces that I would argue rival the white cliffs of Dover over in England. Its history is long and illustrious, from early man to Gallo-Roman to Norman to the English to incorporation with French Royalty and each important date thereafter in modern French history; regardless it has maintained its idyllic facade of a quaint and charming fishing town, easy to fall in love with as you will see.

   

  

  

  

  

  

 Our daytrip to the upper Normandy coast was amazing, the weather was perfect, interesting skies creating the perfect backdrop for our photographs, a bracing breeze off the sea reminding us that we were in seafood country. We tried to eat lunch right at the port, but too many people had the same idea so we went further into town and had excellent mussels a la Normande, a lovely aromatic cream sauce which I highly recommend if you are ever given the choice next time you order mussels at your local seafood restaurant.

I can still smell the sea if I close my eyes and let my mind wander back to that day.  

My pictures of Rouen, one of my favorite cities

Tags

France, Normandy, pictures, postaday2012, Rouen, travel

Rouen plage, the temporary beach for the city’s residents

the beautiful church’s ceiling resembling a ship

La Cathedral of Rouen

the church’s stained glass windows that resembles a ship

La Cathedral Rouen

a typical church

another church

La Cathedral Rouen

Rouen Plage

La Cathedral Rouen

Brilliant new bridge in Rouen

Rouen street architecture

Rouen plage

new bridge in Rouen

Rouen architecture Columbage

Rouen plage, scuba diving tank

La Cathedral Rouen

brilliant new bridge Rouen

the place in front of the church resembling a ship where they burned Joan of Arc

brilliant new bridge Rouen

There were so many interesting things to see in Rouen, the Cathedral being one of them, I remember last time that I had been in Rouen, we saw a magnificent showing of Claude Monet’s paintings shown at night using the Cathedral itself as the screen of Monet’s paintings honoring this magnificent Cathedral. The other smaller versions of cathedrals that crop up outside of the city are amazing as well in the slightly more condensed version. I really love the church that honors the site where Joan of Arc met her death at the hands of the English and the fascinating exterior and interior that looks like an upside down ship. The wood is absolutely beautiful, I had to take a picture of it. The Rouen plage series I had to show because I think that it’s great that the city temporarily provides a vacation like haven for its residents, they had a lot of activities for all ages of children and adults and the mini- scuba diving tank was a nice gesture.

The brilliant new bridge I thought was magnificent, I had never seen a bridge like that before and its dimensions were worth putting in a picture. I also love the architecture of the houses, it is called Columbage and it makes great use of wood throughout its structure. I find the houses have a romantic feel to them, they also have thatched roofs on some of them increasing the romanticism, I didn’t get a chance to get any pictures, I don’t remember why, but knowing me it is probably because I ran out of battery juice because my cousin did bring us around to show us those types of roofs, just think of the houses in the Shire of Lord of the Rings movies, like the house of Frodo. His roof is like the roofs of some of the houses around Rouen.

I really recommend Rouen as a must visit city, it is the perfect gateway to exploring the Normandy countryside which is also the capital of apples, cheeses and butter. The food is fantastic and the people warm and friendly.

Heat wave in Normandy

Tags

climate, Normandy, postaday2012, rain, sun, weather

Francoise still can’t believe that just the day before the baby girl and I came to town, it had been raining for three months straight. We have had clear blue skies and 82 degrees for the past four days and tomorrow promises to be a scorcher as well. Normandy I’d say is beautiful in the rain and fog, what with its vast forests but add a whole lot of sun in the mix and it transcends beautiful, it jumps to glorious.

However, this heat makes one tired and lethargic, especially when a strong summer sun is beating down on you while you are visiting various sights. So today, we took a day of rest and stayed in the cool interior of Francoise’s beautiful house. While the baby girl was lounging about, Francoise and I were in her office, caught up in a project of hers.

When I was at Pierre and Isabelle’s house, Isabelle introduced me to the latest variation on the good old photo album, it’s called the “livre de photos” or photo book. I  don’t know of any website in the States that offers photo books but I’m sure that they must. This was the first time that I had seen one. Pierre and Isabelle go to Venice with their children annually, so with all the digital pictures of several years of trips left on the computer, Isabelle wanted to showcase the pictures and the memories so she went on the photo website and produced her own photo books. She has been doing it for a while and has gorgeous books illustrating their travels.

Given that introduction to photo books by Isabelle, it was a nice surprise to spend the afternoon helping Francoise do the actual layout for a photo book that she is putting together as an important family gift due in a few short weeks. Working on the website with Francoise and getting the feel for what was possible, what was hard to do and what was visually appealing was a lot of fun and a huge learning experience in the French terminology of computer language. I learned so much in this one afternoon, I am looking forward to getting back to it tomorrow.

Summer in Normandy continues

Tags

beaches, heat, Normandy, postaday2012, Seine river, summer, sun

The countryside of Normandy is lush, green, full of hills, mountains and valleys. The forest is everywhere, surrounding the towns, it plays an important role in the background of the Normandy tapestry, the towns and cities stand out in much sharper contrast against the majesty of all those regal trees. This morning Francoise, the baby girl and I went on a small hike through the forest which led out to the top of a falaises,  a cliff overlooking the Seine river. Any view from up high tends toward the picturesque and this view was no exception. The Seine river runs through Rouen down towards Paris and past meandering through further on in France.

After a few minutes of admiration, hunger started calling and we went back home. Francoise had purchased sausage, breast of duck kebabs and chicken and pepper, onions and tomatoes kebabs, those went on the electric grill and Francoise served them with a tabbouleh salad. Dessert was homemade yogurt and fruit. Once lunch was eaten, the kitchen cleaned up and put away. We stayed inside in the cool until 6:00 when Francoise suggested that we visit Rouen plage before it closed for the season.  Rouen plage means Rouen beach; the city of Rouen, for its residents, creates an urban beach setting along the river complete with sand, playground, a rope bridge climbing structure, a scuba diving tank and two cafe’s. The dock along the river is temporarily closed for a month on the left side and the effort doesn’t go unappreciated. The children were having a blast and all the adults seemed to be enjoying their time at the beach.

I promise that as soon as I get back I am going to post every single picture that I have taken and explain them so that it all makes sense.

So far the weather here has been magnificent, Francoise has, so far, every day mentioned that we are experiencing a rarity in Normandy weather, 3 whole days of cloudless blue skies and 80 degree weather. Tomorrow will be day number 4, I haven’t a clue as to what we are doing but I don’t care. I told both Francoise and Nicholas that I am doing what I cam here for, visiting with them. The rest is all gravy on something great.