My cousin’s talent

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black and white, postaday2015, Rouen

   
 
My cousin Francoise emailed me these pictures that she took while we were together in Normandy. I posted similar pictures in my post titled “A panoramic view of Rouen” I LOVE these shots, black and white is one my favorite ways of depicting subjects. We used black and white for our wedding pictures as  well as sepia. It gives such emotional depth to the subject, in these pictures I’m obviously not the subject, the entire city of Rouen is what matters and the feeling generated by the composition touched my soul.

A panoramic view of Rouen

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postaday2015, Rouen

   
    
    
    
    
 
I have to tell you, I have yet to meet a French city that I didn’t love. Rouen is so beautiful, its spectacle at the Cathedral with its lights, anaimated creatures and focus on music and movement will remain seared in my mind forever.

I love taking these types of pictures; Rouen is laid out before me like an open map, I can focus in on what appeals to me most and put aside some points of interest for a later date.

Kiwis growing outside my window

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cathedral, postaday2015, Rouen

  
  
  
  
  
This year at my cousin’s, I have kiwis growing right outside my bedroom. The vine/tree was here three years ago, but it was still too young to bear fruit. This year it is finally grown to fruit bearing maturity.

The dark images right above are all of the Cathedral of Rouen. Each year the city presents a film or films projected across the entire cathedral based on music and story. This year there were two themes, one of the Viking conquering and later being driven off, but not before leaving behind vestiges of Northern culture.

The second theme was of Joan of Arc, it was beautifully poignant since we all know the story. 

The artistry and talent on display while these two films are projected onto one of the most famous and beautiful catherdrals known to man is remarkable. This spectacle is such a treat, I urge you to make the time to visit this great city of France. 

The reason why I came to Rouen

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postaday2015, Rouen

  
  

   

  
I have written about my cousin often in the past, she is my role model and I see her as the older sister I never had, I can tell her anything, which is such a gift in life. I know the phrase “family is everything” has become a cliche over the years, but I feel the significance of the cliche all the same.

My time in France spent with my family has been wonderful, I was so very lucky to have had the time to visit beautiful sights, but the conversations, the laughter and the breaking bread together, those moments are, for me, priceless.

 

  
 

Headed up north to Rouen

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postaday2015, Rouen

   
 
I took the TGV from Bordeaux to Paris, I had one hour to change train stations, there are four I think in Paris, maybe five, but I arrived at Montparnasse and I had to get to Saint Lazare across the river Seine. I took the metro and in only twenty minutes I was at Saint Lazare waiting for the screen to tell me which platform my corresponding train was at, the train ride was very pretty, I passed big and small towns, beautiful countryside and at last, as you can see, my train pulled into the beautiful city of Rouen.

The city of Joan of Arc, the poor thing, it was here where the English burned her at the stake. The Rouenais have never forgotten, they love their Jeanne.

Road trip from Rouen to Bordeaux

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France, postaday2012, road trip, Rouen

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The road trip that we took was to get to my Tonton and Tantine’s house in time for the family celebration that was taking place on Saturday, July 27th. Nicolas and Francoise planned the road trip very well, we stopped midway at Tours to have lunch at a wonderful little restaurant making the trip feel just 3 hours long of sitting at any one time. Rouen to Tours 3 hours and Tours to Bordeaux 3 hours, very doable from both a driver and a passenger point of view.

The views of the sunflower field are my favorite, I spent most of the car ride with my neck angled to the right and then to the left, just gazing at rapidly approaching streams of yellow. It is one of my strongest memories of France from way back when, those long stretches of yellow. Next spring, I am going to plant my own little patch of sunflowers somewhere in my garden to remind me of France.

The place where we stopped for lunch had signs that showed paths to walk along the river and picnic, we opted for the restaurant. I wanted to treat Nicolas and Francoise to show them my appreciation for all of their hospitality. There were also signs indicating chateau visits along the Loire. One of these days I am going to plan a trip down the Loire Valley for my hubby and I because I have heard rave reviews from many different people, French and American alike. Can’t go wrong when you have such a diverse bunch of critics.

The famous bottle of red at my Tonton’s house in Bordeaux is a Chateau Petrus, back when I used to drink wine, my Tonton opened a bottle of Petrus for my hubby and myself and the rest of the family and it was an exceptional wine, I do remember that. That was eons ago and another bottle of fine wine that my Tonton opened for me, way back when, was a bottle of Chateau Yquiem, a Sauternes, and that was in exchange for a lovely dessert that I had made for my Tonton. That wine, I will remember forever, because it tasted like the nectar of the gods.

I thought that the old chateau carved out from the surrounding cliffs needed to be photographed. I really love the engineering and the economy of thought that entails constructing buildings such as the chateau and its surrounding units from within the land around them. I find that it captures the essence of the people of its era, they were a hearty people and they worked their land very hard to maximize as much as they could from the land and their labors.

There is so much more to be seen in that region and I am looking forward to exploring it in the future with my hubby.

My pictures of Rouen, one of my favorite cities

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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.

Road trip to Bordeaux

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Bordeaux, car ride, hot, postaday2012, road trip, Rouen

This morning at nine Nicolas, Francoise, the baby girl and I piled into the Renault family car, which I have to say is a very comfortable spacious car, and headed down south to Bordeaux. The distance is about 689 kilometers, which never means anything to me. In the States, it’s miles, anything else is meaningless. So basically whatever the speed limit is gives you an idea how to calculate the time required to cover the distance so, since the speed limit on the highway here varies between 110-130 kilometers an hour and the distance is 689 therefore the time would be around 6-7 hours in the car. A full day of driving for Nicolas with a full day of riding along for the three of us. Francoise had a tremendous idea that split the ride in two parts with lunchtime being the halfway mark. Her sister Michelle recommended a wonderful restaurant in the town of Vouvray that is right outside of Tours, 3 hours away from Rouen and 3 hours away from Bordeaux. Perfect rest stop, Nicolas found it without any trouble, we were seated immediately and the decor was rustic and elegant in an Old World type of way. The food was very good, we all started with sliced cantaloupe and prosciutto ham alongside a small salad. I had a salad served with sliced breast of duck, fresh mushrooms and pine nuts, the baby girl had salmon tartare and both Francoise and Nicholas had spinach raviolis filled with cheese and served with sauteed shrimp. Everything was delicious, we ended with dessert, I had a paper thin apple tart served warm right out of the oven all caramelized with a scoop of all spice ice cream, oh my, was it so light, warm and comforting to slowly eat and savor. We got back on the road and I was battling with my cell phone trying to take pictures of the fields of tall sunflowers that are strewn all between Paris and Bordeaux. I will upload them later on but honestly you will have to trust me that the blurry yellow images are really sunflowers. Before I knew it, we were very close to Bordeaux when we hit the dreaded traffic jam, it added an hour to our trip but I spent the time thinking of what to write and I immediately thought of this car ride and also the fact that we crossed 4 rivers on the way to Bordeaux; the Seine near Rouen and Paris, the Loire near the restaurant, the Dordogne on the cusp of the southwest, the Garonne right at Bordeaux. I don’t think that I have crossed 4 major rivers in probably close to 14 years. I thought that it was an interesting part of our adventure.

When we arrived at my Tonton and Tantine’s house it was a welcome stop because even with the stop in the middle, my legs were feeling a little stiff and my buttocks were numb by this time. That was all forgotten in the wake of all the welcoming kisses and hellos.