Day 11 Friday, September 8, 2023

After a sleep in and a bit of a quiet time we walk to downtown Rouen.  On the way I find the cutest little car!Then just two blocks later we see three of its siblings!  These are the perfect cars for parking in France’s cities.There is so much to see in Rouen. I thought this was the Notre Dame cathedral but it is the much smaller St. Maclou Catholic Church.  There are 35 churches, abbeys, monasteries, and ruins in and around Rouen and most of them are from the Middle Ages.Rouen’s Notre Dame Cathedral was the tallest building in the world (151 m) in 1876, and still keeps the record of being the tallest cathedral of France. Photo courtesy Wikipedia.
The inside is awe-inspiring.
This is just one small section of Rouen’s Notre Dame cathedral.  It is enormous! As is their pipe organ, but there was no organ music today.

This stunning staircase leads to a library, unfortunately with no public access.

Much of the cathedral was damaged during the WWII and we wonder if these are shrapnel fragments?

I love this statue of the Madonna and baby Jesus and the light that falls on it.

The statues from the outside of the cathedral have been moved inside to protect them from further damage and the photos below show the process of making replicas which are now on the face of the Cathedral.

Here are some of the originals…

and the replicas. You can see the replica of the first one beside the main door outside.

We are staying for the light show at the cathedral when it gets dark, so we have time to visit the Joan of Arc Church.  The cross marks the spot where she was burned at the stake in 1431, and the church is supposed to represent a boat.

And here is the interior.

I love gargoyles and spot these on a smaller church we walk by near the cross for Joan of Arc.The Gros Horloge (the Great clock) is one of the oldest clocks in France, the movement was made in 1389. It has a different face on either side and it rings on the hour, the half hour and the quarter hour. This fellow spends his time on the street busking for money…only he plays the same song over and over and over.  No variety at all to his performance.

While we waited for the light show at the cathedral I drew the people sitting and walking by. I decided to draw directly in pen, which is a bit more challenging but I am quite happy with several of the drawings.

While I think of it, here are my first metro drawings from Paris.  I forgot to post these earlier.  I was particularly pleased with the top right hand lady, I really captured her well.  I draw with a Bic ballpoint pen when doing my metro sketching. I love how I can get a variety of lines and that the drawing almost looks like graphite.

It is getting dark and people are gathering for the light show in front of Notre Dame.

The show begins and it is spectacular. Here is a little video that gives a better of idea of what we saw. https://youtu.be/r_KhQMqvhIk?si=NFokSZYjIwopCI93