Rouen was one of the first places that my wife and I traveled to when we came to France and it really left an impression on us during that initial visit.
It was the first time that we had seen a really big old town and the first time that we had seen historic half timber homes and buildings. I especially love the "stepped" ones, as seen below, the ones that expand outward into the street as they rise. In the past, that was actually a building technique to avoid paying taxes. At the time taxes were based on the size of the footprint of the house, so people made the footprint small and just gradually increased the size of each additional floor above it. Tricky and clever if you ask me.
We always felt that the old part of the city had a sort of story book charm about it, even though it is so large.
The endless colorful buildings lining the cobblestone streets may play a part in that.
Most of the medeival quarter has been pedestrianized as well, so it is all very walkable and easy to explore by foot without having to worry about vehicles.
The city is steeped in history as well and is famous for being the place where Joan of Arc was put to death. She was burned at the stake in the city square for being a "heretic" and dressing as a man.
Today there is a church of Saint Jeanne d'Arc located roughly where she was burned. You can just make out its triangular roof to the left hand side of photo above. I haven't been inside it but every time we have gone to the city there has been an outdoor market under the roof canopy right outside its doors. That alone is worth popping by to see.
The Notre Dame Cathedral is absolutely massive in Rouen and its impossible not to be impressed by it.
At one point in history it was one of the tallest buildings in the country.
Of course, after spending three years in France we became quite used to such places and had experienced many other sites that were even more quaint and charming than the city of Rouen.
Nonetheless the city seemed like a good place to bring guests and visitors,
especially since it was so close to our house, only a 2 hour drive away.
We hoped that my sister would like it as much as we had during our first go around so we brought her there the day after we got back from Chamonix-Mont-Blanc.
The half timber buildings house some unique little shops to check out, as well as different types of restaurants and cafes.
I especially like the crooked buildings that look as though they could topple over any minutes if the wind was just right.
Both my sister and my wife bought dresses that day in one of the stores. I remember the shop lady bringing them new items to try on in an almost continuous stream. It was all very friendly and not at all pushy but eventually they just had to say "I'm just going to get this one item, thank you." The shop owner probably would have brought every piece of clothing in the store for them to try on if they let her. I've experienced that before at other sites with my wife.
This is what I look like standing outside the store, waiting for them to finish.
After shopping we found this really cool nook at the side of the Notre Dame Cathedral.
We tried to take some cool interactive portrait shots with my wife and sister
but of course almost immediately after we entered we were followed in by a massive group of people. We couldn't really take any good photos in there of us.
Nonetheless I took a bunch of the church over top of people's heads.
Okay moving on...
There are multiple churches and cathedrals in close proximity to one another in the city, so it's really easy to see some incredible gothic architecture just by wandering around aimlessly in the old town.
Many can be seen from various streets upon approach as well. It creates a neat photo effect when you shoot them this way.
My favorite among the churches was the Church of St. Maclou (below).
It a little smaller than the others but quite grand in its ornate design. It's made of a white sandstone and has a circular sort of shape, maybe an octagon (??). Historically it was used to bury plague victims, which I find interesting.
Another very large church is the St. Ouen Abbey.
It's located at the edge of the old town and is connected to a large public park and garden.
I didn't get a good photo of it full on, but I managed to capture portions of it through the trees.
There are literally so many impressive sites in the city. The old Justice building (above) is a massive gothic palace, essentially, that takes up a full city block or maybe two.
You also can't miss the amazing historic clock tower built within a Renaissance archway that spans the street below.
The tower is a museum that you can pay to go in and see. My wife and I did it during our first visit to the city and thought that it was really neat. It was only 7 euro at the time so very reasonably priced and well worth it in my opinion.
My sister wasn't interested in the museum so we didn't do it this time round.
I don't even know what this next site was other than it was a really old building built around a square courtyard.
It looked like the type of place that would house a market or something.
I liked the detail work carved into the blackened timbers. Notice the skulls and cross bones.
I have little else to say about the town other than we enjoyed our day and made the most out of exploring the old town. We saw the main sites and the ladies did some shopping. All around we had a pretty decent time. And so...
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I didn't know that about the stepped houses. That's a splendid tax dodge!!
That's what I read somewhere a while back anyway. There are some homes in the town that start moving outward immediately from the ground and jut out into the sidewalks a good 20cm or so.
Those ones always look so cool. I have seen similar. Originally I thought it was shoddy building practice but that didn't quite add up
Yeah I wouldn't have guessed it had I not been informed. It reminds me of the window tax that was in Europe as well and how people took measures to reduce the size and amount of windows and all that.
Some crazy times and crazy solutions/workaround to issues!
People can be quite inventive
Such a cool place, love the architecture… the wood in the houses.
Yes, I can imagine it has left an impression forever. It is so charming.
It just looks stunning this place, will have to put it on my list hehehe 🤭
Thanks for sharing @leaky20 👋🏻😊 have a nice Sunday!
It's a big city but is has a large historic old town with a lot of history. Worth checking out if you're in the area.
It looks so cool 😎
Thanks, have a nice day further!
You as well
Thank you 😊
Looks nice and peaceful, a good day to stroll and snap.
Quiz time: Rouen is the town where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake.
Haha it's a good fact for trivia but maybe phrase it as a question, or multiple choice or something for trivia night
that'll do lol
It reminds me of towns in Alsace, but google says that it's quite far away from there 😂 Those colorful houses are beautiful. They are lined up perfectly!
And I must admit that I like this Notre Dame cathedral more than the one in Paris 🙂
Thank you for sharing!
Yeah Rouen is a long way away from the Alsace. It's in the opposite direction, over in Normandy.
The church is very impressive. It's massive. I haven't actually been inside the one in Paris
I'm completely impressed with that town. The stepped houses are interesting. I can imagine just how blown away you both were when you first arrived in France. I love timber houses, any old houses, really.
The pedestrian streets are awesome and the architecture overall, is WOW!
I had such an experience in an Italian boutique shop in Curacao. At the time I was addicted to shopping and purchased just about everything that I tried on. Now, I'm smarter 😁
Yeah old historic homes have so much character compared to new builds which all tend to be the same.
Yeah shopping in other countries can be dangerous lol. Great way to spend a lot of money haha.
It reminds me a little of Chester, UK. Thank you for posting this.
Hmm I've never been to Chester but sounds like it could be a charming place
@leaky20 one day, I'm hoping that I'll be in France..hope to see you there🤗
I hope you make it! Good luck 👍
Absolutely stunning. I've been to Rennes and the buildings were similiar. Definitely have to put this one on my bucket list - thanks so much for sharing.
Yeah the region of Brittany has a lot of buildings like that. I haven't been to Rennes but other town in the general area. I like the region a lot
Yes it's amazing! We went down to Carnac and Rennes and a few places in between, but it's all I've seen of France really.
Carnac was an interesting place with the ancient stones there. We did that one of our trips to that region.
Wao.A city with unique architecture, looks so beautiful. I really like that church.😍
Yeah the church and all of the architecture is quite nice in the historic quarter.
It such a great place to visit 😍it looks so peaceful and clean.How I wish I could visit that place too but its imposible I think😁
Well we can all visit many places around the world through others eyes here on Hive 😁
Awesome photos! Someday I would like to visit France. For a moment I thought it was Germany because of the architecture.
Yeah some parts of France and Germany have very similar architecture. The Alsace region especially.
This place looks like the ones you see in movies. Also, the pictures look nostalgic. When you look at them, you know that these structures were built with delicacy and survived the test of time.
Yes that's very true. It's impressive how well they have been preserved and restored. Especially since many were destroyed during the bombings in WWII
So this is France. I have a vague picture of it but these are in detail.
Yes it's France. 😁
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Amazing architecture, thanks for sharing!
You're welcome 😊