Sun April 13, 2025
Hi Gang! We’re in Rouen, France for the next few days but don’t arrive here today until 3:45 PM. To get to it we had to navigate down the Seine River sort of like a river cruise. We saw many cute villages along the way. There is lots of history to Rouen. It has a population of 700,000 and was the first Viking capital of Normandy. William the conqueror became the first leader by winning the Battle of Hastings.
But the most important person here and who is considered the patron saint of France is Joan of Arc. She won the battle of Orleans against the British as part of the 100 year war. However, she was later captured by the British and was tried and burned alive here on May 30, 1431. Another interesting (and weird!) factoid is that the heart of Richard the Lionheart is kept in the Rouen Cathedral, also known as the Notre Dame Cathedral. It was the tallest building in the world for a few years.
There’s a large astronomical clock here called Le Gros-Horloge that dates back to the 14th century. Lined up in a row going from east to west thru the center of town are several large churches, such as Saint-Ouen, Saint-Maciou, the Notre Dame Cathedral and the Joan of Arc church.
Enough history! We started the day with an enrichment speaker discussing the history of Rouen. Then had lunch in the Asian specialty restaurant named Kaiseki. It was so tasty with its Bao Buns and Ramen Bowls. We’ll probably be back!
We then went to our cooking class in what they call the S.A.L.T. Lab (Sea and Land Taste). It’s great that they offer these classes for free and they focus on making food from the local region you’re in. We even had our same chef Derek from our Dec 2023 cruise. Such a great guy! Today’s class was called “Countryside to Coast: Normandy’s Culinary Riches”. We made Moules a la creme Normande which was shrimp cooked in a creamy sauce. We also made Bourdelot which was an apple cooked in a puff pastry. Both were delicious!!
After that we got ready for our excursion which was a walking Tour of Rouen. I’ll do another update after that. Happy Sunday!
The Wandering Italian 