Rouen is a city in Haute-Normandie in the north west of France. It takes about an hour and a half to go by train so we need to get up early but it's a sluggish morning. We're getting used to sleeping in! We walk out of the hotel around 11:30am... oops.
I've finally figured out the Metro (again), this time thanks to an iPhone app that can tell me the route and connections from a starting point to an ending point. We safely make it to St Lazare train station in order to catch Les Grandes Lignes: the country trains. As per most countries, the country train is more comfortable than the city trains. In this case, they are exceptional! We have a little chuckle about the difference between first and second class tickets: first class seats are orange and have a little table and lamp. The funny thing is the train cabin lights well outshine the table lamp so it's quite useless.
First stop in Rouen: Office de Tourisme. We ask about the usual things but also enquire on how we can look up Mum's great-great-great-great-grandfather's name. The lady knows where the archives are held and tells us to go to the tallest building across the river. We walk over the river toward the building and walk around the entire block on which it sits to find the entrance. Finally, we discover it and enter the lobby. Some security guards sit upright and watch us. The girl behind reception looks intrigued. I explain the situation in my best French while she looks at me with a pained expression on her face. As I near the end of my explanation, her eyes light up and she says: "oh, les archives! Ils ont fermé en janvier!" No way... the archives closed in January! OH MY GOD. Feeling quite defeated, we go outside and find a nearby market, not unlike a weekend market, under a building. Hooray, more shopping. A nearby shop has humungous tomatoes, if you're interested. We head back over the river to the main side.
Now it's even more important that we have Internet access. Before leaving the hotel this morning, Mum sent a Facebook message to her aunt who has investigated the family tree. There's a chance she has responded with the address where the predecessor lived in this town: Ernest François Aret. Where can we get wifi? McDonald's seems like a good choice so we head there and connect. The logon page appears but it isn't asking for a username and password. Instead, it says: "Internet access impossible outside the opening hours of restaurant. please try again later." Ummm, it's 2:27pm... wtf? So we're dead in the water as far as information goes. I despise not having Internet!
It's getting quiet cold so we buy a jumper for me. The next cute little tourist train departs at 5:00pm so we walk around, grab something small to eat, and then get ready for the ride. It takes us around the more important parts of Rouen and explains some things. It's quite interesting to hear at the time but I probably won't remember much! All I remember about Rouen is the crazy architecture and where Jeanne D'Arc was burned alive at the stake. Ah, memories.
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