The city of Madame Bovary and Monet’s Cathédrale series, Rouen has an appealing historical centre painstakingly restored from the heavy destruction of WWII. The very scale of restoration only dawns on you when you see the pictures of post-bombardment Rouen. Still, here and there in the city are left devastated pieces of what used to be magnificent buildings, preserved so as mementos of how senseless and barbarous wars are.
A reminder that Rouen once was the capital of the Norman Duchy is the imposing Gothic Palais de Justice which used to housed Normandy's parliament. Scores of half-timbered houses are turned nowadays into restaurants and smart shops, some of which deal in Rouen faïence – colourful glazed crockery.
On Place du Vieaux Macrhé, the symbolic centre of the city, one can find La Couronne, France's oldest inn established in 1345. Considered the star-studded guest list, it is quite reasonably priced and promises the best of Norman culinary delights in a historic setting. On the same square French national heroine Jeanne d'Arc was burnt at stake accused of witchcraft at the age of 18. A Post-Modern monstrosity of a monument was erected here during Valéry Giscard D'Estaing's reign to commemorate or rather commiserate the fact.
The city’s gastronomic claim for fame is by virtue of the savage recipe of canard rouennais – Duclair ducks are strangled, roasted, jointed, the carcass is crushed in a special press and the juices are mixed into a blood-based sauce. I strongly suspect that this recipe was invented specifically to give vegans severe nervous breakdowns.
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- Lille - The Closest Bit Of France
- Mer-les-Bains - Bourgeois Seaside Resort Par Excellence
- Dieppe - Maps, Ivory And Scallops
- Fécamp - Liqueur, Seafood & Norman Vestiges
- The Limestone Arches Of Étretat
- Rouen - The Duck, The Pots & The Cathedral
- Richard the Lionheart's Château Gaillard
- Monet's Japanese Garden in Giverny
- Honfleur - A Picture-Perfect Port
- Mont St.Michel - The Marvel Abbey
- Côte Emeraude - Brittany's Emerald Coast
- St. Malo - The Granite Jewel of Brittany
- Dinard & St. Lunaire - Hangouts Of The Rich
- Jersey - The Bulwark Of Englishness
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