The parking is free

Travel is tiring so I am probably not going to be as excessively complex in my sentence construction as I usually am.

Not that I am apologizing for being wordy, this is my blog and I get to do what I want.  I like complex construction.

The whole morning went better than expected.  The cab stand at Maubert had at least 8 cabs every time I checked it but when we got there today there was only one.

Just enough.

We couldn't get the English speaking ticket seller at the train station but even the French speaking one knew way enough English to get us safely on the train.

We thought we had to catch the Dieppe train to get to Rouen.  It turns out that you can also catch the Le Havre train. As a result we got to Rouen slightly before the time we thought we would be leaving Saint Lazare.  This is the train station at Rouen.

We rented a car, stowed our luggage in the boot, left the car in the parking ramp rental car storage location and fell down the hill into Rouen.

Sure enough, half timbered buildings abound.

The explanation  given by the book is that the local stone is soft and not conducive to construction but there was an abundant oak forest.

A couple of years ago we visited Chinon and I spent a lot of effort on the beginnings of the military career that began in Chinon, the Maid of Orleans, Jeanne d'Arc.

Today kind of brings full circle to that whole narrative.  This is the market square in Rouen where she was burned at the stake.  The statue of the burning Joan faces out into the square from a nook in the side of the new church .

The church there is new as the old church there was among the sites in Rouen extensively damaged by World War II bombing.

This is the Gros Horloge, the big clock.  The building is the former city hall.

The clock has no minute hand, at the time this clock was relevant keeping track of the hour was plenty exact enough.

The underside of the arch on which the clock is mounted is some nice sculpture dedicated to the dominant ruminant of the area, the sheep.

This stunning Gothic structure is the Palais de Justice, the former home of the Normandie parliament.

The cathedral in town is the Cathedrale Notre Dame of Rouen.  There is currently an extensive renovation underway which rendered the front facade a disappointment as a photographer's model.  The side view is still pretty stunning, though.

The cast iron spire dates only from the 19th century, actually about the same time when Eiffel was building his celebrated tower in Paris.  The spire is by itself 490 feet tall, the tallest in France.

It's a stunning old stone building inside.  It is extremely highly vaulted, much higher than Notre Dame in Paris.

It is also quite a bit lighter inside as very very many of the ancient windows were destroyed in the war.

For example the church on one night in 1944 suffered direct hits to the building and grounds of 7 high explosive bombs dropped by RAF Lancasters.

We were just sort of walking along working our way back towards the train station to pick up our car when just out of nowhere there appeared this deal.

That one is Eglise Saint Ouen.  It is a former abbey church celebrated as one of the jewels of High Gothic architecture.

We were feeling a tiny bit pressed for time or maybe it was hungry so we didn't go inside.

So after one huge false start we managed to get headed in the direction of Dieppe.  Getting into the city also  proved a tiny bit problematic but Dieppe is a smallish place, population according to the Green Guide of only 33,000.  And of course one side is a known so you only have to work yourself towards that one thing you know for sure and then narrow down the possibilities and before you know it you are safely at your destination.

Which for us today was the Beach Hotel.

Not making it up.

We couldn't find a place to park anywhere nearby so we eventually parked in the yellow painted no parking zone in front of the hotel driveway and I went inside.

"You have a booking?" Madame inquired.

"Where does one park?" I asked.

"Parking is free."  she replied.

Well, yes, parking is free but there isn't a single empty spot anywhere around.

It turns out they have a garage the existence of which they will eventually reveal and then you can book a spot inside.

It all seems good to me except that silly moment when she says, "The parking is free".

Of course it is.

So we got checked in and here is the view out the window this time.

It isn't Notre Dame but it IS the English Channel.

Here is a view towards the west, you know down towards Le Havre and Omaha and Cherbourg and all that sort of stuff.

What you see there is the very beginning of the Alabaster Coast.