Around The World Without Flying: Rouen Part 2 - another haircut, the Rouen Notre Dame Cathedral and other interesting places

There are still many tales to tell about this fascinating town of Rouen. But first I must tell you the tale of my haircut in Rouen. You may remember the tale I told of the one I had in Rome.

I decided I really needed to have my ‘bird’s nest’ of curls cut again. After our guided tour, when we had some free time, I asked the guide where I might get my hair cut. She said usually you have to have an appointment, but she knew of one place that did not require one. I followed her directions, climbed around a lot of roadworks going on down the narrow street where it was located, and found myself at a salon with three young hairdressers and an assistant. None could speak English, which surprised me, and my French is very limited. I tried to say I just wanted my hair cut, but by someone who could manage curly hair. The girl in charge beamed and brought out rollers. “No, no” I said, shaking my head and touching my hair - “naturelle!” “Ah”, she beamed again. And then I did a cutting motion. “Ah” again, and we were set.

But then I had to explain I could not get water in my ears. Try acting that out! (Normally I wash my hair just before going to my hairdresser.) Then fortunately a young lady having her hair shampooed spoke up and said perhaps she could help. She had lived in Melbourne for a year and loved it, so was pleased to help. Her English was quite good. I thought to myself “ God bless all those Melbournians who had been kind to her!”. With her explanation they produced wads of cotton wool and the girl shampooing my hair made sure no water went near my ears. Next was the cut, and with the aid of my newly found translator, voila! - we pretty well sorted that. Beams all around. I left the salon very relieved - it wasn’t a bad hair cut at all, and certainly an improvement on what I had walked in with. The girl who did it only looked like a teenager. Meanwhile, the 'speckled bird’s nest' of my hair that built up on the floor below me was swept away. No doubt they went home with tales about this ‘old lady’ all the way from Australia who suddenly arrived on their doorstep with a big mop of hair and could not speak French . . .

Back to the churches and cathedrals as promised. The first one we saw was very old and set in the amongst what remained of the old houses. Unfortunately a huge van parked in front of it just as we arrived, so between that and the rain I could not get a very good photo of it. The next one was the very imposing Notre Dame Cathedral of Rouen. (For those of you who have even less French than I, ‘Notre Dame’ means ‘our lady’.) We were told that the bishop who commissioned it did not like the first attempt, so made the builders pull it all down and start again. Incredible! It would have taken decades to build.

I have not yet mentioned that in the days of the Vikings, a party of Vikings led by a certain Rollo came to conquer France. To protect Paris, King Louis XIV (I think) struck a deal with him and gave him the region now known as Normandy (place of men from the north). Rollo was very happy with the deal and settled there. Crypts for both Rollo and Richard the Lion Heart are on display next to one another in the cathedral. Photographs of these are shown below. The cathedral was bombed in the last war, but fortunately, though there is still evidence of damage, it survived.

A charming little tale about this cathedral is that Monet loved to paint its facade in different lights. The only room he was able to get that was in a suitable position was the upstairs change room of a ladies’ dress salon. He was partitioned off but eventually got so annoyed with all the chatter interrupting his concentration he eventually moved to the next building. But in case you fellas get too smug about that, our guide also pointed out that all French nouns have a gender and it so happens ‘Problems’ is male while ‘Solutions’ is female . . .!

I would add that when it becomes really dark (about 11 pm during this season) there is a half-hour laser light picture show played on the walls of the cathedral. Many of our passengers made a pilgrimage back to the cathedral to watch it and said it was spectacular. I am afraid I was just too tired to go. I have seen such shows in Melbourne when ‘White Night’ is held, so I can imagine it was really good.

The last church we saw, near the fresh food market and the monument to Joan of Arc, was a very unusual and interesting shape. The original had been destroyed by the bombing in WW2, but stained glass windows rescued from another destroyed church were able to be used.

We stayed in Rouen overnight ready for shore excursions out of there the next day. I went to the Somme, a profoundly moving experience. I will tell you about that in the next post.