Overnighter: Near Paris, a City of Flaubert and Joan of Arc

Written By Unknown on Jumat, 09 Agustus 2013 | 17.35

Corentin Fohlen for The New York Times

A statue of St. Joan in Rouen.

Gustave Flaubert reportedly once said that he wrote his novels to resemble a particular color. "In 'Madame Bovary,' " he remarked, "all I was after was to render a special tone, that color of the moldiness of a wood-louse's existence." He may well have achieved that with his depiction of illusory love in his novel. But Rouen, France — Flaubert's birthplace and the setting for a good portion of "Madame Bovary" — evokes a different mood altogether.

I got a sense of that mood on a recent visit to the historic capital of Normandy. After a 90-minute train trip from Paris, my family and I arrived in Rouen with a ready desire to explore. We put our bags down at our cheery hotel, the Mercure Rouen Centre Cathédrale, in a room overlooking the Cathedral Notre-Dame de Rouen, also known as the Rouen Cathedral. One of the most commanding sights in Rouen, this towering flamboyant Gothic church with its lacy stonework has not only been masterfully portrayed by Flaubert (complete with a historical tour given by a beadle, an "everlasting guide," to Madame Bovary and her soon-to-be lover) but also by such disparate painters as Claude Monet and Roy Lichtenstein.

Rouen is on the Seine, so we decided to walk along the narrow cobblestone streets toward the river. As we ambled past the rows of half-timbered houses, which evince a sweet innocence, an accordion player on the corner and stands selling multicolored macarons, I was immediately charmed.

After sitting down for a bite to eat at La Place, an Asian-inflected brasserie, I took a look at the map to get my bearings. I discovered that, through the window of the restaurant, we were gazing out on Old Market Square, a little area bound on one side by a terrific food market with a single table tucked into a nook allowing six people lucky enough to nab it to sit and enjoy the many offerings, including duck foie gras and petits choux with crab. Next to this market, there is an unexpectedly modern building with a large cross rising up in front of it. This marks the spot where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake for heresy in 1431.

Because Rouen was heavily damaged in World War II and then rebuilt, the town offers an odd yet compelling juxtaposition of sacred history and modern architecture. For example, the St. Joan of Arc Church, the building behind the cross, was designed in the '70s by Louis Arretche so that it would, in part, resemble the flames that overtook the saint. This bold structure, completed in 1979, has a roof that twists up in the center as if it were being drawn toward the sky by an invisible centrifugal force. Surrounded as it is by medieval buildings, it looks a bit like a spaceship that has landed in Rouen.

Inside the church, however, is another story — and another era. Upon entering, we faced a wall showcasing 13 16th-century stained-glass windows. These were salvaged in 1939 from St.-Vincent Church, which was destroyed when Rouen was bombed in 1944. (Thankfully, these panels had been removed and stored elsewhere during the war.) Sunlight pours gloriously through the biblical illustrations of the stained glass, bringing the stories to life in vivid hues of crimson and deep blue and yellow.

Joan of Arc is one of the most celebrated of Rouen's notable residents from the past. The keep where she was threatened with torture is now called the Joan of Arc Tower and can be toured throughout the week (except on Tuesdays). Plans are also underway for a Joan of Arc Visitors' Center to open, housed in the archbishop's palace.

As we exited the church, the afternoon had turned rainy. Despite this hint of a wood louse's moldiness creeping into my day, I pressed on, to look around a bit on my own. I stopped for a chocolate croissant at La Tarte à Papa, one of the many patisseries whose aromas wafted into the streets.

Afterward, I wound my way back through the center of town, walking past the showy Palais de Justice, the former seat of the parliament of Normandy, and back to the grand cathedral. I explored the church's interior and discovered that one of the towers is nicknamed the Butter Tower because it is said that citizens who did not wish to give up butter during Lent were able to buy back this indulgence by donating money to the church. At the tourism office across the street, I learned about the Museum of Flaubert and the History of Medicine, a 10-room gallery where one can see the room in which Flaubert was born as well as the hospital where his father worked as a surgeon. It is also possible to visit the Flaubert Pavilion, a small country house in Canteleu, about 15 minutes outside Rouen, where Flaubert lived and wrote for 35 years.


Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang

Overnighter: Near Paris, a City of Flaubert and Joan of Arc

Dengan url

http://travelwisatawan.blogspot.com/2013/08/overnighter-near-paris-city-of-flaubert.html

Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya

Overnighter: Near Paris, a City of Flaubert and Joan of Arc

namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link

Overnighter: Near Paris, a City of Flaubert and Joan of Arc

sebagai sumbernya

0 komentar:

Posting Komentar

techieblogger.com Techie Blogger Techie Blogger