Day 19 - A sojourn to Rouen
31.05.2015 - 31.05.2015
20 °C
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Following in the Family Footsteps
on Neileeann's travel map.
Firstly the show last night was good, but it was what it was. It was a show put on for tourist with a mix of few different styles - dancing, singing, acrobats, illusionists and a laser show. It hit the mark of what I expected. It sold itself as being a bit more upmarket than Moulin Rouge and the seating was a small table with a desk lamp and bottle of champaign upon arrival. From what I had read the Moulin Rouge was a bit of a sausage factory in pushing you in and through, but it may have been a bit more bawdy in its routine. The table next to us had a marriage proposal with the engagement ring being brought out after the cancan dance and spotlighted with the light from the mobile phone – how very modern.
Afterwards we walked back to the Metro station and made our way back to the hotel. There was a big concert in the square near our hotel, so we stayed and watched that for a while. Again the French are very polite and non-aggressive. I my bang on about this, but my experience in Australia at such public events is that you will always get a few aggressive drunks. But so far on this trip, no matter how drunk, they seem to exercise very good self control and you never feel any threat.
Well today was the last day of our Eurail ticket, so we decided to use it one last time and took a sojourn to Rouen (http://www.rouentourisme.com/Default.aspx?tabid=2508&language=en-US). It is most famous as the town where Joan of Arc of executed. Given Lee-ann has a strong affiliation with Joan it seem like the place to go. It is an hour and a half train trip north west of Paris and I was really impressed with the town. It has a strong Tudor architectural style that just lead you down one street after another.
Putting on the planning hat, it has a city population of 110K and still supports a metro system, has a major cultural centre and many other cultural facilities that would put cities 3 times their size in Australia to shame.
After a good day out we made our way back to Paris and had a quick bite to eat and drink, before retiring back to the hotel for a night in.