It’s on the strength of observation and reflection that one finds a way. So we must dig and delve unceasingly.
 – Claude Monet, French Impressionist painter

While the rest of the family was excited for our next leg of the trip, I was very sad to leave Paris. For one, it was nice staying in one place for a while. I loved the energy of the city. I am definitely an urban dweller compared to the rest of the family. I also wanted to keep exploring other neighborhoods; there’s so much more to see and do. But it just means I must return to Paris. We got our taste of what it’s like to drive through Paris and to get to Charles de Gaulle Airport, a city unto itself. Gridlock. We rented a car at the airport and thus began the driving journey part of our trip.

First stop was Rouen, about 84 miles northwest of Paris and 1.5 hours on the road. We figured out the toll system – which signs to follow to get into the right lanes for pay by credit card! It was our first stay at a hotel, the Mercure Hotel in Rouen. We had an adventure driving on cobbled streets through barricades to get to the hotel’s underground parking lot, and another adventure parking the car in the very tiny stall. No doubt we were an amusement to the German tourists who parked their two cars with ease. David gets a gold star for driving, driving stick shift, and coming up with alternatives when our British-speaking GPS system led us astray (she was more accurate than our GPS system in Italy, but she was not without error).

Rouen is a 2,000-year-old city that boasts medieval half-timbered houses and Gothic architecture. In its heyday, Rouen was the country’s second-largest city next to Paris with 40,000 residents. The Normans made Rouen its capital in the ninth century. It was home to William the Conqueror before he moved to England. Joan of Arc, whom I vividly remember learning about when I was a child, was burned at the stake here in 1431. She was canonized in 1920 and later became the patron saint of France. Sadly, in April 1944, Allied bombers destroyed 50 percent of Rouen as they sought to break down the Germans’ control of Normandy leading up to the D-Day landings. Once we checked in (see our amazing room with a view), we immediately hit the cobbled streets, admiring the Gothic structures that house city administration. We admired the medieval structures that are still standing. You’ll notice that they bulge out, a characteristic that authenticates the age of the building.

We visited the Joan of Arc Church, Eglise Jeanne d’Arc, a modern church that was completed in 1979. The town’s Normandy Nordic roots is captured in the church’s Scandinavian architecture. The church boasts 16^th-century windows, which were salvaged from a church that was bombed during WWII. Nearby the town square is a restaurant called Restaurant La Couronne, supposedly the oldest restaurant in France, but also made famous by American chef and author Julia Child. In 1949, Child ate her first French meal here and thus changed her culinary world and the American culinary scene. We did not eat dinner here, though it would have been cool to do so. Next time.

The main reason we came to Rouen was to see the Notre-Dame Cathedral, which was made famous by the many different studies Claude Monet painted of the Gothic façade at different times of the day. Constructed between the 12^th and 14^th centuries, the cathedral endured lightning strikes and wars. In fact, the cathedral was bombed in WWII required extensive rebuilding. It’s a gorgeous cathedral. No wonder Monet painted it several times.

We dined at La Petite Auberge (164 rue Martainville), which is a Rick Steves recommendation. It’s nearby the equally impressive St. Maclou Church (Eglise St. Maclou). Isabella surprised us all by eating a whole big bowl of mussels. We ate outdoors, and while it was a cool Normandy evening, the wind died down enough for us to enjoy our meal. We only stayed one night in Rouen. Traffic in Paris ate up our hours. It may be one of the times when you say, we’ll return and stay a while.