Rouen Local Customs

 hquittner Says:  In order to preserve the character of an "old town" in a tourist-ridden city, rigorous architectural zoning and building regulations must be strongly in place.... 

 Pavlik_NL Says:  Water is present everywhere in Rouen. The city along the river Seine thanks it's excistance on some small creeks that ended here in the river Seine and provided... 

 Pavlik_NL Says:  The architectural style of gothics is created in and spreaded from Normandy. First experiments in this very important architectural style that is one of the... 

 sue_stone Says:  Most people have heard of Joan of Arc. Even me, who is useless with historical events knew who she was. Nowhere in France is Joan of Arc more honoured than in... 

 Cham Says:  Unlike many countries I visit it seems to be perfectly acceptable here to be drunk in the afternoon... and i don't just mean drunk I mean to the state that can... 

 JLBG Says:  The columns of "Aître Saint Maclou" are topped with capitals. Most of them are in poor condition but it is not always s easy to guess what they represent, even... 

 JLBG Says:  On this column, another capital. It is in relatively good condition, and I have tried to figure out what this dancers were doing among gravediggers but without... 

 JLBG Says:  What they might show ? Well that is very easy, what are the tools that they use ? The most important are the shovel and the pickaxe. If you click to enlarge... 

 JLBG Says:  If you were to show out your job, you would certainly first think to show the tools you are using. The butcher shows his knife, the tailor his needle, the... 

 JLBG Says:  That means that Aîtres, such as Aître Saint Maclou were the kingdom of gravediggers. Gravediggers, as any other professionals love what they are doing and as... 

 JLBG Says:  When we were having dinner at the Restaurant "les Maraîchers", this guy arrived and began to sing Country and among them, a Johnny Cash. We assumed he was... 

 JLBG Says:  Barrel organs were very popular in France until the middle of the 50th century. They gave music out of a cardboard card with holes that flow a specific... 

 JLBG Says:  Amazingly, after you have toured the Aître Saint Maclou, when you go out, through a little, half covered passage, you find again a beam, of sun, your leader !... 

 JLBG Says:  At first, "Aître Saint Maclou" looked avery peaceful and quiet place. As a matter of fact, it IS a quiet and peaceful, it is the calm of Death. If this kind of... 

 JLBG Says:  Then go back to the previous pictures, enlarge them and you will see, skulls, jaws, rib bones, collarbones, humerus, radius, cubitus, femurs, etc… Is there... 

 JLBG Says:  But would you feel that showing the tools you are using will be enough to represent your job ? I bet no, and that you will certainly be tempted to show on what... 

 JLBG Says:  An aître, from the Latin atrium, was in the Middle ages a charnel, not a cemetery, but a place where the bodies of the plague victims were temporarily kept,... 

 JLBG Says:  Once you enter the "Aître Saint Maclou", you find a large and peaceful square, surrounded by two levels old half-timbered houses that host now the School for... 

 JLBG Says:  A small sign read "Aître Saint Maclou" and an arrow lead under a dark wooden passage. If you know nothing about the Aître Saint Maclou, this does not call you... 

 Voyageuse30 Says:  This site is in French, but if you don't know French, you can still look at the photos, maps and webcams of Rouen. There are some really neat "virtual visits"...