Yes, it’s
Valentine’s Day. Tim and I exchanged cards and he presented me with a box of
chocolate hearts before heading off to give Coh
Karek some attention. (I'm not jealous of her!) He’ll be back
in time for rugby (my idea of a romantic afternoon) and we’ll have a lovely dinner at one of our
favourite restaurants—Number 12, aka home on the Isle of Wight. The menu still
to be finalised, but there will be a lovely bottle of something red in honour
of the day.
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| Magnificent architecture! |
We had our
little romantic escape earlier in the month, having had plans fall through on a
weekend we were meant to be in London and finding ourselves yearning for a bit
of French food and wine. How lucky we are to be 90 minutes from Dover to hop
the car ferry abroad! (And even luckier that I paid the checking fee to hold on
to my passport while my citizenship application is being considered!)
I’d never
been to Rouen, and while it’s a slightly longer journey from the port of Calais
than our usual last-minute, need some French wine stop of Boulogne, it is still
close enough to make it a weekend fling. We hadn’t anticipated the snow along
the way, which was quite pretty and fortunately only marginally accumulated on
the road, and once we arrived in Rouen it was a bit dreary and wet, but of the
above-freezing kind that meant we were never without an umbrella as we wandered
through the town.
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| Cross at the site of Joan of Arc's execution |
And oh,
what lovely sites! The architecture can occasionally make you gasp; the history
will make you pause. The cathedral is lovely, dark and cold but majestic both
inside and out. Its construction began in 12th century. There is a
painting by Monet at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen that struck me as
beautiful; it is the one postcard I left with. There are buildings that
survived the war, bullet holes gashed into the stone.
Joan of Arc
was executed in Rouen in 1431; I wanted to see the site, where now stands an enormous
cross on the exact spot of her burning and, I must say, one of the less
attractive buildings in the centre, a chapel of modern design built in 1979 that
seems incongruous to the rest of the city’s history. The Seine, where her ashes
were thrown to prevent any taking of relics, runs through part of Rouen, though
it does not evoke the same romance as the river does in Paris, I must say. We
did stroll down to take a look at the river and the boats docked, but it was
cold and windy and we didn’t stay long.
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| View from our hotel room |
And yes, the
food was fabulous. We had two wonderful lunches, both at brasseries that served
traditional French food and lovely carafes of wine, and dinner at one of the
more popular spots according to Trip Advisor where, given a cold, wet, windy
evening in February, was empty but for one other couple who knew the staff (and
so Tim joked that they were called in to fill seats). We started with some
fresh, slightly briny oysters with chenin blanc, and then I had wonderful coquilles
Saint-Jacques (scallops) while Tim chose a steak and we drank a lovely red. We
ate and drank slowly and savoured the night.
So an early
Valentine’s celebration for us; and while tonight will be a bit less extravagant,
in a city a bit less known (unless you’re a sailor), it will be no less
romantic. Enjoy yours.
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| Happy Valentine's Day! |
