Normandy - Along the Seine

Once upon a time (well, the middle of August actually), Alma, Beverley, Claire, and John journeyed to Ebbsfleet, and boarded a Eurostar to Paris...
Their plan was to follow the Seine from Paris to the town of Vernon, then to the cathedral city of Rouen, and finally out to the coast at Honfleur​.

They left Paris from the (quite confusing) Gare St Lazare in heavy rain, and headed to Vernon, by which time the rain had stopped.
"Bon voyage!"
"You mean, 'bon voyage'!"

Vernon

Vernon is a pleasant small town, quite attractive with several half timbered houses, but not a great deal to offer apart from proximity to Giverney (Monet's garden) 3 miles away. ​
​Images of the town of Vernon, and its proximity to the Monet Gardens at Giverney
Potential Concert Venue: Collégiale Notre-Dame de Vernon​
  • Large church with impressive exterior.
  • Dark interior but beautiful modern stained glass windows and excellent acoustics.
  • Raised dais in front of altar would be ample for choir.
  • ​No evidence of concerts by way of posters and low footfall so probably couldn’t expect much of an audience. 
Conclusion:
Not priority venue for concert. 
Images of the Collégiale Notre-Dame de Vernon​

Rouen

We boarded the next train to Rouen, and journeyed further along the Seine. 
​
Rouen is a beautiful city, almost entirely rebuilt after WW ll bomb destruction but in a style replicating the medieval original so lots of half timbered buildings.

​Lots of good restaurants and lots to interest accompanying partners as well as choir.
​FYI if you are ever visiting Rouen, there is no left-luggage area at the station!

Hotel Mercure, Champs de Mars

Good comfortable hotel, with excellent breakfast and restaurant, large enough to accommodate our group. 


It has the facility of a room for rehearsal, at additional cost.
​
The hotel is within walking distance for most people but we could arrange a taxi to ferry less mobile members to the concert venues, at reasonable cost (hotel to station approx €10).
Sorry - there weren't any chairs for John and Claire to play around on as there were in Ypres, so we didn't take any photos - these are from their website!

Concert Venues

Potential Concert Venue 1: St Maclou
  • A large impressive church both exterior and interior.
  • Not too dark and really good acoustics.
  • Good organ.
  • Raised dais in front of altar to accommodate choir.
  • Located in city centre and attracting lots of visitors.
  • ​Has a good reputation for recording and evidence of its use as a concert venue from posters.
 
​​Pictures of the Church of St Maclou, Rouen
Potential Concert Venue 2: St Jeanne d'Arc
  • Beautiful modern church (1979) built near the site of her death burnt at the stake, and located near the city centre.
  • Great contrast to other gothic churches around.
  • The building is mostly of wood of a shape to evoke an upturned boat (or flames from the bonfire) with corresponding layout inside.
  • Raised dais to accommodate choir.
  • Excellent acoustics.
  • Organ nothing special.
 
Images of the Church of St Jeanne d'Arc, Rouen
Potential Concert Venue 3: Abbey of St Ouen
  • Huge with impressive exterior and very light and spacious inside. 
  • The renowned organ is located at the west end and the great size of the church  dictates that choir concerts are usually arranged so that the choir is positioned partway down the nave to be sufficiently close to the organ. 
  • The whole venue appeared neglected and dusty so not an attractive concert venue.
  • Located a short walk from the city centre but readily accessible.
 
Images of the Abbey Church of St Ouen, Rouen
Potential Concert Venue 4: Cathedral Church of Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption de Rouen
  • Large, light and airy and located in the city centre.
  • Very impressive exterior and interior with lots of interest including the tomb of Richard the Lionheart. 
  • Good acoustics. Raised dais around altar to accommodate choir.
  • The cathedral has 2 organs, only one of which would be enticing for John to play.
Images of the Cathedral Church of Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption de Rouen
Conclusions:
Good to have 2 concerts in Rouen, one in the Church of St. Jeanne d’Arc, chosen because it is so different from our normal church/cathedral venues,  and the other in either the Cathedral (first choice) or St. Maclou.
​
​The first choice of cathedral was influenced by the prestige of the venue and hence expected preference by the choir, albeit that both the cathedral and St. Maclou would be great concert venues.

Around Rouen

There is more than enough to satisfy even the most culture-hungry Suffolk Singer - restaurants aplenty, a museum district, remarkable architecture, and it is of a large size, but fairly easy to manage on foot.

​Similar to Ghent in size, but without the number of tourists we encountered last year!
​
We had the most lovely time in Rouen which included not just a lot of crêpes, galettes, cider, duck confit, tarte tatin etc, but also a sound-and-light show on the front of the Cathedral on Friday evening.
Images of Rouen, including local architecture, the Palais de Justice, the Gros Horologe, and some crêpes...
Images of the sound-and-light show displayed on the west front of the Cathedral

Honfleur

After a lovely day exploring Rouen, we boarded a train (FYI John loves trains!) to Le Havre, and then a bus to Honfleur, which took us along the A29, crossing two bridges over the Seine, first over the fairly sizeable Pont sur le Grand Canal du Havre, and then the enormous Pont de Normandie which was rather like taking off in a plane and made the Dartford Crossing feel very small by comparison!

Honfleur is a well-known tourist destination, this is a very attractive tourist town on the coast with a harbour. 

There are a large number of restaurants around the harbour and in neighbouring streets, plenty of interesting shops, and even a carousel!
The Pont de Normandie 
The Vieux Port de Honfleur, through which the River 'La Claire' (!) runs - here the quaysides of St Catherine and St Etienne are bathed in the evening light, looking rather like something by Canaletto!
Potential Concert Venue: St Catherine's
The potential concert venue is St. Catherine’s Church, made of wood and set amid small attractive streets of half timbered houses.  
Images of St Catherine's
Conclusion:
We listened in to the morning service, strongly immersed in incense and causing Claire to walk out because of feelings of nausea and breathlessness.  

Although clearly a popular place for concerts, we decided it would not be a good venue for Suffolk Singers due to the fabric of the building and airless atmosphere, with a potential risk of respiratory compromise.
Images of the town of Honfleur
​​However, it would be a pity to miss this lovely place altogether so we conclude that it would be a good sight-seeing detour on the way home on the Monday (as we did with Bruges in 2018). 

Additionally, we stayed at the Hotel La Diligence which was selected for its convenience for this reccé trip and would not be relevant to the choir tour.

​Suffice it to say, it was comfortable and clean, but only offered a continental breakfast!

Overall Conclusions

Choir trip for 2020, from Friday 22 May to Monday 25 May. 
  • Accommodation in Hotel Mercure, Champ de Mars in Rouen
  • Choir to perform 2 concerts, both in Rouen, one on Saturday and the other on Sunday, late morning or early afternoon.
  • Venues of choice to be the modern church of St. Jeanne d’Arc, and either the cathedral or the church of St. Maclou, i. e. two contrasting venues, modern versus traditional gothic.
  • Depending on which organ was available, the concert in the cathedral could include John as accompanist and some solo organ, otherwise performed a cappella. 
  • The concert in the church of St. Jeanne d’Arc would be a cappella.  ​
  • John would dearly love to play the organ in St. Ouen’s Church so the possibility of him giving an organ recital in his own right is being investigated. 
  • Possible optional tour by coach from Rouen to Giverney to visit the Monet Gardens, either Saturday or Sunday, depending on concert times.
  • Sight-seeing detour to Honfleur on Monday morning for a couple of hours on the way home.