"Champs de Mars" and Normandy Region Esplanade
Yes, my friends, we too have our Champs de Mars!
I did not know this spot until March 2019 when I decided to explore it. A place that I did not know yet but that I had spotted furtively previously. I had postponed, to later, this little expedition and over and over again.
I regret not having done it earlier and I do not regret having finally done it! ... it's my Norman side who speaks (both "yes and no", "maybe yes, maybe not"! ").
The esplanade is very nicely maintained and highlights the buildings, both old and modern.
It is flowery as I like and I know that I will go back there according to the seasons and especially my desires ...
I'm in Normandy, no doubt!
The building is definitely more beautiful viewed on Boulevard of Gambetta than on the side of Robert Schuman street which is the only entrance accessible to ordinary people. Too bad, I would have liked to visit the entrance through the gardens that only state officials can use. I took advantage of it through the gates ... it's always better than nothing.
I will not complain when I enjoyed taking pictures without seeing the time go by ... another great discovery .
My reflection of the day: I searched for years abroad what I actually had in my heart: my Normandy!
"Champs de Mars" Esplanade
... sometimes the train passes....
The entrance of the esplanade.
View on the esplanade from the Gambetta boulevard.
A fountain...I love it !
From the esplanade, view of the building of the Normandy region.
Greens at work.
... the train didn't pass by...
"Fountain, I will not drink your water" ...
....and for a good reason !
Ultimately, we could make a big bubble bath in it .... I immediately notice in the basin a white foam, a spring smell emanating from it. Since there is no one to give me an explanation on this subject, I imagine that it is to keep it clean otherwise the still water would quickly become dirty.
"The first charity of a village is its fountain." - Gaston Bonheur / Henri the Fourth -
"Never say "fountain"... You have to say, "Boss, a muscadet!" - Pierre Perret -
"The afternoon light illuminates the bamboos, the fountains babble deliciously, the sigh of the pines whispers in our kettle. Let us dream of the ephemeral and let ourselves wander in the beautiful madness of things." -Okakura Kakuzo/The Book of Tea (1976) -
"Let no one say:"Fountain, I will not drink your water."" - Miguel de Cervantes / Don Quixote -
"The ocean does not wait after the water of the fountains." -Moroccan proverbs-
"It's dark: here is the voice of the gushing fountains higher: and my soul, too, is a gushing fountain." -Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche/So spoke Zarathustra (1883-1885) -
"It does a great job for feverish people to see paintings depicting fountains, rivers and waterfalls. If someone, at night, cannot find sleep, let him begin to contemplate sources and sleep will come." -Leon Battista Alberti-
"All fountains come from stormwater infiltrated and gathered on the clay." -Georges Louis Leclerc, Earl of Buffon/Natural History of Minerals (1783-1788) -
"When I sit there, the patriarchal idea around me comes to life: I see them again, all the Elders who meet and declare their love at the fountain, I feel the beneficent spirits hovering around the fountains and springs." -Johann Wolfgang Goethe,Werther (1774) -
"In the green"
Rouen is trying to preserve green spaces as much as possible and that's good. Nothing is more sad than these cities without greenery, trees or shimmering flowers where birds come to play. Nothing relaxes me more than hearing the chirping of birds, seeing gulls hovering on windy days above me. I like to see them, to hear them less, gulls have cries of moaners, they give the impression of never being happy! ... French gulls after all! ...
On the expertly maintained flowerbeds, the city's gardeners, like painters, play with colors to create pretty compositions.
"If Job had planted flowers on his manure, he would have had the most beautiful flowers in the world! " -Edmond Rostand -
"Here are fruits, flowers, leaves and branches and then here is my heart, which beats only for you. " -Paul Verlaine -
"I need to talk to you about the daffodils, Maggie. They are fragrant, beautiful and scrubby. Each has its own scent and personality." -Paradise /Simone Elkeles-
"Such blooms today that tomorrow will wither, such withering today that tomorrow will bloom. " -Pierre de Ronsard-
"I met Emilie at the first daffodils. She was so pretty from daffodils to the last lilacs. In the sleepy farm, every time I went to see her, His father with a gun was waiting for me behind the trough. He chased me to the last daffodils, Shot me with daffodils with the last lilacs. » -Hugues Auffray-
"The violet is in the meadow. In the clearing, the daffodil; Under the tree in family hope You can hear the robin singing From April to May." -Pierre Menanteau -
The florists' shops never have iron curtains. No one is trying to steal flowers." -The Scum of the Days, 1947/ Boris Vian-
"Are you narcissus or daffodil? Are you a boy, are you a girl? I'm him and I'm her, I'm narcissus and daffodil, I'm a flower and I'm a beautiful girl. » -Robert Desnos-
"They had nothing more than the birds in the air, than the flowers of the fields, and yet they were at the height of joy." -Uncle Tom's box / Harriet Beecher Stowe-
" Twitters"
I like nothing as much as sitting on a bench, simply enjoying the scenery and above all, listening to the birds singing, the cooing of pigeons who approach me cooing, hoping for something to nibble on. I have nothing ?! ... they move away quietly, suddenly indifferent to my presence.
I take this time that I did not have before, because life is like this. I was afraid of wasting my time if I sat down to simply look at what surrounded me ... what a mistake! ... I may not be saving time, but one thing is certain: I am taking advantage of my time.
"My first love was a pigeon, a pigeon from Paris, dirty and grey, tenacious and pugnacious." -Katherine Pancol/I was there before (1999) -
"We are birds of passage, tomorrow we will be far away." -Gypsy proverb -
"Unfortunate"
That's the thing in Normandy: if it's so green, it's thanks (or "because" depending on the mood) to the Norman drizzle that made its reputation. An umbrella is therefore necessary but nothing more annoying when the gusts of wind are added to the rain ... no umbrella can resist this treatment and the person under the umbrella ends up fatally wet when the umbrella keeps turning over, when it doesn't fly away. Proof opposite of the end of life of a Norman umbrella.Rest in peace.
In the meantime, long live the hoods!
" Normandy Region "
The Jeanne d'Arc barracks is located on Boulevard Gambetta. From 1911, it housed several artillery regiments, and more recently the Haute-Normandie region hotel between 1984 and 2015. Since then, some services of the Normandy region have been managed there, with headquarters in Caen.
In 1772, the intendant of the generality of Rouen, Louis Thiroux de Crosne , decided to establish a new barracks in Rouen. The choice is made on Pré aux Loups, a free space, outside the city walls. Construction work started in 1776 under the direction of the engineer of King Louis-Alexandre de Cessart.
The building retained military functions throughout the 19th century and until the middle of the 20th century.
The city of Rouen bought the building in 1968 which became an administrative building. In 1984, the Haute-Normandie regional council installed its assembly and services there. The building is then completely rehabilitated.
The Barracks is experiencing an upheaval due to the territorial reform of 2015 bringing together Upper and Lower Normandy, the headquarters of the new regional council has been planned in Caen, Rouen hosting the regional prefecture. The first plenary assembly of the Normandy regional council was held in the Jeanne-d'Arc barracks in January 2016. During this session, Hervé Morin, elected president, confirms that Caen will be the seat of the regional council. However, the barracks retains certain directions and therefore constitutes a branch of the Normandy Regional Council.
The sculptor Marin-Nicolas Jadoulle presented the coat of arms of France, the name of the king and the date of construction surrounded by garlands of flowers on the triangular pediment in the center of the building.
I'm not going to play it pretending to have spontaneously translated the figures for the year in Latin, my Latin lessons are far behind. I knew how to translate till the last line and in this same line, I knew how to recognize the figure "twenty-six", I only guessed what preceded referring to the year when the works started, namely 1776. I got confirmation by searching the internet of course .... would I have a bad memory? ....
"Gambetta Boulevard"
The Jeanne D'Arc barracks, which construction began in 1776.
View of the Jeanne d'Arc barracks from the Esplanade of the "Champs de Mars".
"At the barracks, we don't do anything, but we do it early and together." -Jacques Deval -
"At the barracks, everyone is mine. I have "my" adjudicator, "my" lieutenant, "my" captain, "my" colonel. But at the end of the day, I'm the one who's possessed." - Jacques Grello -
"Caserne. A place where soldiers take advantage of these kinds of things that they are asked to repress otherwise." -Ambrose Bierce / The Devil's Dictionary -
"Stand up! the regiments are there in the barracks, - Backpack, morons of wine and fury, - Waiting for a bandit to make an emperor." -Victor Hugo/The Punishments (1853)-
"The Diane sang in the courtyards of the barracks, and the morning wind blew on the lanterns." -Charles Baudelaire/The Flowers of Evil (1857) -
"Anger is necessary; one triumphs over nothing without it, if it does not fill the soul, if it does not warm the heart; she must serve us, not as a leader, but as a soldier." -Aristotle-
"The soldier fights and it is the officer who wears the stripes." -Martiniquais proverb-
"Through the gates"
When the old is adorned with modern... It gives a beautiful lady.
Behind the gates and through the skylight, the Jeanne d'Arc barracks.
A little ivy house.
"I like people who have habits, insignificant gestures that say a lot about them. It opens skylights, a little, in their roof." -Marie-Sabine Roger-Vivement l'avenir (2010)-
Under the flag...
"Like poetry, sculpture or painting, life has its precious masterpieces." - Oscar Wilde / The Portrait of Dorian Gray -
"I dreamed the other night that I was going back to Manderley. I was standing near the gate in front of the big driveway, but the entrance was forbidden to me, the gate closed by a chain and a padlock." -Daphne du Maurier/Rebecca (1938)-
"The language of sculpture is a pretentious nothingness if it is not composed of words of love and poetry." - Ossip Zadkine -
"I have dreamt of a book that would be opened as one pushes the gate of an abandoned garden." -The Joy Man (2012)/ Christian Bobin-
"Robert Schuman Street"
Entrance for visitors is at the 5th of this street. A totally different, contemporary facade. Confusing even when you arrive from Gambetta boulevard.
"His animals, less numerous after the sale of part of the herd, had enough grass to grow quietly, unless a summer too hot grilled him. The risk in Normandy was minimal." -History of rosa who held the world in his hand/ Bernard Ollivier-
"Normandy, for me, is first and foremost a sky. I know a lot of people dream that they are flying. There, I only have to look up a little long to go back in time and feel it stretch in me like a peace, and tell me that deep down, what matters is this immense thing that comes beyond us and envelops us." -The Family Spirit, Volume II: The Future of Bernadette/ Janine Boissard-
"Shoe awaits Cinderella"
