I really consider myself to be lucky to live in such a magical place, as well valued, maintained.
As soon as I leave my house, I know that I will pass by places full of history & stories.
We can go from a medieval period to the Renaissance in 1 click while walking.
Each period of history has left its mark on Rouen.
We can only wander there, imagine & often dream.
I find it equally admirable that they have reconstructed identically the buildings destroyed by the wars so that the works of yesteryear are never forgotten.
I regularly go through "la Halle aux Toiles" (The Cloth Hall)in the Lower & Upper Old Tower district when I leave home. According to my mood, in fact.
How lucky I am to live in the middle of History!
I cannot thank enough the people who knew how to preserve it, maintain it and rebuild it.
So, in order not to forget History.
The Cloth Hall is the only building that survives from the old "Halles"( Covered market) of Rouen. Classified as a historic monument in 1941 .
The building was almost completely destroyed in 1944 by Allied bombing during the " Red Week " and reconstructed identically after the war.
Its north wall and the Pride Saint-Romain were the only buildings still standing between the cathedral and the Seine .
Nowadays, the municipality rents the hall of the "Halle aux Toiles" to associations & companies wishing to offer an elegant setting for their activities.
A hall on the ground floor, a reception hall and several rooms and offices are available with capacities ranging from 12 to 1000 people.
Against its western facade, which gives "Place du Gaillardbois", is a monument in memory of the victims of the bombings of 1940 and 1944 (door of the old customs hotel in Rouen).
Yesterday
Nowadays
Square of the Upper Old Tower
"Every dawn is for someone the death penalty To live doomed that sleep deceived And reality traces with his compass This sad stroke of chalk in the East of the Halles Dark tales do not exceed him." -Louis Aragon/The Peasant of Paris sings-
"A rich loft in a renovated warehouse, on the side of the Halles, a room as large as an airplane hangar and as tall as a cathedral, old pink plastered walls, white-lapped furniture, frosted glass roof and metal structure with large round rivets." -Daniel Pennac/The Rifle Fairy (1987)-
"I'm going to the Halles, I'll unpack you with my vegetables." -Emile Zola/Le Ventre de Paris (1873)-
The Chapel of St Roman Pride
"He looked up one last time, he looked at the Halles ... The enormous cast iron frame drowned, blue, and was nothing more than a dark profile on the fire flames of the rising." -Emile Zola/Le Ventre de Paris (1873)-
"A tiny donkey who was ,with no doubt bored, and who began to brat when he saw them, with a snoring so strong and prolonged, that the vast roofs of the Halles trembled." -Emile Zola/Le Ventre de Paris (1873)-
"This bazaar is a bad market like these halls that we see in our small provincial towns." -François-René de Chateaubriand/Route from Paris to Jerusalem (1811)-
"... the search for new phrases and little-known words comes from a childish and pedantic ambition. Can I only use those who serve at the Halles in Paris!" -Michel de Montaigne/Essays, I, 26-
Place of the Gaillardbois
The name comes from the old Gaillardbois hotel, also called Lisieux hotel. The bishops of Lisieux , deans of Saint-Cande-le-Vieux, stayed there during their visit to Rouen. The square was created on the site of the cemetery and the old Saint-Cande-le-Vieux church .
After the Reconstruction , the square is moved east of rue du Bac .
The statue of Boieldieu -work of Jean-Pierre Dantan-called the Younger of 1836 and melted by E. Quesnel in 1837
"Man is naturally vain, so he needs tributes, respects and praise. " -Jean-Baptiste-René Robinet/The Universal Dictionary of Moral Sciences (1778)-
"The first tribute that the higher man receives is the hatred of the fools." -Gabriel Senac of Meilhan / From the Spirit of Conversation (1795)-
"The most beautiful tribute you can pay to your god is to live without him." -Grégoire Lacroix/The euphorisms-
in remembrance of the victims of the bombings
"The jealousy of birth is a tribute to it." -La Rochefoucauld-Doudeauville /The Book of Thoughts (1861)-
From the Place of Gaillarbois, we have a view of the Rouen cathedral, which we reach by the Bac s street.
