Rue du Gros-Horloge is a famous road in Rouen . It takes its name from the iconic Gros-Horloge .
Rue du Gros-Horloge became the first pedestrian street in France in 1971. Paved street in the center of Rouen, on the right bank of the Seine, it leads from Place du Vieux-Marché to Notre-Dame Cathedral and crosses Rue Jeanne-d'Arc , near the Gros-Horloge .
It is one of the busiest routes in Rouen, both for its historic atmosphere and the presence of numerous shops.
The following buildings on rue du Gros-Horloge are protected as historic monuments:
The Gros-Horloge and its fountain, belfry tower
The old town hall
At No. 13, the house with wooden facade is due to the architect A. Lequeux.
At No 72 was born the painter Pierre Hodé.
Buildings (houses and two buildings) are protected, three of which could be prior to the torture of Joan of Arc in 1431.
Rue du Gros-Horloge, among others, was engraved in 1885 by Camille Pissarro .
The Gros-Horloge, its history here
& my pictures...
"I have grafted on you this clock myself, I know perfectly well the limits of its operation. Maybe it would withstand the intensity of pleasure, and again. But she's not strong enough to bear the heartache of love." -The medicine of the heart /Mathias Malzieu-
"I can't think of this clock existing and not having a watchmaker" -Voltaire-
"I have not managed to twist the clocks, I have not succeeded in magic, neither love nor medicine nor anything. Now it's all the time night on you." -Mathias Malzieu-
"The audience is relative to genius a clock that delays." -Complete works by Charles Baudelaire-
"We would have said an old English play. There was a rather imposing clock that marked every second with the arrogant certainty of working for an eternal enterprise: Time." -Memories / David Foenkinos-
"But the worst thing is to wake up in the middle of the day in this cemetery for the living. No one reads, everyone yawns in front of the TV. It's time for flaccid hours, soft Dali's clocks." -Metamorphosis at the edge of the sky / Mathias Malzieu-
"Living the road. Never leave the road. Always further, always in exile. No longer live the idea of time, having no clock, only sunsets on the horizon that keeps receding as we move forward." -Fifteen rounds By Richard Bohringer -
"Terror was a question of what would happen in the coming month (when, exactly?) and which cast a sinister glow over the days that remained to live. He was a man condemned to watch the hour at a clock without needles." -The clock without needles / Carson McCullers-
"The ticking of the clocks, they look like mice that nibble on time." -Posthumous works /Alphonse Allais-
I never get tired of this wonder, I can tell myself that I have already taken it many times in photos, I can not resist the urge.Everything is chiseled, worked, simply beautiful. I love how the light of day plays and seems to change the colors of the Gros-Horloge. Never dull, always majestic.
"I do not live in Rouen. I do not work there, and do not touch in any way the social game of the city. But for me it is the City. I go there stowaway, to stroll through the streets and the squares, from Saint-Maclou to the Vieux Marché, to drink moments that combine the transparent charm of the secular with the present "(in Rouen)
-Philippe Delerm-
Strolling in Gros-Horloge street & its adjacent streets means getting lost between yesterday and today.
Find a very beautiful house, stop a little further to find that it is in fact the most beautiful is not uncommon. It is not indecision, all these houses are beautiful & unique , imperfect & yet perfect.
They all have a history, they are History.
If only the walls could speak ...
58, Gros-Horloge street
In the corner...
78, Gros-Horloge street
"How do you sleep in the middle of a clock that doesn't know which side the time is going on?" -Portrait of the gulf stream: praise of the currents/Erik Orsenna-
177, Gros-Horloge street
146, Gros-Horloge street
136, Gros-Horloge street
"Psychologists often remind me of watchmakers who are skilled at mounting and disassembling a watch and who would forget to look at the time it marks." -So/ Henri de Régnier-
169, Gros-Horloge street
The adjacent streets are not to be outdone with treasures, beautifully preserved houses from the past.
We no longer know where to go.
Do not miss anything, admire everything & for me, the pleasure of knowing that I can come back to get lost as soon as I can
Thouret Street -View on the Palace of Justice-
Massacre Street -from the Big Clock to the Courthouse.-
Viscount street
Viscount street
97, Viscount street
"The factory is More than anything else A relationship to time The passing of time That doesn't pass Avoid looking too much at the clock Nothing changes from previous days." -Joseph Ponthus/At the line: Factory sheets -
"No one is ever completely wrong. Even a stopped clock gives the hour just 2 times a day." -Chinese proverbs-
Small details make great works ...
Thouret street
Jacques-Guillaume Thouret (1746-1794 -1 Thouret street-
68,Gros-Horloge street
70,Gros-Horloge street
70,Gros-Horloge street
At the entrance of the Viscount street
"We would have said an old English play. There was a rather imposing clock that marked every second with the arrogant certainty of working for an eternal enterprise: Time." -David Foenkinos/The Memories -
"She didn't know what grief was yet, she was genuinely stunned that the clock hands would keep ticking." -Anne Birkefeldt Ragde/The Land of Lies (2009)-
"Terror was a question of what would happen in the coming month (when, exactly?) and which cast a sinister glow over the days that remained to live. He was a man condemned to watch the hour at a clock without needles." -Lula Carson Smith, known as Carson McCullers/The Clock Without Needles (1961)-
"Simple things are also the most extraordinary,
and only the wise can see them. "
- Paul Coehlo -
When Rouen wakes up ...
... I am marvelled.
The Gros-Horloge is the center of my world. Even more in the morning when I don't have to share it with a lot of passers-by.
For a bit, if I was unreasonable, I would take myself for the Queen of the Big Clock as Jack took himself for the king of the world on the Titanic. But, there is always this gentleman sitting under the vault of the Gros-Horloge who will wait all day for a few coins and the municipal officers at work to bring me back to reality.
Fortunately, I still have my feet on the ground and I only dream from time to time ...
- Michel Bazin -
The astronomical clock dates back to the 14th century. The Gros Horloge is classified as historical monuments on the list of 1862.
The belfry dates from the 14th and 15th centuries
The link below narrates the history of the Big Clock
Reflections of history ...
L'entrée du musée permet de voir l'atelier de l'horloger, les cloches, les poids, les machines, le dôme. Les différentes salles d'exposition sont en relation avec l'édifice et l'histoire de Rouen. La plate-forme supérieure offre un panorama sur les toits de la cité
"Clocks kill time. Time is dead as long as it's driven by small cogs. When the clock stops, then only time comes back to life." -William Faulkner / Noise and Fury, 1929 -
It will have taken me 7 years to discover the name of the street engraved in the stone!
And it is not for lack of having gone there back and forth, of having observed, taken the time to observe, to photograph. Proof is that I had not taken enough time yet and that I have not finished being surprised ....
Like a mischievous cherub tune...
The underside of the vault, richly carved, shows us in particular Christ in Good Shepherd and was originally polychrome. On the right side of the Gros Horloge, angels are engraved on the stone, one of which has his head positioned upside down, a sign of the discontent of the workers during the construction of the clock.
The Renaissance-style pavilion was built between 1527 and 1529. We see the lambs that were the emblem of Normandy
The fountain (1743) depicts a mythological scene depicting the loves of the Alpheus River and the nymph Arethusa, symbolized by the figure of a Cupid flying over them. It was built on the site of another 15th century gothic and pyramid-shaped fountain. Alpheus symbolizes both the Seine, the "the" river, and Arethusa, the fountain.
"Never let time to time. He's taking advantage of it." - Jean Amadou -
This plaque commemorating Sieur Robert Cavelier de la Salle is located on Rue du Bec, a cross street between Notre-Dame de Rouen cathedral and the Gros-Horloge.
By clicking on the image you will get the link which tells his story and how this explorer was murdered by his men in 1687 because of his harshness ... ah, these Normans!
" We French, who are a light people, we are malicious for what is new; we are curious, but we remain incredulous."
-Madame de Girardin / The maxims and thoughts (1855) -
13, Gros-Horloge street
76, Gros-Horloge street
68, Gros-Horloge street
For the gourmets, the Auzou chocolate factory is below this beautiful building!
"But who are you, sir?"
I briefly played the detective having deduced that the street was not called "Thouret" by chance, was it Mr. Jacques-Guillaume Thouret ?! I would never have asked myself the question without this bust high perched on this street which leads from the rue du Gros-Horloge to the Palais de Justice.
After being guillotined, we will have at least kept your head! (bad morning spirit, I grant you).
Between the Big Clock and the Palace of Justice, treasures ...
"Who finds a friend, finds a treasure." -Latin Proverb- Palace Space
"When we have great treasures before our eyes, we never notice them. And do you know why? Because men don't believe in treasures." -Paulo Coelho / The Alchemist-
"The company of the honest people is a treasure." -Eastern proverb-
"You have better than a treasure when you know how to do without it." -François Andrieux / The Treasury-
"Each one's experience is everyone's treasure." -Gerard of Nerval-
Irreparably, all my walks take me back to the rue du Gros Horloge. The half-timbered houses in harmonious colors make me dream, travel back in time.
This type of housing is characterized by two main elements:
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A wooden frame, made up of timber framing. The timber sides are made up of high and low sand pits, poles, landfills and whirlpools.
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The masonry, which forms the walls and which has a filling and stiffening role. It is made of bricks (most often raw), rubble stone or light materials such as mud or plaster.
This technique , known from Roman antiquity, was used in France from the High Middle Ages until the 19th century. However, from the 17th century and throughout the 19th century, the facades of half-timbered houses were plastered to give them a more luxurious and modern appearance. There are still many half-timbered houses in France, mainly in Alsace (mainly called half-timbered houses), Ardennes, Lorraine, Normandy and Brittany, but also in Dordogne and in the Gers, in the Lot, the Meuse or in the Bresse. , and in Angers, Tours, Troyes, Bourges, Albi, Limoges, Dijon, Auxerre or Casteljaloux. We also find them all over Europe, for which particular attention is paid to conserving what is considered an architectural heritage.