"He was Norman by his mother and Breton by a friend of his father."
- The Thoughts of Alphonse Allais (1854-1905) -
From Saint-Maclou church to Saint-Marc square ....
...Martainville street starts at place Barthélemy, with Damiette street at the corner. It ends on Gambetta boulevard & is extended on the other side of the boulevard by the Faubourg-Martainville street.
Called Liberty street during the Revolution, the name of Martainville street comes from a fief of the Middle Ages, which is also at the origin of the name of the Martainville faubourg.
The Saint-Maclou district has several buildings protected as historic monuments, mainly half-timbered houses.
" The Martainville district of Rouen "
In their book Jérôme Decoux & Guillaume Gaillard wrote:
"Founded during the canalization of the rivers Robec and Aubette, the district developed in connection with water, motive energy and raw material. Occupied by millers, drapers, dyers and tanners, the former Faubourg became a working-class industrial district until the 19th century when industry reached the outskirts and the left bank of Rouen, Martainville, abandoned and congested, embodied the court of miracles in Rouen.
Architecture and urban intervention then appear as answers to health, moral and social questions; renovation operations are envisaged under the joint signs of morality, security and hygienism. It is also a question of reconquering and reshaping a district close to the old center, where the beginnings of social housing and recognition of heritage appear. The successive town planning operations - sanitation in the 19th century, embellishment in the inter-war period, post-war reconstruction and urban renewal - made the district an urban laboratory before the letter. "
Open air treasures
An entry into the medieval world
Glass staircase - half-timbered covered with slates on the side of the square -Bartholomew's Square-
"The city is like children, it sleeps with the light on." -Jacques Savoie / The Prince's Reef-
"I'm leaning" says the house
House dated 1664
View of Martainville Street with at N°222, Saint-Maclou Inn
"The setting suns cover the fields, the canals, the whole city, Of hyacinth and gold. " -Charles Baudelaire / The Flowers of Evil
Decorated with sculpted and painted motifs with a niche decorated for a statue of the Virgin, bearing the inscription "Our Lady of Good Relief - 1175 " surmounted by a carved canopy.
-216, Martainville street-
The details of the story ...
Niche decorated for a statue of the Virgin, bearing the inscription "Our Lady of Good Relief - 1175 ", surmounted by a carved canopy.
The two windows framing this niche are topped with sculpted and painted motifs.
Dated of 1664
"228-230, Martainville street"
The art of blacksmithing
Like a well-kept secret...
The name is taken from a chapel where the Cordeliers settled in 1228. The Saint-Marc chapel, near the river Aubette , was burnt down before 1342 and rebuilt in 1435. The Clos Saint-Marc was part of the fief of the lords of Tot, who had the right to hold a market there. In 1794, Clos Saint-Marc was called "Clos des Volontaires".
Designed in 1810, the plans for the square were approved by ordinance of November 12, 1832, on the site of the "grand" and "petit clos Saint-Marc". In a miserable neighborhood, the land was cleared and transformed into a square planted with trees and garnished with fountains, which welcomed the market from 1837. In 1846, small halls were built to house the merchants. The square is connected to the quays by the opening of rue Armand Carrel in 1844.
The halls were destroyed by fire on August 9, 1920.
In 1968 a hall was built there for sports meetings. It was demolished in 1990 due to the restructuring of the square and replaced by a new hall.
The place is renowned for its vast market , in particular that of Sunday which brings together food traders and second-hand dealers . Concerts take place there during the music festival or the Terraces on Thursday when concerts take place in sumer.
"We have far fewer neighbors in a town than in a village." -Jean-Marie Gourio / The Great Café of The Short Counter-
"Man loves man so much that when he flees the city, it is still to look for the crowd, ie to redo the city in the countryside." -Charles Baudelaire / Intimate Newspapers-
"Morals are like money: only small change is changed from city to city. What has value and what matters remains the same." -Jules Renard / Journal (1893/1898)-
"The city is not just a conurbation of people and facilities, it is a state of mind." -Robert Park-
From the square, you can see the Cathedral of Our Lady, the butter tower on the right, the Church of Saint-Maclou.
" In a glimpse "
"Barbie Super Tour"
Getaway in Normandy, here in Saint-Marc's square, for the star of little girls .... and big boys who dream of her measurements ....
I thought I had taken this photo more recently but, it already dates from May 2015.
If Barbie, born in 1956, does not age, time passes for me (... and on me) much faster! ...
To learn more about the doll, Anne Monier wrote an article in "The decorative arts" which is entitled: " Barbie and the story of the toy "
"Alsace-Lorraine Street"
Created from 1879, it was opened in 1883. This street owes its name to the memory of provinces lost at the end of "the war of 1870."
In July 1870, the French Empire declared war on the kingdom of Prussia . Hostilities ended on January 28, 1871 with the signing of an armistice . This conflict ended in French defeat and the annexation by the Reich of Alsace-Lorraine .
The defeat of Sedan and the capitulation of Napoleon III , caused, in September 1870, the fall of the Second Empire, the exile of Napoleon III and marked in France the birth of a republican regime with the Third Republic .
The defeat and the loss of Alsace-Lorraine provoked in France a feeling of frustration which contributed to the failure of pacifism , and later, to the entry of the country in the First World War .
At N ° 20: The statues of Alsace and Lorraine (decapitated) on the facade of the building located at the corner of rue Malpalu.
"Being alone, not knowing anyone in a city, turns this place without exchange into a prison." -Paul Valéry / Mix-
20, Alsace-Lorraine street
"Instead of giving a politician the keys to the city, we'd better change the locks." -Doug Larson-
"You see the high towers rising above the houses only when you leave the city." -Friedrich Nietzsche-
"The poor must not be neglected, they are the way to the heart of the city." -Suzanne Paradis / Summer will be hot-
"The garrison has nice game near the ladies, if the ladies are not like the city, impregnable." -Gerard of Nerval-
"A man who keeps city socks with a Bermuda can't be totally bad." -Guy Bedos-
At N°20, at the corner of Malpalu Street.
"It is in the heart of the city that we write the most beautiful pages about the countryside." -Jules Renard / Journal (1887/1892)-
"Beautiful details"
"Most benefactors look like those clumsy generals who take the city and leave the citadel." -Chamfort / Maximes and thoughts-
"Happiness is having a large family, close-knit, caring and protective... in another city." -George Burns-
"The city is the place where the young man loses his ideals and the girl her virtue." -Serge Daney / Cinés-
Everything is said in songs in France, the great and the little history, the sorrows and the joys, the war, the peace.
Thus in 1871 was born the song " You will not have Alsace and Lorraine ".
Decided in 1810, the works did not start until 20 years later. This led to the destruction of part of the Saint-Amand abbey .
On June 9 , 1940 , German tanks descending the street were hit by French anti-tank guns posted at the foot of the Corneille bridge. They caused a fire in the area south of the cathedral to the quays on the right bank. It was to be maintained by the Germans using aerial bombardment and incendiary plates. The bottom of the République street was partially destroyed, it would be entirely destroyed during subsequent Allied bombings . During the reconstruction, this part of the street was then considerably widened.
"Discovering a city is like discovering a woman, this oasis of life. It takes time." -Philippe Metayer / The Orpaper of Blood Alley-
At the corner of the streets of the Louis VIII Ditches - Richard Lallemant
"A city is a capricious woman, it takes time to be seduced and completely discovered." -Paulo Coelho / Like the river flowing
"A city looks like an animal. It has a nervous system, a head, shoulders and feet. Each city differs from all the others: there are no two similar ones. And a city has emotions on the whole." -John Steinbeck / The Pearl-
"In the city, a funeral is a traffic jam. In the countryside, it's a distraction for the afternoon." -Georges Ade-
"You can very well be sixty years old on your birth certificate, forty in the city and twenty in a bed." -Julien Besançon-
"Damiens Street"
Nothing is trivial when you cross a street in Rouen. There is always a nice surprise waiting for you. It was by wanting to take a shortcut to get to Saint Mark's Square that I discovered the Damiens street, its superb Hotel of Etancourt dating from the XVII th century and,
an incredible wooden house at N ° 83, both protected as historic monuments. With reason.
"Hôtel d'Etancourt"
"A small town is a lovely place where the neighbors are responsible for watching your wife." -Jean Richard-
"When you go back to your hometown, you realize that it wasn't the place you regretted, but your childhood." -Sam Ewing-
"The house is a device to carry with you, and the city is a machine on which one connects." -Peter Cook-
"We need monuments in the cities of Man, otherwise where would the difference between the city and the anthill?" -Victor Hugo / Things views-
"The city crushes the forest to set up its décor without thinking of the sound of the song of all the dead birds" -Francis Blanche / My sea urchin and I
"Opinions are transmitted, hereditarily, like land; it is built there; it ends up making a city, it ends up making history." -Remy de Gourmont-
"An author must be in a book like the police in the city: everywhere and nowhere." -Edmond and Jules de Goncourt / Journal-
"Every sentence must in itself be a well-coordinated monument, all of these monuments forming the city that is the Book." -Charles Baudelaire / The Spirit and Style of Mr. Villemain-
"If you want to be known without knowing, live in a village; if you want to know without being known, live in the city." -Charles Caleb Colton-
"The wooden house"
"To seize a heart that is not used to attacks is to enter an open city without a garrison." -Alexandre Dumas, son / The Lady with Camellias-
"Citizens of the same state, the inhabitants of the same city cannot live alone and separately." -Jean-Jacques Rousseau / From the social contract-
"I am never happier than when I am alone in a foreign city; it's like I've become invisible." - Storm Jameson / Journey from the North-
"As the years pass, every neighborhood, every street of a city, evokes a memory, a meeting, a sorrow, a moment of happiness." -Patrick Modiano / Acceptance speech of his Nobel Prize in Literature-
2019. I'm going back to the places of my photographic misdeeds, I am my own guide according to my wishes, with a desire to discover what I have missed the previous times, to photograph from a different angle places that I like so much , details that I had missed. The subjects may be the same but the lights, my moods are different ... the result can therefore be too ....
"Alsace-Lorraine Street"
"I'm passionate about my building, as long as we don't have neighbors' parties there." -Fabrice Luchini / performance at the Antoine Theatre on January 19, 2014 -
"Buildings along railway tracks look bad because they don't sleep well." -Gilbert Cesbron -
"I think we can still hear in the entrances of buildings the echo of the footsteps of those who used to cross them and who have since disappeared. Something continues to vibrate after their passage, waves that are weaker and weaker, but that we catch if we are attentive." -Patrick Modiano / Street of Dark Shops -
"He never forgot the names of the streets and the numbers of the buildings. It is his way of combating the indifference and anonymity of big cities, and perhaps also against the uncertainties of life." -The horizon / Patrick Modiano-
"Choosing your neighbors is more important than choosing your home." -Chinese proverb-
"Malpalu Street"
Its name comes from "Mauvais Marais"( Bad Marsh) because it was located in the marshy area of "Bas-Robec "(Low-Robec).
From Alsace-Lorraine to the church Saint-Maclou
"I love this country and I love living there because I have my roots, those deep and delicate roots that attach a man to the land where his forefathers were born and died, who attach him to what we think and eat, to customs as well as to food, to local phrases, to the intonations of peasants, to the smells of the soil, villages and the air itself." - The Horla /Guy de Maupassant-
Jean-Jacques Le Veau (1729-1786), draughtsman and engraver, was born on Malpalu street.
"Normandy is neither a province nor an assembly of departments. It's a nation." - Eugene Gigault of La Bedollière-
"They say the Normans don't like to talk much. It's not that they don't like to talk, it's that they don't like to answer. Which is not the same thing." - Fred Vargas-
"Don't be in the royal court, if you want to please it, neither bland adulator nor overly sincere speaker. And sometimes try to answer in Norman." - Jean de La Fontaine- NB: it is well-known that we (Normans) often give this answer to a question: "maybe yes, ...maybe not"
At Riquette's !
The antique dealer was able to open up in Bartholomew's Square
View from Bartholomew Square (Saint-Maclou Church) on to Alsace-Lorraine Street
"Barthélémy square"
Place named after the famous 19th century Rouen architect Jacques-Eugène Barthélémy. He is the author, from 1848, of numerous buildings of neo-Gothic style in the diocese of Rouen.
"He had been told that the Normans never asked direct questions, he believed in that legend, but he had before his eyes a pure demonstration of this pride of silence. To question too much, to reveal yourself, is to stop being a man." - Eternal Woods /Fred Vargas-
"It took courage to leave the country where I came from. This country is proudly Beautiful, Dark, Great and Ideal." - Jules Amédée Barbey of Aurevilly-
"The Norman is so assured of his reasonable strength that he seems to be able to afford all the craziest imaginations without fear, he will regain meaning when necessary; he is of an inexhaustible wealth of intelligence, so he can leave, to his sensitivity, the bridle on the neck.- -Jean de La Varende-
"They played like Normans, English forefathers, the most playful race in the world." - Jules Amédée Barbey of Aurevilly-
It is not from Upper or Lower Normandy, Normandy being High in all and everywhere. - Georges Laisney-
"Repeated words are poisoned." - The proverbs and sayings of Normandy (1985)-orted words are poisoned." - The proverbs and sayings of Normandy (1985)-
View of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Rouen
It's better to be bitten by a rabid dog than to heat in the January sun. " - The proverbs and sayings of Normandy (1985)-
"Eugène Dutuit street"
Eugène Dutuit is a French art historian and collector born on April 7, 1807 in Marseille and died on June 25, 1886 in Rouen.
This street was opened in 1886 resulting in the demolition of the chapel of the Divine Heart located near the Church of Saint-Maclou.
Stendhal "Besides, I come home overwhelmed with fatigue; I just gave myself the pleasure of seeing Rouen again, as if I were getting there for the first time. For reasons I will say, Rouen is the most beautiful city in France for the things of the Middle Ages and Gothic architecture."
André MAUROIS "When I set out to identify the monuments of Rouen still alive, I discovered that Rouen, impoverished, stripped, remained richer than any other regional metropolis." (After the bombings of the Second World War)
Philippe DELERM "I don't live in Rouen. I do not work there, and do not touch by any point the social game of the city. But for me it's the City. I go there as a stowaway, to stroll through the streets and squares, from Saint-Maclou to the Old Market, to drink moments that combine the transparent charm of the secular" (in Rouen)"
"When Father Bourdaloue preached in Rouen, he caused a lot of disorder: the craftsmen left their shops, the doctors their patients, etc. I preached there the following year, and I put everything back in order." " -Sebastien Roch, known as Nicolas de Chamfort/Characters and Anecdotes, Bourdaloue in Rouen -
"Men make houses, but women make homes." -English proverb -
"I don't like new homes: their faces are indifferent." -Sully Prudhomme / The Solitudes -
"I had to take it upon myself not to run down the street, to keep the anonymous and gray footsteps of people without secrets." Carlos Ruiz Zafon /Spanish writer-
"A novel character is anyone on the street, but who goes all the way to the end of himself." -Georges Simenon-
"Martainville street"
The name of Martainville comes from a fief of the Middle Ages, which is also at the origin of the name of the faubourg Martainville.
It was called "The Liberty street" during the French Revolution.
The street contains several buildings protected as historic monuments, mainly half-timbered houses.
"The proverb is the wisdom of the street." -Joseph Lefftz -
"The street is the umbilical cord that connects the individual to society." -Victor Hugo-
"What do we do on the street, more often than not? We're dreaming. It is one of the most meditative places of our time, it is our modern sanctuary, the Street." -Louis-Ferdinand Céline / Semmelweis -
"A gourmet restaurant is a restaurant that gives gastro?" -Children's words / Enfandises.com -
On my coat of arms I prefer a blood stain to a mud stain. -Theophile Gautier/Captain Fracasse (1863) -
"As soon as many fruitful spirit in daydreams, Invented the coat of arms with the arms." -Nicolas Boileau/Satires (1660-1711) -
"The eyes are the mirror of the soul, they are also our window on the horror of this world." -Nicolas Tackian/Somewhere Before Hell -
"I chose painting because it was as much necessary for me as food. It seemed to me to be a window through which I could fly into another world." -Marc Chagall-
"Just because you're on the street doesn't mean you're nothing." -My Punk Side-
"Molière street"
"Against slander there is no bulwark." -Molière / Tartuffe -
"Disdain is a pill that can be swallowed but cannot be chewed." - Molière -
"Often you can't hear what you think you're hearing." - Molière / Dom Garcie of Navare-
" Behind the trees"
From Molière street, I see the buildings of the Martainville street and I understand why the impressionist painters were so inspired by these Norman decorations, these color palettes with which daylight plays. Even the half-bare trees of winter enhance these images. I regret not knowing how to paint but I am lucky to be able to photograph them and immortalize this magic moment.
Alone on the spot, I feel privileged and I know that I will come back even earlier to seize this sublime spectacle again . It's selfish, I'm aware of it, but these are moments that I enjoy savoring alone. Moments that fill me with joy, gratitude. Nothing's easier. It's beautiful and I enjoy it.
"One morning, one of us lacking of black, used blue: Impressionism was born." - Pierre-Auguste Renoir / Comments reported by G. Coquiot -
"Painting is a silent poetry and poetry is a talking painting." -Marie-Philippe Commetti-
"Painting is a lonely ceremony ." -Alain -
"The painting lesson is a lesson in kindness." -Christian Bobin / The eighth day of the week -
"The only material in painting is light." -Gilles Genty -
"It's not about painting life, it's about making painting alive." - Pierre Bonnard -
I was not entirely alone enjoying the spectacle, I was in the company of pigeons and the latter must have wondered who was this intruder who had come to disturb them in this calm early morning.
Certainly nature is beautiful and surprising, I would almost come to think that this pigeon posed for me ....
"Saint Marc's Square"
The name is taken from a chapel where the Cordeliers had settled in 1228, before being transferred in 1255 to the Saint-Clément church.
It's always by market day that I see Saint Mark's Square, the atmosphere is jovial between market gardeners, second-hand dealers, other sellers and customers. It looks like a small village in the heart of the city. It smells spices, roast chicken, unknown and enticing food. Greek dishes rub shoulders with delicious Turkish cooked dishes, fishmongers in front of cheese makers whet appetites. The local producers have the calloused hands of the people of the land and sell their products with good humor which rightly make them proud. People greet each other, smile at each other without knowing each other ... another simple moment of happiness.
This morning there, the place was empty, it seemed huge and a little sad without its animation of weekends ....
"I'm going to the Halles, I'll unpack you with my vegetables." -Emile Zola/Le Ventre de Paris (1873) -
"You never have a bad market for a good commodity (foodstuff). " -French proverb/The little encyclopedia of proverbs (1852)-
"Nothing more expensive than the cheap. " -Turkish proverb; A Thousand and One Turkish Proverbs (1878)-
"Expensive thing is cheap. " -Greek Proverb/The Dictionary of Greek Proverbs and Sayings (1980)-
Beautiful buildings facing St. Marc's Square NB: The "c" in Marc is deaf.
"It's so beautiful how you look back, take a brick off the wall of time and show a light smile through the opening. The smile is the only proof of our passage on earth." -Noireclaire / Christian Bobin-
"And when winter comes to the monotonous snows, I'll close doors and shutters everywhere." -Parisian paintings/Landscape by Charles Baudelaire-
"Close the doors on the woman's mind and it will escape through the window; close the window and it will escape through the keyhole; plug the lock and it will fly away with the smoke through the chimney." -William Shakespeare / As you like -
Small square next to St. Marc's
"Passing the streets Augustins and the Maillots Sarrazin ..."
... wherever I turn my head, I see beautiful buildings, nicely maintained, with a bourgeois character for the majority of them but especially as everywhere in Rouen, I see the church steeples, a landmark for someone who has no sense of direction or who, like me, often has her head in the air ...
The Maillots Sarrazin street :
Formed in 1812 during the destruction of the west side of Sarrasin street and east of the Trois-maillots street.
The street name of Trois-Maillots came from a sign (mallets)
The street name Sarrasin can come from the unconverted or from a defense device that was used on the doors.
"One day, you and I will walk down the alleys at sunset and go and do the trash. - We'll end up bums, you mean? - Why not, dude? Of course we'll end up bums if we like. There's nothing wrong with finishing like this." -On the road: the ride
Bell versus antenna: height competition ...
"In our street, from the moment any of yours has been sentenced to work of general interest for incivility, you are considered to be from a family of "swanky."" -Before you/Jojo Moyes-
"Il suffit que je longe cette rue et je me rends compte que le passé est définitivement révolu sans que je sache très bien dans quel présent je vis." -Accident nocturne / Patrick Modiano-
"He believed that it was loneliness that he was trying to escape from, not to himself. But the street kept going. Like a cat, he did not attach any importance to the places. But nowhere did he find peace." -August light /William Faulkner-
"Happiness didn't take much. To nearly nothing. To pass by one street rather than another." -Prince of orchestra /Metin Arditi-
"He never forgot the names of the streets and the numbers of the buildings. It is his way of combating the indifference and anonymity of big cities, and perhaps also against the uncertainties of life." -The horizon / Patrick Modiano-
"My circus is played in the sky, it is played in the clouds among the chairs, it is played in the window where the light is reflected" -Poems by Marc Chagall-
Abandonment
"Guillaume Lion square"
"Don't go on a desert hike right away, start by crossing the sandbox in your neighborhood square." -Review -"Secousse"/ Denis Langlois
"I write to finally give back to all those who have done it, - to these governed games, to this ghetto of the squares, - an old puppet kid, idiot and derisory, - the stubborn ghost of a dissatisfied clown." -I write... /Michel Baglin-
It was while venturing into a passage in the Maillots Sarrazin street that I entered the Guillaume Lion Square for the first time. In seven years, I have passed hundreds of times in front of the Guillaume Lion gate, from the Paris dock, without ever entering there. I made myself the promise each time to finally push the gate without ever sticking to it. I would have had to not know where I was going to finally enter and discover another nice place that Rouen offers.
The fountain of the Augustins
"Never say Foutnain... You have to say, "Boss, a muscadet ( French aperitive)!" - De Pierre Perret -
"Et in platea"
Fenestrage(In the Middle Ages, ornament in the shape of an arcade or window.) of the ancient Augustinian chapel
"It felt like living alone in the middle of perfectly maintained ruins." -Haruki Murakami/The Ballad of the Impossible (1987) -
"The buildings of the Greeks and Romans were not very solid, that's why they left us nothing but ruins." -Pearls of the BacBrèves of bin copies (2013) -
"Time can wreak great havoc, multiply ruins, annihilate architectural splendours, never will it succeed in destroying in man, whatever his age, the consciousness of the beautiful." -Adrienne Maillet / A Kidnapping -
"Flowers also grow among the ruins." - Marilyn French -
The monumental gate 'Guillaume-Lion', the only survivor of the gates of Rouen
"I built such beautiful castles that the ruins would suffice." -Jules Renard / Journal -
"Architecture is what makes the ruins beautiful." - Auguste Perret -
So far and though so close...
"In via"
The monumental gate "Guillaume Lion" , the only remaining of the gates of Rouen.
"Transmitting an emotion in front of the remnants of a past is art." -Georges Duby / Interview with Antoine de Gaudemar - -
"At some point, a heavy gate closes behind us, it closes and is locked with lightning speed, and we don't have time to go back." -The Tartar Desert (1949) /Dino Buzzati-
"He stood during mass, lying face down in the middle of the gate, arms crossed, and forehead in the dust." Gustave Flaubert/Three Tales (1877), The Legend of Saint Julien the Hospitalier -
"It is obvious that we are changing times. We need to take stock. We have a legacy, left by nature and by our ancestors. Landscapes have been states of mind and can still be so for ourselves and those who will come after us; a history has remained inscribed in the stones of monuments; the past cannot be entirely abolished without inhumanely drying up any future." -The Hunt for Happiness (1988) /Jean Giono-
"The real solution was hidden at the foot of the highest of the monuments he had erected to each of his regrets." -Completely burnt! / Gilles Legardinier-
"The principle of modern times is first to neglect the buildings and then to restore them. Take care of your monuments and you won't need to restore them." -John Ruskin/The Seven Lamps of Architecture (1849) -
"Among the various public monuments that are the pride of a city whose name I will keep quiet, and to which I do not want to give an imaginary name, it is a common one to most cities large or small: it is the deposit of begging." -Oliver Twist (1837-1838)/Charles Dickens-
"I have noticed that in all the places where there are old monuments of history, there are more old people than elsewhere: the centenarians take shelter from the old stones." -The Goncourt brothers/Journal, October 8, 1865 -
"Street of Amiens"
March 2019. It has been a long time since I last passed this street which has beautiful historic buildings. It is however not far from my home but it was not on my way ...
Ah yes, its origin! ... this street was opened around the middle of the 19th century on the site of several unsanitary streets, such as Pigeon street, Neuve street, Battoir street, 3 Cornettes street ....
Before taking its current name, it was called "Battoir street", "Arpenteurs street", "Canettes street", "Trois-Cornets street" and "Nouveau-Monde street"
I find the old names nicer than the current one. What an idea to change it for a city name!
"Etancourt Hotel"
Etancourt hotel 97-99,Amiens street 76000 Rouen
"There are mysteries that can hardly be imagined, and that will only be partially solved." -Dracula / Bram Stoker-
"Sculpture gives soul to marble." -François René de Chateaubriand -
"Silence is as full of wisdom and spirit as uncut marble is rich in sculpture." -Aldous Huxley /
"I saw an angel in the marble and I only chiseled until I freed him from it." -Michelangelo-
"He was dressed in marble and carried the world in his gaze." -Carlos Ruiz Zafon/The Shadow of the Wind (2001)-
"Marble: Every statue is made of Paros marble." -Gustave Flaubert/Dictionary of Preconceived Ideas -
"It was not strange that these great men were as adept at rendering beauty on canvas as they were in marble." -Theophile Gautier/Memories of Theatre, Art and Criticism -
"Humanity assumes, drafts, tries, approaches, She shapes a marble, she cuts a rock, And makes a statue ..." -Victor Hugo/The Legend of the Centuries (1859), the Satyr -
"Pretty wooden house"
It should not be allowed to park in front of this 17th century gem!
A bit of selfishness takes hold of me when I can't photograph a beautiful building because a vehicle prevents me from it.
For anyone interested, by clicking on the photo, it is possible to see it enlarged and to admire the details carved in wood.
I always admire the artists of yesteryear capable of such works with so few means. It is true that they had more time to refine their work. Today's technologies, especially in 3D, have made it possible for humans to go faster, but it is also precisely because of these advances that humans are no longer valued as much.
The Wooden House 83, Amiens street 76000 Rouen
A well-housed antique dealer is located at the bottom of the Wooden House
"An antique dealer who portrays his ruin, like a lover who portrays his mistress, charms himself and risks annoying others. For the indifferent who listen to the lover, all the beautiful are alike, and so are all the ruins." -The Rhine, letters to a friend /Victor Hugo-
"At the time of the ruins"
The ruins become paintings for street artists ...
Behind the ruins, treasures are discovered ...
"Lieutenant Aubert's square"
It was after the construction by the monks of Saint-Ouen in 1385 of a bridge between the butcher's shop and the square that it took the name of square of Robec's bridge as indicated on plans in 1655. There, was celebrated in the Middle Ages the "Fête des Cornards"(The cheated on festival), a celebration to the glory of cuckolds which were adorned with a cap with horns.
Before 1870 it took the name "Eau-de-Robec square", before becoming in 1945 Lieutenant Aubert's square. He was Lieutenant of the fire brigade, head of a resistance network, he was shot by the Germans on August 23, 1944
"The golden star"
The building dates from the 14th century.
If the exterior is typically Norman, the interior universe is oriental. This contrast pleases me and is completely in the era of time.
The Golden Star 21, Lieutenant Aubert's square 76000 Rouen
"Poor bouquet, flowers now faded, We get older without ever leaving each other. Because your appearance, after many years, Speaks to me in the sweet days when I loved." -Pierre Veron/The faded bouquet -
"Souls hatched yesterday, faded today, like those flowers that fell in the street that all the sludge wither while waiting for a wheel to crush them." -Victor Hugo/Les Misérables (1862)-
"Charming"
"Remember that the walls of cities only form from the debris of the houses of the fields." - Jean-Jacques Rousseau-
Are the houses leaning? No, they're cuddling.
There are also those who have the wisdom to stop in an alley like this and watch the snow fall, to see a lamp that has lit up in a window, to smell the scent of burning wood. This wisdom, alone, a tiny minority among us knows how to live it." -The Book of Brief Eternal Loves /Andrei Makine -
Open windows, spread shackles. It's the artist's most beautiful role." -Jacques Higelin/I don't live my life, I dream it -
"Reflection is for colors what echo is for sounds." - Joseph Joubert / Notebooks -
"The slightest joy opens on an infinity." - Christian Bobin / Jay -
View of Damiette Street, antiques street.
View of Saint-Ouen Abbey
"Darling neighborhood"
Monday March 18, 2019. Irresistibly this district attracts me, after taking photos of the Saint-Maclou church, I mentally draw a route that will pass by streets that I already know, that I have photographed a lot but a city moves all the time, the traders change the decor of the windows, disappear to be replaced by new ones too. But especially on Mondays, everything is closed and the city then has a different atmosphere. I therefore go with pleasure to its discovery ...
"Martainville street"
Just for me ... But I share!
"Faith is believing that there will be a bar in the next village, the hope that it will be open, and the charity that you will pay me for a drink." -Alix de Saint-André/Forward, road! (2010)-
There are cathedrals, but there are hostels. Now, do you know what hostels are? They are the ancient caves of civilized thieves, perfected and subscribed to the Constitution." -Victor Hugo/Letter to Adele, July 17, 1836-
"A cannibal is a guy who goes to a restaurant and orders the waiter." Jack Benny
"The faces of those you don't like yet Sometimes appears in the windows of dreams, And goes illuminating on pale decorations In a moon-like moon that rises." -Anna de Noailles/Dreams-
"The charm of travelling is to touch countless rich scenery and to know that everyone could be ours and to pass, as a great lord." -Cesare Pavese/The Trade of Living (1952)-
"When you can't change the world, you have to change the scenery." -Daniel Pennac/The Little Prose Merchant (1989)-
"The painter's eye is a false mirror: it alters what it captures by restoring to appearances the mystery of the world." -René magritte, 1898-1967/Marcel Paquet-
The Norman arms
"Damiette street"
... it leans to the side where it will not fall!
... or Antiquaries street.
"The tree is in front of the living room window. I ask him every morning: What's new today? The answer comes without delay, given by hundreds of leaves: Everything." -Christian Bobin/Pure Presence (1999)-
"We love the mystery so much that this half glimpse, which leaves the imagination with the possibility of guessing more, pleases more than reality." -Pierre-Jules Stahl/Various Thoughts and Reflections (1841)-
"The mystery is, in any idea, the half-day that seduces, the sap that intoxicates. " - Alexandre Vinet/ Religious indifferentism (1833)-
"Mystery: Undis revealed truth." - Philippe Bouvard/The Beautiful Life After 70 Years (2002)-
"Life is a mystery that must be lived, not a problem to be solved. " -Gandhi-
He used to be at the N°9 of this same street.
"The charm that most touches souls is the charm of mystery." -Anatole France/The Garden of Epicure (1895)-
"Hauts Mariages cul-de-sac"
"High Wedding's cul-de-sac" . I found nothing about the origin of the name. I only imagine that it could be a place of marriages of the nobility, of the bourgeois of the time... to be followed.
"Marriage is the main cause of divorce." - Oscar Wilde-
"Any marriage without love is consecrated prostitution." -Charles Lemesle -
"God invented cohabitation. Satan the marriage." -Francis Picabia / Literature (January 1923)-
"Marriage is a transplant: it takes well or badly." -Victor Hugo / Les Misérables-
"The cohabitation, too, was corrupted -- by marriage." -Friedrich Nietzsche / Beyond Good and Evil -
"A month before the wedding, he talks, she listens. A month after the wedding, she talks, he listens. Ten years after the wedding, they talk at the same time and the neighbors listen." - Pierre Véron -
"There are two kinds of marriages: white marriage and multicolored marriage because both spouses see all the colors." -Georges Courteline-
"Before marriage, a woman must make love to a man to hold him back. After the marriage, she has to hold him back to make love to him." -Marilyn Monroe -
"Streets of Father Adam and Little Father Adam"
I don't think it refers to the Adam of the Bible!
"No society is irremediable, no Middle Ages is definitive. As thick as the night is, you always see a light." -Victor Hugo-
"I no longer write an affirmative sentence without being tempted to add : "maybe."" -André Gide-
"Wine is the milk of the old men." - Platon -
"A man who does not like Italy is always more or less a barbarian." - Félicien Marceau -
"Who can ever be alone for a moment in Italy? Every stone has a voice, every speck of dust seems to be the instinct of a spirit of the Past, every step recalls some line, some legend of a tradition long abandoned." -Margaret Fuller / The New York Daily Tribune (1847)-
"In some, style is born from thoughts; in others, thoughts are born from style." -Joseph Joubert -
"Form is the very flesh of thought, as thought is the soul of life." -Gustave Flaubert / Correspondence-
France sees red and the walls are yellow ...
"Anciens Moulins' passage"
The passage of the old mills borrows the Robec stream which supplied the great mills of Rouen in the 12th century. At the bottom there was an iron tube which allowed the wheel to turn in the water. Robec water is no longer visible in the passage.
At the foot of the houses, there were often two small stone walls on each side to avoid being run over by the carts or that helped small people to climb their horses.
Apart from a car and the cooing of a pigeon, this place looked totally abandoned.Like a ghost passage...
"Then, when you no longer love me, you will leave me, I will not complain, I will not say anything; and my abandonment should not cause you any remorse, for on a day near you, a single day in which I will have looked at you, will have earned me a lifetime." -Honored by Balzac/The Golden-Eyed Girl (1835)-
"A family is like a garden, if you don't put your feet in it it starts to grow as much as one likes, it dies of abandonment." -Serge Joncour/Rest on Me (2016)-
"A departure without a word is worse than abandonment, silence is a betrayal." -Marc Lévy/The First Day (2009)-
"The solitude sought is a balm, the loneliness suffered an aggression, an abandonment that nothing furnishes, a solitude without solitude." -Robert Sabatier/The Secret Years of a Man's Life (1984)-
"No one can seize lightning in the sky, and no one can claim the happiness of the other at the moment of abandonment." -Luis Sepulveda/The Old Man Who Read Romance Novels (1992)-
Going back to Damiette street.
"Barthélémy square"
I return to my starting point. Time for a short break in front of the Saint-Maclou church.
"Spring Republic"
This is of "République street" which I am talking about and not of our republic, which has been rather failing for some time now!
Spring blooms and makes us forget for a moment the sadness and violence of our time.
"They decided to build a city as in their dream." -Invisible Cities / Italo Calvino-
"At the last census, the city had ten thousand and five hundred bodies," said the officer with a smile. But there are probably far fewer souls." -The wolves of Fenryder/ Alec Covin-
"It was like a carnal stroke of madness passing over the city. She was a little scared, because the most proper were the dirtiest. All the varnish cracked, the beast showed itself, demanding in its monstrous tastes, refining its perversion." -The rougon-macquart, Volume 9: nana / Émile Zola-
"Each of my photos is filtered by emotion, by the relationship that is created between me and the place to be represented. When I see something that attracts me, I start to turn around it to find my framing. It's a job on me and on the city at the same time." -Milano senza tempo/Augusto De Luca-
"Early afternoon. A light mist falls on the city, the light turns white, it covers everything, it betrays the shapes, the shadows. She's deceiving distances." -Only Venice / Claudie Gallay-
"Coming back to a city of velvet and porcelain, the windows will be vases where the flowers, which have left the earth, will show the light as it is." -Capital of pain followed by love poety (1926)/ Paul Eluard-
"Cities fall so often, the world turns so often, is there room for sorrows" -Zone/ Mathias Enard-
"A quick tour and then come back"
I cannot resist this Saint Maclou district with its magnificent half-timbered houses. According to the hours, the light makes the buildings, the church sometimes dark but more often than not bright. I like to feel like I am in the past ... with the advantages of the present, of course.
I had already spotted a passage between the "Aître Saint Maclou" and the "Playtime" store (at 190,Martainville street) without daring to venture there for fear of disturbing, of entering a private place. However, nothing indicated that it was prohibited, I am self-sufficient to impose imaginary barriers on myself.
That day, I dared and I was not disappointed. I was even amazed by this interior courtyard with nicely renovated houses of yesteryear. As if I found myself in the countryside in the heart of the city. Decidedly Rouen is full of these absolutely magical places that I am delighted to discover at random from my walks.
"Freedom: Summon it for every unreasonable or reprehensible act of his life." -Philippe Bouvard/Bouvard from A to Z (2014)-
"People who are not given their freedom always end up taking it." -Pierre-Jules Stahl/The Journey of a Student (1861)-
"When common action becomes perpetual suffering, everyone is entitled to regain their freedom." -Maxime Du Camp; The Lost Forces (1867)-
"Freedom is such a great good that everyone wants to have his own, and a little of the others'." -François de Reynaud de Montlosier/The Mysteries of Human Life (1829)-
"You must always abuse of your freedom." -Paul Éluard/Letters to Gala (1924-1948)-
"Freedom cannot free us from obedience to laws or from duties to society." -Charles-Albert Demoustier/The Morals Course (1804)-
"Freedom has been wearing a bulletproof vest for some time now which protects it." -Tahar Ben Jelloun/A Country on Nerves (2017)-
"Laughter??? It is, first of all, freedom. Because, really, I don't know many people who laughed in prison." -Henri Salvador/The Joy of Living (2011)-
"France is always the same. Sow freedom, he will push arbitrariness into it." -Emile de Girardin/Thoughts and maxims (1867)-
"Raining cats and dogs"
"Grammarians are to authors what a luthier is to a musician." -Voltaire / Thoughts, remarks and observations-
"Who would think that to build a violin, you first have to draw two pentagons in a circle?" -Stradivarius/Artisan, Artist, Luthier (1644 - 1737)-
"The luthier poses, advances or backwards the Soul of a violin under the easel, in the interior of the two tables of the instrument; a puny piece of wood more or less gives him or takes away a harmonious soul." -Voltaire/Questions on the Encyclopedia by Amateurs (1770), Ame-
"A couple"
"This thing more complicated and confusing than the harmony of spheres: a couple." -Julien Gracq / A beautiful dark-
"The couple is a meeting of two people who rarely make the pair." -Adrien Decourcelle-
"The same age for a couple is a gap that doesn't make up for it." -Jean Poiret-
"What is missing in the couple is a dressing room, as on stage." -Jacques Dutronc-
"Couple dialogue. ELLE: I feel so alone !... HE: Me, not enough." -Jean Dutourd / Dutouriana-
"To form a couple is to be one; but which one?" -English proverb-
"Effervescence"
Damiette Street, or Rue des Antiquaires as I call it, is always in full swing: chic and lively, popular and classy.
On a wall, it is reminded to anyone who could have forgotten it that women are not objects .
"The antiques are always modern-made." -Gustave Flaubert (1821 - 1880)-
"An antique dealer who portrays his ruin, like a lover who portrays his mistress, charms himself and risks annoying others. For the indifferent who listen to the lover, all the beautiful are alike, and so are all the ruins." -The Rhine, letters to a friend/Victor Hugo-
"Happiness dates from the highest antiquity. It's still brand new because it didn't serve much." -Alexandre Vialatte-
"The myth of the golden age invented by the poets of antiquity celebrated the time of innocence, abundance and happiness: paradise lost." -Pierre Tchernia / The Audiovisual Files-
"O my water!"
I gust ahead of Eau de Robec street, not that I don't like it, quite the contrary, I can get lost in contemplation. That day, my walk simply led me elsewhere but I couldn't help paying it a little tribute that smelled of spring.
My photos of Eau de Robec street by clicking here
"Water doesn't forget its way." -Russian proverb-
"Water alone is eternal." -Yun Son-Do-
"Water, drip by drip, dig the rock." -Theocrite-