030908 - France, Lille to Rouen

030809 – Lille to Rouen, France

I woke earlier than I expected and snuck past Justine's room to make use of the toilet and bathroom. Justine was still asleep and the kitchen showed signs of Adelaide's early departure, the living room was in a suitable state of suitable disarray.

After packing my bags and confirming that my iPhone had upgraded properly and transferred enough music, Justine's room made the normal groans of resurrection. Peaking through the door, I saw one eye open enough to provoke several seconds of jumping on the bed. Paniced squeals brought Justine into the world of the living, and so the day had begun.

We wandered down the impossibly dense flight of stairs, my pack and gear feeling lighter for the 4kg I'd sent home. A short trip to the Metro via a route I was unfamiliar with, we arrived shortly at the train station. At my request, we found a nearby bakery that would also serve coffee. The black coffee and pastries performed their duties admirably, though I wish I could have dome more to say thankyou to Justine than simply buying her a cheap breakfast and a cheaper souveneir from Jordan.
We tried to find some more Quoisse at the surrounding bakeries, but had to settle on a packet of small, flat, unflavoured ones that are meant to be consumed with coffee. Accepting defeat but still scoring some crossaunts for the train, I got some silly photos at the front of the train station and we killed time walking past the nearby shopping district.

As the time for my morning departure drew closer, we made our way to the platform. Goodbye hugs and cheek-kisses later, accomanied by more invitations to visit Australia (countered with invitations to come back her and to bring Jenny), Justine made her way back up the platform, towards home and then work. I boared my train and swapped seats until finding a good vantage point from which to watch the countryside. Departing at 1044 and arriving at 1315, I wrote my journal and watched more of the beautiful scenery from two days before.



Rouen

Having had a lot of difficulty pronouncing this name, the girls had gotten a lot of amusement from my attempts and then eventual success at making the required sounds. I finally found the trick by making the head movement and sounds of a car driving past, a lot of laughter and telling me that I was finally saying it perfectly made me wonder if they only said it in order to maintain continual ammusement.
Rouen is an ancient city with a magnificent Cathedral, world-changing history and no storage for luggage, despite what Isabelle had been told. I struggled with station staff that spoke no english before giving up and sitting down at a restaurant for some coffee. The Quoisse biscuits had kept me company on the train, but I'd left my other pastries under the seat.

Wandering down into the city, I did my best to avoid the men sitting in door ways asking for cigarettes and fumbled my way to the Tourism Office. A little conversation with the excellent staff there yielded a map and some suggestions for today. 10 minutes later, I was eating a delicious tomatoe and cheese baguette in the square in front of the great cathedral and making some plans.

I sourced a ticket for the little tourist train that drove through the streets and doubled back to the tourism office for an “Audio Tour” device in exchange for 5 euro and my student-card as deposit. On the little train, we drove through the streets as I dialed in the locations to hear the history.
We saw some ancient buildings with what was described as “important architecture”. I saw the tower and square that witnessed the fate of Joan of Arc, wishing that I had more time to wander past the little monument and through the flower markets. After an hour of carriage, we dissembarked and I went hunting for water and a seat.