George and Tim explore Rouen.
07 October 2011 | Rouen.
Written by George.
Today we went back into Rouen as we needed to buy a VNF Vignette which is basically a permit to use the canal system. I found the address of the office, and we caught the bus into town. I think it is amazing that you can find out from anywhere in the world the location of a bus stop in a town you hardly know, at the click of a button. Although anyone under about 20 will take this for granted.
The bus system in Rouen is amazing. All journeys cost 1.50euro regardless of distance, and the buses mostly have their own lane in traffic which makes them very efficient, not like London buses! You buy your ticket at the stop, and the sign tells you how long the bus will be. You can tell I don't use buses very much!
Anyway we made our way to the VNF office, only to find that the damn French took their lunch break between 12-2pm, so we couldn't get in! So we walked back towards the cathedral and had an early lunch in a lovely French bar/cafe. Croque Monsieur for Madame, and croque Madame for monsieur! The waitress obviously thought I was a fluent French speaker as I could actually undertand what she was saying to me and I could order in French, but I got a bit stumped when asking for a certain size bottle of water, I obviously missed the lesson at school explaining 'larger' and 'smaller'.
After lunch while waiting for the VNF office to open, I decided to take some photos of the cathedral and was very surprised to find there was no admission charge, no officials in sight, and that I was allowed to take pictures freely. So much nicer than in England, when I once almost got arrested for taking a photo of a gargoyle in Winchester cathedral, but that's a other story!
Back at the VNF office we discovered that a notice on the door in french said that they were closed alternate Fridays ( I swear the notice wasn't there before lunch!) but the two women working there obviously had nothing better to do all day, so they let us in. They said we could apply for the vignette on line but we said we had no means of printing it out so it could be displayed on the yacht, as required. So these very kind ladies let us use their computer in their office, so I not only had to decipher the French on the VNF website, but also conquer the anomalies of the French keyboard, which was bizarrely arranged. Finally we were able to print off the licence, and I think those ladies were very grateful that we livened up their dull afternoon ......