I wanted to get a vacation from my vacation as Rick likes to say, and google maps on my phone said there were multiple trains going to Rouen so on the morning of the 26th, the Tuesday preceding Thanksgiving, I checked out of the hotel in the 8th arr and did things the old-fashioned way:

I got to Gare St Lazare a little early, went to the ticketing counter, saw that it was mobbed and hardly moving, and started searching for a kiosk/machine that had the right logo for TER trains and also was working. The third one I came to was working, and only one party ahead of me, yay. When I got my turn, I saw why it had taken the mother and daughter team so long to get through the steeplechase course of a ticketing process – the transport companies really really want you to divulge a lot of personal info before you can get a ticket, and typing that in on a screen from the early 2000s is an obstacle. Why they need to know my pet dog’s maiden name I can’t imagine, but eventually an actual paper ticket was dispensed. Every box on it had numbers printed – too bad none of the boxes have English labels.

I waved down anyone who looked like staff and asked how I find the voi for this train, holding the ticket up to them, and a repair technician (see broken kiosks above) was kind enough to teach me how to read the big boards, and reassured me that this train would work its way up to the top of the board and be assigned a voi as scheduled. Very kind.

2nd class, no seat assignment. Carriage occupied but not crowded so my carryon took the aisle and I took the window. Student in front of me twisted around to plug in her laptop charger and I aided her. Now I had an ally. Didn’t seem to be many Tuesday morning tourists heading for Normandy but maybe they were in the other cars – this TER had stops for the Giverny pilgrims and a couple other places that are highlighted in the guidebooks. When the ticket taker worked his way down the row most people held up their phone to show a QR code. Hmmm...

Ride took about an hour and a half; some stations had one-minute stops, some two, but I think because Rouen is a former capital it merits several minutes of idling, so no need to be poised by the door ready to jump. First impression of Rouen: as I rode the escalator toward the street/plaza, someone tapped me on the shoulder saying "Monsieur?" and it was a woman holding up some of the little pieces of paper and receipts that had fallen out of the journal I held in my hand. Very kind again.

I climbed the hill to the Hyatt where I had reserved using points – the new Hyatt, mind you – and you can see my hotel review in the Forum. Dropped my bag in the room, and briefly considered eating lunch in their cafe. What am I, a crazy person? Found my way out of the psych lab rat maze of the hotel and went back down the hill toward the TI. (I’m exaggerating. And I stopped during both the climb and the descent to snap photos of notably old or picturesque buildings.)

The air of Rouen was lighter somehow than that of Paris, and there was more of it – the sky seemed to take up more of the frame. Weather was still pretty grisaille but not terrible at all. Timber framing of buildings wasn’t so unusual, just one of several architectural styles jumbled together above the central part of town. Lucky for me the TI is right next to the fine arts museum, my top priority. No English tours during the off-season (or maybe just one a week on Saturdays?) but they have an audioguide in English that you listen to on one of those late-’90s era handwands you hang around your neck or wrist. Great thing about this is that it transforms the entire historic center into an exhibit. The tour is supposed to take 1 or 1.5 hours but this is me. I might never come back. They made me leave an id as collateral.

But first, what is their very close by lunch recommendation? (cont’d)