Rouen

Thus begins the visiting of towns whose names I cannot pronounce.

We arrived in Rouen on Wednesday to find that our hotel was situated literally a stones throw away from the giant city cathedral. While this made for an amazing view, we found out early the next morning that this also meant a direct line from the church bells to our room. Luckily I didn't have much trouble sleeping through them!

Anyways, after our arrival we went out exploring the tourist heavy town where we (very quickly I might add) came across a highly recommended chocolatier/pâtisserie. There we had a chocolate caramel tarte which may rank as the best tarte I have ever had. It had a perfect buttery crust, melt in your mouth caramel, crispy wafers, and dark chocolate ganache. Note to all: I do plan on recreating this so if you want to try it mention it to me and chances are I'll make you one :)

Based on all of our wandering we found that the town of Rouen really wasn't all that interesting so I'm just going to go ahead and skip to dinner. Dinner was at Pascaline, a well established bistro which opened way back in 1880. The prix-fixe meal started with a salad bar which, as you will (eventually) see from the pictures, is a bit heavier than your typical American buffet. Following this was a dish of merguez frites. Or a spicy lamb sausage with fries and a green peppercorn sauce. The highlight of the meal was probably figuring out what the dessert ile flottante (floating island) was. This dessert had peaked my interest ever since Allie had pointed it out to me in Strasbourg. The concept of the dish is the island (a fluffy meringue) floating in a sea of creme anglaise and burnt caramel sauce. Despite my usual apathy towards meringues, this was surprisingly good!

On day two, we ventured out of Rouen to Giverney. Giverney was where Monet lived and did much of his painting. This ended up being one of my favorite places thus far as we got to see the gardens that some of the best recognized paintings in the world were based on. In addition we spent some time at an impressionist museum. As art museums go, that was one of the more interesting ones I've been to.

Clearly, the day would not have been complete without a food highlight! For lunch we had a chevre, beet, and arugala sandwich. Simple but delicious.