Rouen (France) -- Description and travel; Rouen (France) -- History
Like everything else, it was under holy patronage, and fishwives
prayed at the shrine of St. Julien l'Hospitalier, the saint whose
story Flaubert, another child of Rouen, has so wonderfully told. The
wags of the seventeenth century called these ladies "non angeliques
mais harangeriques"; but on fast-days every burgess and innkeeper and
monk was glad enough to go to them; for was there not even an "Abbaye
aux Harengs" no further off than Mantes, and what better present could
the Archbishop think of sending to his friend the Archdeacon than 2000
salted herrings in a specially holy barrel?
All the sound of the chaffering and howling of prices has gone into
silence long ago in the old Rue Harenguerie of to-day, and you will be
glad to turn into more lively quarters by taking the corner to your
left, eastwards, down the Rue des Charettes. It is lighted up every
now and then by a break in the houses and a glimpse of the river to
your right, though it is more of masts and sails than water you will
see. As you walk along, the name of a street that turns northwards on
your left hand should be familiar if you have followed me thus far;
for it is called Jacques Lelieur, as is only right and proper, to
commemorate the name and fame of one who did a great deal of good in
the Rouen of his own day, and has made it much more interesting to
ours. His house is No. 18 in the Rue Savonnerie, which continues the
Rue des Charettes in the same direction, and you will know it by the
tablet on the wall. It has two fine gables with excellent woodwork
upon the street-facade; though showing slight traces here and there of
restoration, it was well worth keeping in good order as the house of
an artistic burgess of the sixteenth century who lived up to his
position in the town.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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