Rouen

So eventually I ended up in Rouen for the last five weeks of my Year Abroad. I did three different placements during that time - two weeks of work experience at a vet, one week of work experience in a cat café, and two weeks at a language school. It was fun to do three very different things in a short space of time. I particularly liked working at the vets, as I learnt a lot there. I got to see various surgeries carried out, which was really interesting. Working in the café wasn't quite as exciting, but it was lovely to be surrounded by adorable cats all day!

The centre of Rouen is very historic and picturesque. However, the city's not really that different from towns in England, so it felt much less exotic in comparison to other places I've seen on the Year Abroad. But overall, I enjoyed my time there.

Here are some of my favourite parts of the city:

Le Gros-Horloge

Jardin des Plantes

Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Rouen (Every night during the summer, two short films are projected onto the wall of the cathedral, which is when I took these pictures. It's really impressive and definitely worth seeing!)

Square Verdrel

Place du Vieux-Marché (This is where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake.)

Church of Saint-Maclou

Passage de la Petite Horloge

Tour Jeanne-d'Arc (This is where Joan of Arc was imprisoned. It used to be part of a castle, but now just this tower remains.)

Rouen wouldn't have been my first choice of city to spend the majority of the French part of my Year Abroad in. But although I preferred Montpellier and the south of France, I still liked being here. It's a city with a lot of history and culture.

I also visited a few other towns and cities in Normandy, and there will be short posts about them coming very soon!