Last Wednesday (19 Aug for those of you keeping track), I took the train from Bayeux to Rouen for a day.

I was curious to see the cathedral and to explore a little bit about Joan of Arc.

The French call her Jeanne d’Arc, and they say it in about a syllable and a half.  An aside about the French language: if Icelandic includes a surplus of syllables, French has a surplus of letters but a deficit of syllables. Having never really studied French, I really have no idea which letters they will pronounce at any given point, but I could listen to it all day. /aside

It is hard to overstate how important Jeanne is to French history and even perhaps French identity. She was a young girl who cross-dressed and led troops into battle in the 15th century during the 100 Years War after receiving visions from two saints instructing her to act as she did. Sadly she was betrayed and burned at the stake by a French court under English control right outside the Rouen Cathedral. She was canonized in 1920 but has been used many times throughout the intervening centuries as a symbol of the French people.

The city of Rouen recently opened a multimedia museum honoring Jeanne, right behind the Rouen cathedral.

It’s in the archbishop’s palace, where both of Jeanne’s trials took place. For the exhibit, you go through the palace in groups of about 20 people and watch a series of presentations. The premise is reliving Jeanne’s posthumous trial that took place 25 years after her death and examining all of the evidence, which takes you on a detailed history of her life and achievements. I’m not sure how to describe the “presentations:” each room was a little different, but for the most part, documentary-like video was projected somehow in the room, often using the architectural features of the room as part of the display. It was a unique museum experience. Some of the videos included film footage from the various Joan of Arc movies in the last 75 years while others were clearly filmed for the museum opening itself. Everything was in French, but I was given an audio guide that translated into English in real time. After the presentations were complete and Jeanne was exonerated of heresy (too little, too late, imho), I had free time to wander about the palace and explore some of the other exhibits about the impact of Jeanne on French history (read: huge).

Also in Rouen and breathtaking is the Rouen Cathedral.

As the capital of Normandy, Rouen played an important religious and political role in Norman history for hundreds of years.

The Rouen Cathedral is also the burial place of such dignitaries as Empress Maud, her son William FitzEmpress (Henry II of England’s brother), Richard the Lionheart’s heart (or a box that was supposed to contain it) and my very favorite: Rollo, the first Duke of Normandy.

Now I’m not sure of the spoiler alert protocol for millenium-old history, but all the same, Vikings spoiler alert. I imagine this season of Vikings will explore this, but Rollo (Ragnar Lothbrok’s brother in the series, though not in real life) became the first Duke of Normandy and from him all Norman kings of England were eventually descended. He didn’t marry a French princess as the show is implying, but he did marry the Count of Rennes’s daughter. Of course, his burial effigy shows a lion at his feet.

And this is a matter of personal preference, but if his burial effigy is any indication, the real Rollo was nowhere near as attractive as Clive Standen. Now you know.

Title quote: Mark Twain about Joan of Arc Source