NNRFA visit to Rouen, 8–12 May 2025

The Committees of NNRFA and of RNC did us absolutely proud. We had a fantastic few days in Rouen, and the arrangements all worked really well. Many, many thanks to the whole committee: Bert, Lorna, Merlin, Verena, Beryl, Tricia, Margaret, Mary, and Drummond, and in Rouen to Nathalie, Jacqueline and all the wonderful hosts who welcomed us in their homes. Mille fois merci!  

Bert Bremner's presentation at the Hotel de Ville

Bert Bremner, Chair of NNRFA, thanked Councillor Thibaut Drouet for welcoming the group to Rouen and for inviting us to the reception. He highlighted the help given by the city to the 40 young footballers who visited Norwich for an international tournament in August 2024. This year, 2025, 60 youngsters will be enabled to come with their coaches!

Gifts from Norwich

Bert gave to our Rouen hosts some chocolates made by Booja Booja, who produce vegan and gluten-free chocolate in Little Melton, near Norwich. Booja Booja, Bert said, "have asked us to bring these chocolates to you and the City of Rouen. How are you going to share them with all the citizens of Rouen?"

A second gift was a 2023 wine from Winbirri Winery in Surlingham, Norfolk, whose 2015 Bacchus won international acclaim.  

The third and most spectacular gift was an album of 10 panoramic photographs of Rouen, taken during the first two years of WWI. The album had been bought by a medical worker at the British Army hospital in Rouen. In 1997 his son, the last of the family, living in North Wales, wanted to give his father’s photo album to Rouen and sent the album to the Norwich Rouen twinning group asking that it be given back to the people of Rouen. This year Bert was given some Norwich Rouen group memorabilia found in an attic in Norwich, and it included the photo album! The letters instructed that the album should be taken to Rouen, and here it is, finally here in Rouen, 111 years after the photos were taken and 28 years after they were sent to Norwich! The ten colourised photos have been digitised, so as well as the original album, Bert presented Councillor Drouet with a data pen containing the photos in digital form. They are amazingly beautiful and show the Seine in Rouen before the massive destruction in the second world war.

Building and consolidating links

Professor Trevor Davies, a climate change expert at UEA, could not be in Rouen because of a family emergency. However, Bert presented Norwich artist Gennadiy Ivanov, who has been working with Professor Davies. Gennadiy was hoping to foster links with artists and academics to create works in Rouen and Normandy, on the theme of climate change and in relation to the 2027 Year of the Normans. 

Bert also presented three musicians, Robert and Juliet Rickard, and Leila Hooton. They are trustees of the international youth orchestra Triorca, which links young musicians from Norwich with its other two twin cities, Koblenz and Novi Sad. Triorca is wanting to deepen links with young musicians in Rouen also – a perfect way to link the themes of Youth and Europe!    

Thank you!

Bert concluded, "Thank you again, and may the amazing link between Norwich and Rouen, which celebrates 70 years in four years’ time, continue and keep expanding!"

The photo carousel below presents images from our visit to the Hotel de Ville.

Day 1: Climbing the cathedral tower (130 steps) to visit the carillon. Rouen's carillon has 64 bells, of which only a few swing like English church bells. Most are static, with a mechanism linked to the keyboard that pulls the clapper onto the bell. Notes are played with the fist, and like an organ, it has pedals that can add to the harmonies.
We saw the practice keyboard that sounds only MP3 files created from the bells, so the player can hear them but they don't sound outside. Suspended above it, in a soundproof box, is the keyboard that plays the actual bells. Our professional musicians were invited to duet with Patrice Latour, the carilloneur.  

Day 1: Around Rouen. Gennadiy got out into the city early (the evening we arrived) and started painting. 

The rest of us took it rather more leisurely, enjoying a bit of flânerie around the city centre – and a nice lunch in the sun – and visiting places not on the official itenerary, including the Musée des Beaux-Arts; Merlin conducted a literary graffiti survey.

Day 1: The final formal item on the day's agenda was a reception at the Alliance française, Rouen. We were received (more wine and tasty nibbles!) in the organisation's elegant building, and the director, Vincent Robin-Gazsity, explained their purpose: to teach French to overseas visitors and newly immigrated residents, and to promote French culture. The evidence for their success was in the group of about 30 students from India trooping up the stairs and into classrooms. Their teacher organises about 15 trips a year, she told us, bringing students from all over India. The director also told us about the very stringent language standards that are now expected of anyone applying for French citizenship – it reminded us of the very testing cultural and historical knowledge now expected of people applying for UK citizenship (would I qualify, one wonders...).  

Day 2: Matt our ever-helpful coach driver took us east to the small town of Lyons-la-Forêt, a pretty collection of (mostly) half-timbered houses arranged around the mound where Henry I of England built a castle in the early 12th century. Henry I died at Lyons-la-Forêt in 1135. A very pretty market place offered welcome refreshment, while Gennadiy got straight to work and painted the scene.   

Day 2: our return trip to Rouen was via a stunning viewpoint, looking down onto the Château Gaillard, built above the Seine by Richard the Lion-Heart. Serge Van den Broucke, a Rouen historian, explained the history of the site. Matt the coach driver deftly got us back down the hill into the town of Les Andelys, where Serge told us the surprising story about the link between this place and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Then there was time for a refreshing drink and/or ice cream at a café under the trees, watching the huge péniches go past, before travelling back to Rouen.    

Day 3: a (very welcome!) slower start for many before gathering at the coach pick-up points to go to the extremely smart Golf du Vaudreuil. We were to have a 'garden party' at the picturesque clubhouse, a very magnificent converted 17th-century barn whose spectacular thatch was being renewed. Around it is a golf course designed in 1961 by Fred Hawtree, and the grounds include stylish holiday lets, thatched like the main clubhouse building.   

Day 3: Our final port of call was Le Carré Saint-Cyr, a stunning arts and crafts centre in the village of Le Vaudreuil housed in a converted 15th-century church. Works by leading craftspeople from across France are displayed for sale. There was a craft workshop being held in the building at the time we were there in the theme of the current exhibition, working with threads and textiles. The curator gave us a description of the origins and purpose of the building. At the rear of the church is a building with studios/workshops. 

And finally... a miscellany of photos from our travels, under the reassuring care of Matt our coach driver.