If you want to ride a bicycle in Rouen, you have to expect to get wet. The normal annual rainfall in the city is about 850 millimeters (nearly 34 inches) and rain falls 135 days per year (according to this newspaper article). It's usually a light rain, what we call une pluie fine or de la bruine (drizzle). One of the first things I was told when I went to work there was that it didn't really rain much in Rouen, but it rained just about all the time — especially in winter. The city's nickname is "the chamber pot of Normandy." A chamber pot in French is un pot de chambre.
For comparison, in my home town on the North Carolina coast the average annual rainfall is 57 inches. Over there, when it rains it pours, but there are fewer rainy days than in Rouen. In Paris, San Francisco, and Saint-Aignan the yearly average is 25 inches a year.
By the way, if you're wondering about the meaning of the word stoppage, which you see on a storefront in the photo above, it's the name for what in English is called "invisible mending" or "reweaving" or even "French weaving". The verb is stopper. This web page describes reweaving as "an old-world skill of intricate hand weaving" to repair a hole, cut, rip, or tear in a piece of fabric. It's almost unknown in the U.S.
TBH, whenever I’ve been in Rouen, I don’t recall having had any rain, not even the imported crachin breton.
ReplyDeleteÀ vélo, à contresens.
Do you know if Le St Amand is also a restaurant?
Very interesting link. Travail minutieux.
DeleteInterestingly enough, stoppage doesn’t come from the English to stop, but from the Dutch stoppen, mending! You learn something new everyday!
DeleteI don't find any trace of the Saint-Amand in Rouen these days. The street of course is still there, but not the café.
DeleteFrom what I've read, crachin has Normandy origins. It's a form of drizzle or bruine, a heavy drizzle (oxymoron, that).
DeleteIt's pretty common to see signs like this one in French towns and cities.
DeleteI remember being inside the Le Secq des Tournelles museum in Rouen one day when it was pouring rain outside and rainwater was flowing through the old church that houses the museum. Was that not in June 1999 when I went there with you? Maybe I went there another time. I also have a memory of going into the Tour Jeanne-d'Arc with Jeanine once, but I can't find photos.
DeleteIIRC, it was in June 1999 that the three of us, Walt, you and I went to the Orangerie with Gabby and Mary. Same year Walt, you and I went to Les Jardins de M. Kahn and Giverny. Did Walt go back to the US before you and I went to Rouen through Beauvais? I don’t remember any rain in Le Secq des Tournelles’.
DeleteOr was it in 2001 we went to Beauvais and you had that gîte in Vouvray?
DeleteI think it must have been 2001 when we went to Beauvais. I'll look at photos.
DeleteYes, it was in 2001.
DeleteIn 1999, I was using my Kodak DC50, and in 2001 too.
DeleteFunny that, chm. My mom had an elderly lady come around once a week to 'sokken stoppen'. Mend holes in socks. 😉 I don't think many young people know or understand that word nowadays let alone mend any socks. 😁
DeleteLOL! elgee. When there is a hole, they throw them away!
DeleteThere is a current 'craze' for Visable Mending darning a patch with a contrasting colour to show off the repair!
ReplyDeleteThe first time I ever heard of invisible mending I was watching a British TV comedy, either the Goods or Jean and Lionel. We use the terms darning in the U.S. too, mostly when talking about socks.
DeleteAs Time Goes By....I loved that show. Lionel and his custard tarts.
DeleteWell, you can count me as one of those who has never heard of stoppage or invisible mending, though I am familiar with the term darning... is that the same thing?
ReplyDeleteI frequently read Threads magazine and recently I read about just the 'craze' that Potty, above, was referring to:
ReplyDeletecreating an artistic embroidery design to cover the repair with art! I can't imagine my nice red wool jacket with an addition of a flower or some abstract design on the upper shoulder where I have a moth hole!!! There were other ideas and usually the "art" is repeated on other parts of the garment to look intentional.
Invisible mending is news to me! Something to look into when I get to Rouen, again! Now, does that mean I need to take my clothes that are damaged with me on my next trip? There isn't any extra room in my small suitcase when I travel. And, yes, Judith, I think darning is the same thing or similar idea!
I have had reweaving done in the states. It really is undetectable unless you point it out, but it is not cheap, so it's a skill reserved for "better" garments. Some dry cleaners offer it.
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