Fête du Ventre, Rouen

  

On Saturday, I returned to the FÊTE DU VENTRE,

Celebration 🎉 in ROUEN.

The Fête is an annual Fall 🍁 weekend street fair, 

155 Normande producteurs displaying their goods to sniff & taste

This year I bought a demi-kilo of Normande-grown champignons de Paris. Last year I just admired. A lot of scrubbing 🧽 this morning. 

The fresh soupe de cresson was délicieux 🤤 

I bought a bag of dehydrated framboise (10€) I have no idea what to do with them but it seemed like a good idea ☺️

I meant to bring a back-pack/sac à dos for confiture & pommes 🍎 but last minute I forgot 🙄

The products on offer are rustic and tasty with lingering aromas.

Straight from the farm 🐄 France 🇫🇷 is not just foie gras & 🍾 

Everyone was busy tasting and enjoying themselves, big dogs included.

You feel like you stepped into a jolly Pieter Brueghel painting 🖼️ 

There was a funny marching band 

Of drummers 🥁 wandering the streets, mostly women

I went off to find a seafood lunch in the covered marché

My two favorite things ; huitres 🦪 

And razor clams with parsley & garlic 🧄 (26€).

An abundant display produce in the marché

Looked like a Dutch vegetable painting 🖼️ 

Plus home-made jams. 

I went looking for Rouen’s famous cathedral de Notre Dame, passing under the big clock, Le Gros Horloge.

Fête  du Ventre is part of a 4-day city-wide celebration,

ROUEN Ã TABLE, taking place in front of the cathedral.

Claude Monet painted it more than 30 times. 🎨 

With all kinds of fancy dinners, tastings and grand chefs on the menu.

At that point I could not look 👁️ at any more food and went inside for a few moments of peace and quiet 🤫 

Then a 5-minute walk to musée de Beaux Arts for a quick look before my train back to Paris.

I ended up just relaxing in the rotunda with a cup of hot chocolate ☕️ 

Just a few nights before, a grand dinner was held here for ROUEN À Table. Rouen is a charming town with mostly pedestrian streets, well worth a day visit, a mere 2 hours outside of Paris. 

It’s easy to navigate on foot and people are friendly.

Have you visited ROUEN?