Saturday April 17, 2010 in Dieppe, France

Sat, April 17 2010
about 1 hr by train from Rouen

No longer thwarted by the flea (see David's previous post), we successfully bought our train tickets to Dieppe. However, due to a continuing railway worker strike, we ended up going by bus to Dieppe, then returning to Rouen by train in the afternoon. Was great for me--I got to see more that way!

It was certainly a worthwhile trip! The weather was beautiful, the city charming, and because our Dutch classmate Jose talked with a local woman on the bus, we easily located the Saturday market.

Photo: April 2010 by LGunter: Market day items...clothing stalls in front of the 14th century Church of St. Jacques; "beef heart" tomatoes; medieval building behind a stall selling chickens, ducks, and pigeons; beautiful flowers; basket of tasty dried, pepper coated sausages
The Saturday market in Dieppe is the largest market in Normandy.

You can find fresh produce, meats, cheeses, shoes, clothes, furniture, food vendors, and treats of all kinds. It covers a large area of the medieval town center, and it's packed with people!

I saw local people from Rouen who spent the 20 euros (approximately ~$26 round trip cost) just to come to this market.

Dave bought a pair of cushy faux Crocs for 5 euros. I saw the "Etoile de Mer", had to get one, and loved it at first bite! Not too sweet, it's like a light, creamless, slightly crispy eclair with a meltingly tender middle and crunchy sugar bits on top. Yum..seriously, I would go back JUST for them!
Photo: April 2010 by LGunter: Pile of 5 euro "crocs", and the beautifully delicious "Etoile de Mer"
By 2:00, the vendors have packed up, left, and the city workers are cleaning up the streets. You'll only find trash and the odd apple or carrot left on the streets.

I'll add a separate post on Dieppe's Chateau Musee for more pictures....

Dieppe, the town:

• was founded as a fishing village sometime around 1050.
• is part of the "Alabaster Coast" (la côte d'Albâtre): a stretch of the Normandy coast with spectacular white chalk cliffs that plunge into the sea.
  From Guy de Maupassant Le saut du berger (The Shepherd’s Leap). Originally published in Gil Blas of 9 March 1882, comes this poetic description: "From Dieppe to Le Havre the coast presents an uninterrupted cliff, about a hundred metres high and straight as a wall. Here and there that great line of white rocks drops sharply and a little, narrow valley, with steep slopes, shaved turf and maritime rushes, comes down from the cultivated plateau towards a beach of shingle where it ends with a ravine like the bed of a torrent. Nature has made these valleys; the rains of storms have ended with them in the shape of these ravines, trimming what was left of the cliff, excavating down to the sea, the bed of waters which acts as a passage for mankind. Sometimes, a village is snuggled into these valleys, where the wind of the open sea is devoured."
• today, Dieppe's commercial docks unload half the bananas of the Antilles and 40% of all shellfish destined to slither down French throats.
• is well known for it's tasty mussels and scallops; a regional specialty is marmite Diepoise: fish, mussels and shrimp stewed in cream, cider and onions, lightly flavoured with spices.
• is the closest beach to Paris (albeit a cold, rocky one...the "sand" is composed of roughly egg sized flint and sandstone rocks).
• housed France's most advanced school of cartography in the 16th century.
• was Frances first seaside resort, and popular with the rich and famous in the 19th century.
• was a magnet for artists looking for light, natural landscapes, sea views, and historical buildings; famous names who painted here include Delacroix, Turner, Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Gauguin and Degas.
• was the site of the "Dieppe Raid": a bloody WWII battle in Aug, 1942 where a combined Canadian/Scottish force landed to seize and hold a major port, gather intelligence, and draw out the Luftwaffe; none of their objectives were met, and 60% of the Allied forces were killed, wounded, or captured; 50 US Rangers went into battle for the experience and suffered the first US land deaths in Europe; the Dieppe failure influenced planning for the later Operation Torch and Operation Overlord

Photo: August, 1942 by unknown: Dieppe beach, after the raid an abandonded Dingo Scout Car (British light fast 4WD reconnaissance vehicle) is in the foreground. The white cliffs are in the distance. Photo: April, 2010 by L Gunter: The Dieppe beach and white cliffs pretty much look the same.