I was excited to visit Rouen as it was the birthplace of one of France’s most famous authors, Gustave Flaubert, and to see for myself some of the places which inspired his writing. Flaubert was, and still is, one of France's most important novelists. With his first novel Madame Bovary, Flaubert started the trend of Realism in novels which led eventually to the Modernist style and writers like Virginia Woolf and Henry James.
The first time I read Madame Bovary, Flaubert’s style was a surprise, but it’s clear how he inspired a new type of writing, and enabled Charles Dickens, Thackeray, George Eliot and many others to flourish in English Literature. A trip to Rouen, to see for myself where it all began, was quite a treat! 
However, the biggest surprise for me was Rouen’s connection with one of my favourite authors: Rumer Godden. I’d picked Godden’s The Greengage Summer to read whilst in France, not realising that the novel begins in Rouen.
In the introduction to the novel, Rumer Godden writes how the family arrived in Rouen as their mother wanted the children to see where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake! She's hoping the sacrifice will teach her children to be more thoughtful and considerate!
The Greengage Summer has such a wonderfully French atmosphere, with strawberry tarts, warm dust, damp linen and "always a little of drains".
Rouen was gorgeous, we'll definitely come back and explore some more. We had a tasty Croque Monsieur in a small café, close to the Cathedral, and practised our French, ensuring the sandwich was "sans jambon et lardon!" This was the first of many, many times we had to ask for a meal in this way! The French are obsessed with both ham and bacon, it seems.