Yesterday on the way back from Rouen town centre we saw a large blue tower which was panoramaxxl Rouen 1431. We went inside, asked some questions, and still didn't really know what it was but the big tower looked impressive and the kids were enthusiastic, even when we said we'd learn about Joan of Arc in the morning before visiting in the afternoon, so that was the plan. I found a kid friendly powerpoint book on Joan of Arc as well as a funky youtube video made by some History Teachers and that was this mornings activities planned! The kids and I took it in turns to read the story of a young French girl who was spoken to by angels, galvanised French armies into battle, and was burned at the stake. AJ was particularly impressed with the youtube song. I must remember to bring more music into his schooling!After lunch we got the kids scooters out and headed to the big blue cylinder.
26 Euros bought us a family ticket and we spent some time looking at the a small exhibition on the history of Rouen as well as a film of the making of the panorama. I think AJ could just about keep up with the subtitles while I read them out to Esmé... luckily we were the only ones watching the film so we didn't disturb anybody. After this there was a small exhibition about the making of the panorama and we began to realise that this was an enormous computer aided piece of artwork using current pictures of the city and overlaying them with researched images of Rouen in 1431.
When we entered the panorama the scale was breath-taking. There was a 3 story tower in the middle which you could climb to view the panorama at different heights, and the whole thing was lit in changing lights that simulated the transition between day and night, and back to daytime again. In addition there was an amazing soundtrack to add to the atmosphere. The panorama was amazingly detailed and all in all, we spent about an hour and a half in there. Really glad we went!
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