47 meters long, 450 tons, three masts and large square white sails: in the middle of the cruise ships, “the French” imposes it. Since this Friday, December 31, the sailboat has been moored Quai d’honneur Jean Ango right bank in Rouen as part of the Armada 2023. The three-masted barque “Le Français” left Saint-Malo on Monday, December 27, to come to Rouen. He will stay there for a month, until February 4, and will welcome visitors for free from next weekend. But before that, many impatient people took advantage of the weekend to come and admire the building built in Denmark in 1948.

“It makes you think of the great outdoors”

“We take our little girl for a walk and so we said to ourselves that we were going to come and see the boat, explains Anne-Elisabeth. It makes you think of the sea, the great outdoors, the Armada etc. Our little girl must also see that a boat is not just an engine. There are masts, we can set sails, it moves with the wind. It’s important to explain all of this to the children. “

“I like to take pictures. It’s nice to see the rig against the light, with the sun in it, it’s very nice. And then to see the sailors putting away the rope, it’s nice to also see their life on board. “, says Patrice for his part.

“I like this kind of boat”

“I like this kind of boat, it’s our history so I admire it. It captivates me. It made me think of our ancestors, of discovering people, of discovering other populations. I find that the boat , it’s an opening. With the water, the sky, the lapping of the Seine, I immediately leave so it’s great “, begins to dream Véronique, who took advantage of a walk to come as a photographer “the French”.

An exhibition to alert on the situation in the poles

“We tell ourselves that it’s still nice to be on a beautiful boat that makes people dream, considered himself lucky Kenan Jaouen, the captain of the sailboat. I have also been on the Hermione a lot and they are dream factories. People like to come and see because they are a bit like dreams from afar. We are a bit of a dream in the middle of the city. “

A dream party to which is also added a message. In the hold of the boat, we do not find any goods but an exhibition on the wintering of Commander Charcot in Antarctica in 1904, which classes in the region will visit. It is a means of alerting to the situation in the poles.

“The purpose of this room is to make the poles known, the fact that our way of life is not necessarily good for them, explains Kenan Jaouen. The poles have talked about it for the melting of the ice but we do not really know them. It’s not just a beautiful boat on a stopover, it is a beautiful boat with an important message to send. ”

Tours of the new will be offered free of charge to the general public weekends from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and from 2 p.m. to 4.30 p.m., until February 4.