I followed a family survey in Rugles

The Normandy Sud Eure Tourist Office has published a game booklet to discover the Ruglois heritage with children. My 8-year-old daughter Léa and I set off to follow Albert the mallard through the alleys of the small Norman town.

If we have been here before for its biological swimming pool, we know almost nothing about the history or heritage of the city. Of course, the roundabout at the entrance to the city with its giant nails tells us that the city has an industrial heritage linked to the manufacture of pins and nails from the Middle Ages until the XNUMXth century. But what exactly is this heritage?

The objective of the game is to find letters throughout our discoveries in order to reconstruct the name of a famous companion of Joan of Arc who once lived in Rugles. “Joan of Arc, I know! »Lea told me. She heard about this character in school at the same time as the great eras of history.

As the game asks us, we begin our investigation in front of the Saint-Germain church. It starts well, my daughter loves churches! The decorations are often rich and neat on the facades of these buildings. Statues and illustrations form a real life-size comic strip. It is precisely a question of looking for a sculpture.

Once the riddle has been solved, direction signs take us from one monument to another. We move away from the noisy shopping street to enter into small, narrow and peaceful streets.

My daughter has some difficulty with the notion of right and left. This is the opportunity to improve your sense of direction! And then, if we have any doubts on our way, we can use the city map on the back of the booklet for help. Again, it is a great exercise for children who are not yet familiar with cartographic tools.

Each time we pass in front of a remarkable building, a few lines explain its origin or its use with a vocabulary adapted to the youngest. Very curious by nature, Léa does not miss a beat!

Here we are in front the furnace, along the river. The silence that reigns here allows us to perceive the lapping of the water and the cackling of the palmipeds.

I learn that there are three stages in iron making and that each one takes place in a different building located on either side of town! To transport the material, nothing could be simpler: it travels by boat on the city's canals! It's magic to imagine its big ingots weighing 500 kilos traveling through the city like gondolas in Venice…

The puzzles are diverse and varied. Sometimes we are looking for a sign or an inscription, sometimes the answer is in the historical commentary, it can also be a coded word or a calculation to be made in the alphabet. Léa is comfortable with some games and less with others. Her mistress would be happy to know that she uses all her knowledge acquired since the first grade!

For my part, I remain in the background. Léa is quite capable of being independent on this investigation. I am content to ensure her safety when we are in a street a little more busy or when Lea gets carried away in the adventure to the point of forgetting the passers-by who surround her!

Casually, we are doing well. She who usually moans from the first few meters of the walk, I see her going straight ahead with an unusual motivation! With her, I discover natural spaces that I never imagined so close to the city center : Les Petits Prés, a preserved natural area that we cross by a long pedestrian bridge; the avenue of lime trees, where once stood a large medieval fortress; François Mitterrand park where we walk along the banks of the Risle like a towpath.

Léa plays the curious in front of an old wash house or a paddle wheel. She raves in front of the facade of the old cleavage or that of the oldest house in the city, made of bricks and wood. This fun city walk is a real moment of sharing and discovery.

The adventure ends. We will sit by the water's edge to quietly recap the letters we have found and put them together in the correct order in order to discover the identity of the mystery character.

This game made me want tolearn more about the unusual history of this small Norman industrial city. This will be possible through the Rugles historical circuit brochure or during a guided tour organized by the Normandy Sud Eure Tourist Office.

To learn more about Rugles, and download the brochures discussed in this article here.