France · City break

Rouen City Guide

Joan of Arc was tried here in 1431 and died at the stake, and Monet painted the same cathedral front some thirty times. Rouen has France's tallest church, a clock with a single hand and a plague cemetery carved with skulls. One ready-made day route takes you from the station to the places of Joan of Arc's trial.

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Our walking tours of Rouen

Ready-made routes from the station guide you through Rouen, to the right spots from the very first step, with no planning needed.

Old Town, Cathedral & Joan of Arc

From the station to the keep where Joan of Arc was threatened with torture, then into the Musée des Beaux-Arts with Caravaggio and Monet's cathedral. From Saint-Ouen, where Joan of Arc recanted, the half-timbered Rue Damiette leads to the Aître Saint-Maclou plague cemetery and the church with the curved porch. Rue Saint-Romain brings you to the cathedral with France's tallest spire, then to the law courts above the old Jewish quarter. Under the Gros-Horloge you finish on the square where Joan died.

Tour Jeanne-d'Arc. The round tower with the pointed roof is all that remains of the castle King Philip II Augustus began in 1204, right after he had taken Normandy from the English king, John Lackland. It stands 30 m tall with walls 4 m thick. The name Tour Jeanne-d'Arc is misleading, though. Joan of Arc was not held prisoner here but in another tower of the castle, demolished long ago. Its foundations survive in the courtyard of 102 Rue Jeanne-d'Arc, marked by a plaque. She was brought into this keep during her trial to be threatened with torture. According to the record she replied that even if they tore her limbs apart she would say nothing different, and that anything forced out of her she would retract afterwards. The pointed roof is a later addition, by the way, added during a restoration in the 19th century. Inside, the tower is now furnished as it may have looked around 1210.
Museum of Fine Arts. The museum was founded in 1801 by decree of Napoleon's government, and Louis Sauvageot's building went up from 1877 to 1888. It holds more than you would expect in a city this size. Caravaggio's "Flagellation of Christ" hangs here, as does Velázquez's "Democritus", one of the few paintings by him in France. For this route one room matters most. It holds one of Monet's views of the cathedral, the same facade you will stand in front of within the hour. It arrived in 1909 with the gift of the Rouen collector François Depeaux, which made the museum one of the leading places for Impressionism outside Paris. Théodore Géricault, painter of "The Raft of the Medusa", was born in Rouen, and several of his paintings are here. Right next door, the Musée Le Secq des Tournelles shows historic wrought ironwork inside a former church.
Abbatiale Saint-Ouen. Many visitors take this church for the cathedral, it is that big. It was the church of a Benedictine abbey probably founded in the 8th century, one of the most powerful in Normandy. The Gothic building was begun in 1318, the nave not finished until the mid-16th century and the west front only in the 19th century. A tombstone in a side chapel names the master builder, Alexandre de Berneval, who died in 1440. The older of its two figures, probably the man himself, holds a pair of compasses and the design for a rose window. In the cemetery beside this church Joan of Arc was put on a scaffold on 24 May 1431. Threatened with burning on the spot, she signed an abjuration. Four days later she took it back, and that is exactly what made her a relapsed heretic in the court's eyes, someone who could be sent to the stake. Inside stands an organ by Cavaillé-Coll from 1890, for which Charles-Marie Widor wrote his "Gothic Symphony". The town hall next door occupies the monks' former dormitory.
Aître Saint-Maclou. A passage off Rue Martainville leads into a courtyard that looks merely pretty at first. Then you notice the beams. Carved skulls, bones, shovels and coffins run all around the galleries. This was the cemetery of Saint-Maclou parish, laid out after the plague of 1348. When plague returned in the 16th century, space ran out. From 1526 the parish built galleries whose lofts held the bones dug up to make room for new graves. On the columns, couples of figures dance a dance of death, and a mummified cat lies behind glass. Later the site housed a school, and until 2014 the art college. Today two wings hold the Galerie des Arts du feu, with work in ceramics, glass and metal.
Église Saint-Maclou. The church the cemetery belonged to stands 100 m on, on Place Barthélémy. The parish rebuilt it in the 15th century after the old nave had collapsed, and it is considered a showpiece of Flamboyant Gothic, the late Gothic style named after its flame-like tracery. Look at the porch. Its five arches do not stand in a straight line but curve forward. Beneath them are carved Renaissance wooden doors, and the Last Judgement fills the main portal. The 83 m spire was only added in the 19th century. Rue Damiette, which you came down from Saint-Ouen, joins the square at its corner. The half-timbered house on this corner, 4 Place Barthélémy, dates from the 17th century and leans visibly. Many of the houses in Rue Damiette are listed, most of them half-timbered, and its view of Saint-Ouen has drawn many painters, Camille Pissarro among them around 1884. Two bombs hit the church in 1944, and the baroque panelling of the choir never came back.
Cathédrale Notre-Dame. Rue Saint-Romain, lined with timber-framed houses, brings you to the north side. Just before the end of the lane, look out for no. 70, the shop of the master ironworker Ferdinand Marrou, who designed the wrought-iron decoration of its facade himself in 1902. On your left is the archbishop's palace, now the Historial Jeanne d'Arc. It holds the remains of the hall where her sentence was pronounced in 1431, and in 1456 the trial that cleared her name sat here too. The cathedral has three towers in three styles. The southern one is known as the Butter Tower. From 1485 it was paid for with money from worshippers who bought the right to eat butter during Lent. The central one carries a cast-iron spire 151 m high, making this the tallest church in France. It replaced a wooden spire that burned after a lightning strike in 1822, and until Cologne Cathedral was finished in 1880 it briefly made this the tallest building in the world. In the ambulatory stands the tomb in which the heart of Richard the Lionheart was buried. Outside the west front you stand where Monet, at a window opposite, painted some thirty pictures of this facade in 1892 and 1893, each in a different light.
Palais de Justice. Behind the railings on Rue aux Juifs stands a building decorated like a cathedral but built for merchants and judges. From 1499 came first a hall for the city's traders, then the seat of the Exchequer, Normandy's highest court, called the Parlement from 1515. Late Gothic pinnacles and gargoyles on a secular building rarely survive in France. In August 1944, shortly before liberation, bombs almost wiped out the central section. It was rebuilt, but on the younger neo-Gothic wings the bomb scars were deliberately left in place, in memory of those killed in those days. The street name, Street of the Jews, is no accident. This was the medieval Jewish quarter until King Philip IV expelled the Jews from France in 1306. In 1976 a stone house from around 1100 with a Hebrew inscription was found under the courtyard, the Maison Sublime. It was probably a Talmudic school and can only be seen on a guided tour.
Gros-Horloge. The clock above the lane has a single hand, and at its tip sits a lamb, the city's emblem. Nobody needed more than the hour. Above it a ball shows the phase of the moon, and below, a window shows the god of the day of the week on his chariot. The arch carrying the dial was added between 1527 and 1529, but the works are older. They were made in 1389 and are among the oldest in France. They are still in working order, but the clock has been driven electrically since the 1920s. With a ticket you can climb the belfry beside it, past the old mechanism and the city bells, up to a platform. From the top you look across the roofs straight at the cathedral. At the foot of the tower stands a fountain from 1733 showing the river god Alpheus and the nymph Arethusa. Right by the tower, Rue Massacre branches off to the north, a shopping lane that is festively decorated at the end of the year.
Place du Vieux-Marché. At the end of Rue du Gros-Horloge lies the square where Joan of Arc was burned on 30 May 1431. The English, who held Rouen at the time, had bought her for ten thousand livres. She was condemned by a church court under Bishop Pierre Cauchon, an ally of the English. Her ashes were thrown into the Seine so that nothing could survive as a relic. A cross stands beside the site of the pyre. It was demanded by the trial of 1456 that declared the verdict null and void. Joan was canonised in 1920. Soon after her death a legend arose that she had survived and another woman had burned in her place. None of it is documented. The church of Sainte-Jeanne-d'Arc by Louis Arretche was consecrated in 1979. Inside are thirteen stained-glass windows from about 1520 to 1530. They come from the church of Saint-Vincent, destroyed in 1944, and had already been taken to safety in 1939. Less than 100 m away, on Place de la Pucelle, stands the Hôtel de Bourgtheroulde, a town mansion begun in 1501, now a hotel. In the courtyard five stone reliefs show the meeting of Francis I of France and Henry VIII of England at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520. You can usually look into the courtyard through the gateway.

Planning your visit

One day is enough for Rouen. The route starts at Rouen-Rive-Droite station, runs 3.1 km and takes in nine stops, from the castle keep to Place du Vieux-Marché. Short on time, skip the Musée des Beaux-Arts and Saint-Ouen. Note that the museum closes on Tuesdays and that Saint-Ouen and Saint-Maclou open their interiors only at weekends. Almost every stop tells part of the story of Joan of Arc's trial. Giverny and Monet's garden need a day of their own, and there are five tips for the evening.

Going out & nightlife

Rooftop bars

Le Rouf. On the left bank of the Seine the old harbour sheds have a second career. Hangar 105 houses Le Rouf, with a restaurant, a bar and a roof terrace above the river. From up there you look over the Seine, the boats along the quay and across to the old town. In summer the terrace fills up fast, so book ahead.

Nightlife quarters

Rue Eau-de-Robec. Until the 1940s the Robec stream ran here, and the city's dyers worked along its banks. Gustave Flaubert had young Charles live here in "Madame Bovary" and called the quarter a "squalid little Venice". Today an artificial watercourse runs along the pedestrian street, and in the evening students fill the bar terraces between the timber-framed houses.

Food & restaurants

La Couronne. The timber-framed house on the Vieux-Marché calls itself the oldest inn in France. A deed of 1345 names a house "à la Couronne" on what was then the fish market, and a trade journal awarded the title in 1959. In November 1948 the American Julia Child ate her first meal in France here, oysters, sole and Chablis. She later called that lunch the turning point that led her to French cooking. The house speciality is duck Rouen style.

Bars & clubs

Delirium Café. An offshoot of the Brussels beer bar on Rue des Vergetiers, right beside the Gros-Horloge. The list runs to around three hundred beers, plus tapas and cocktails. If you want a drink in the old town on a Sunday night, this is one of the few doors still open, and it stays open deep into the night.

Stage & concerts

Théâtre des Arts. The home of the Opéra de Rouen Normandie is a post-war building. Its predecessor was bombed in 1944, and the present hall with just over 1,300 seats opened in 1962 at the lower end of Rue Jeanne-d'Arc. The programme covers opera, ballet and symphony concerts by the house orchestra.

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Practical information for Rouen

Public transport

Operator. The Réseau Astuce covers all public transport in the Métropole Rouen Normandie with its 71 municipalities. This includes the Métro with two branches, the five TEOR lines T1 to T5, the nine Fast lines F1 to F9, 25 further regular bus lines, the night line Noctambus, school bus lines that are open to everyone and the on-demand bus filo’r. The Métropole organises the network and has awarded the operation to Transdev, with the new contract running for nine years from 2026 to 2034. The lines around Elbeuf in the south are run by TAE with their own, cheaper fares. One Réseau Astuce ticket is valid on the Métro, TEOR, buses and filo’r.

Network. Two Métro branches from Boulingrin via the station and Théâtre des Arts to the south, five TEOR and nine Fast bus lines and 25 further bus lines. In the centre on the right bank of the Seine the Métro stops at Gare - Rue Verte, Palais de Justice - Gisèle Halimi and Théâtre des Arts.

Modes of transport. Métro · TEOR buses · Bus · Night bus · On-demand bus

Operating hours. The Métro runs from Boulingrin in the north through the city centre and divides south of the Seine into the branches to Georges Braque (Grand Quevilly) and Technopôle (Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray). On weekdays the first train leaves Boulingrin at 5am and the last at 12.21am (12.22am from Gare - Rue Verte). On Sundays and public holidays it runs from Boulingrin from 5.45am to 11.26pm. On each branch, trains run every 6 to 8 minutes on weekdays in term time, every 10 minutes in the school holidays and every 9 minutes on Saturdays. On the shared section through the city centre, trains from both branches combine to run every 3 to 6 minutes during the day and about every 10 minutes on Sundays. On 1 May the Métro does not operate. The five TEOR lines run from 4.30am to midnight every 2 to 8 minutes, and the nine Fast lines from 5am to midnight every 7 to 10 minutes. This timetable is valid from 31 August 2026 to 20 June 2027. From 21 June 2027 a summer timetable with less frequent services applies.

Night service. After the Métro stops running, the only night line, Noctambus, takes over. It runs from Cateliers in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray via Zénith - Parc Expo, Place Saint-Sever, Hôtel de Ville, Gare - Rue Verte and Place Colbert to La Pléiade in Mont-Saint-Aignan. From Hôtel de Ville towards the station and La Pléiade there are departures at 12.30am, 1.30am, 2.30am, 3.30am and 4.30am, and towards the south the bus leaves Hôtel de Ville about every half hour between 12.30am and 4.30am. Some early-morning journeys do not run on Sundays. The normal Astuce fare applies. The night timetable runs from 31 August 2026 to 20 June 2027.

Buying tickets. Since 17 August 2026 a rechargeable contactless ticket for €0.20 has replaced the old magnetic cards. It is transferable and can be topped up repeatedly. You can get it at the Agences des mobilités and authorised sales points, and from November 2026 also at the new machines in the stations. Old magnetic tickets have not been valid since the start of the autumn holidays on 17 October 2026. You can exchange any journeys left on old tickets free of charge at an Agence des mobilités for the new ticket with the same number of journeys, for example at Théâtre des Arts or in the station. Any old tickets with journeys still on them expire after 19 December 2026. The Agence des mobilités Théâtre des Arts (9, rue Jeanne d’Arc) is open Monday to Friday from 7am to 7pm and on Saturdays from 9.30am to 5.30pm, and the agency in the station concourse (Place Bernard Tissot) Monday to Friday from 7am to 7pm and on Saturdays from 9.30am to 12.30pm and 1.30pm to 5.30pm. There are also 107 sales points such as kiosks and tobacconists, including the Office de Tourisme on the Esplanade Marcel Duchamp. To buy by SMS, text V1 (single) or J1 (24-hour ticket) to 93000. This works only with French mobile contracts from Bouygues Télécom, Orange, SFR and Free. If you are caught without a valid ticket, the fine is €65, or €45 with an unvalidated ticket.

App and payment. Since 17 August 2026 your own contactless bank card is itself the ticket. You hold the card, smartphone or watch against one of the new black validators in the vehicle, and the price of a single journey of €1.80 is charged with no surcharge. Transfers within an hour cost nothing extra as long as you check in with the same medium each time you board. With the same card you can validate up to five people. The amount is usually debited the following day. In an inspection you show exactly the medium you checked in with, that is the plastic card or the smartphone, because the system treats the two as separate cards. On the lines around Elbeuf fares are calculated separately, and anyone changing there pays €1.50 and €1.80. The My Astuce app (iOS and Android) sells M-Tickets that you scan at the QR code in the vehicle, and for several fellow travellers you scan once and enter the number of people. Free passes and tickets for under-18s are available only after a profile check in the app, which takes up to 48 hours. The Atoumod app handles the monthly pass Atoumod Multi for journeys across several Normandy networks.

Which ticket. The 1 Voyage ticket costs €1.80 and is valid for an hour between first and last validation across the whole network, including transfers and the return journey. The DECOUVERTE 24 heures ticket costs €6.10 and is valid for 24 hours from first validation with no limit on journeys, which equals 3.4 single rides. The 10 Voyages ticket costs €16.30, or €1.63 a journey. Several people can use it at the same time on the contactless ticket. To do so, hold the ticket against the validator twice and enter the number of fellow travellers. For 18 to 25-year-olds the JEUNE 10 Voyages ticket costs €9.80. For under-18s the network has been free since September 2025, even without residence in the Métropole, but you need a Titre 7 jours moins de 18 ans, which is available with ID in the app or at an agency. A group ticket for ten people with the same start and destination costs €6.80. All prices have applied since 1 September 2026.

Fare zones. The Réseau Astuce has no fare zones. A 1 Voyage ticket for €1.80 is valid for an hour on all Métro, TEOR, bus and filo’r lines, however far you travel. Only the TAE lines in the Elbeuf area have their own fare, covering Caudebec-lès-Elbeuf, Cléon, Elbeuf, Freneuse, La Londe, Orival, Saint-Aubin-lès-Elbeuf, Saint-Pierre-lès-Elbeuf, Sotteville-sous-le-Val and Tourville-la-Rivière. There a single journey costs €1.50 and the 10-journey card €13.30, but these tickets are valid only on the Elbeuf lines. With the 1 Voyage ticket for €1.80, by contrast, you can travel there too.

Tip. The 10 Voyages ticket for €16.30 costs the same as 9.1 single rides and can be used by several people at once on the contactless ticket. Two people with five journeys each therefore pay €1.63 instead of €1.80 a journey.

Getting there

Main station

Location. The station is at Place Bernard Tissot on the right bank of the Seine, north of the historic centre, a few minutes from the old town. The Métro stops at the station Gare - Rue Verte there. From there it runs via Palais de Justice - Gisèle Halimi to Théâtre des Arts on the Seine in 3 minutes and on across the river to Saint-Sever. TEOR line T4 and the bus lines F2, F7, 11 and 22 also stop at the station, and at night the Noctambus line.

Long-distance trains. Rouen Rive Droite is the city's main station and is served by the Nomad trains of the Normandy region. Trains to Paris Saint-Lazare run 29 times a day, the first from Rouen at 5.19am and the last at 9.50pm. In the opposite direction the first train leaves Paris at 5.46am. SNCF Connect shows the last connections of the day. The fastest journey takes 1 hour 15 minutes. Some of the Paris trains run as Nomad Résa. There are 23 trains a day to Le Havre, taking from 45 minutes, with the last at 11.05pm. There are 17 trains a day to Dieppe, taking from 45 minutes, 10 to Caen from 1 hour 33 minutes and 9 to Amiens from 1 hour 22 minutes. The station has ticket machines for long-distance and Nomad trains, a ticket counter in the historic main building, an Agence des mobilités of the Réseau Astuce, lifts to the platforms, an assistance service for travellers with disabilities, a lost property office, toilets and free Wi-Fi. The station has no luggage lockers, but partner businesses within a 5-minute walk offer luggage storage.

Opening hours. The station building is open Monday to Friday from 4.40am to 11.15pm, Saturdays from 5.40am to midnight and Sundays from 6.30am to midnight. The platforms remain accessible from the first to the last train, even if the latter is delayed. The Agence des mobilités of the Réseau Astuce in the station concourse is open Monday to Friday from 7am to 7pm and on Saturdays from 9.30am to 12.30pm and from 1.30pm to 5.30pm.

Airports

CDG

Into the city. There is no direct rail connection from the airport to Rouen. The RER B runs every 15 minutes and reaches central Paris in 30 to 45 minutes. It operates from about 4.50am to 12.15am. There you change to Métro line 14, which stops at Saint-Lazare station. The Paris Région <> Aéroports ticket costs €14 (reduced fare €7) and is valid on the Métro, RER and trains in the Île-de-France. From Saint-Lazare, 29 Nomad trains a day run to Rouen Rive Droite, the fastest in 1 hour 15 minutes. SNCF Connect shows the last connection of the day. FlixBus runs direct from the Roissypôle Terminal 3 stop to Rouen at least three times a day, taking from 2 hours 30 minutes and costing from €8.48.

ORY

Into the city. Since June 2024, Métro line 14 has linked Aéroport d’Orly station with Saint-Lazare without a change, crossing Paris and reaching the centre in about 25 minutes. It mostly runs from 5.30am to 1.15am, and on Fridays and Saturdays until 2.15am. The Paris Région <> Aéroports ticket costs €14 (reduced fare €7). From Saint-Lazare, 29 Nomad trains a day run to Rouen Rive Droite, the fastest in 1 hour 15 minutes. SNCF Connect shows the last connection of the day. FlixBus runs direct from Orly airport to Rouen at least four times a day, taking from 2 hours 25 minutes and costing from €10.48.

BVA

Into the city. From the bus station between the two terminals, line 6 of the Corolis city bus network takes 14 to 25 minutes, depending on the journey, to the Brière SNCF stop near Beauvais station. There is no direct train connection to Rouen. From Beauvais to Rouen Rive Droite there are 15 connections a day with a change, the first at 5.14am and the last at 7.57pm. The fastest takes 1 hour 52 minutes for around 119 km.

URO

Into the city. Rouen Vallée de Seine airport is at Boos, around 20 minutes from the city centre. The operator describes it as a site for business flights, medical flights and flight training and lists no scheduled flights. It is connected to public transport by the on-demand bus filo’r of the Réseau Astuce, which runs Monday to Saturday except on public holidays from 6.30am to 7.30pm. You book the journey in advance free of charge on 0 800 649 649, Monday to Saturday from 7am to 7pm, or in the filo’r app. The normal Astuce ticket applies. The airport arranges taxis on request.

Local quirks

On Saturdays the whole network is free. From Saturday 5am to Sunday 5am the Métro, TEOR, buses and filo’r cost nothing. You still have to check in each time you board, also when changing, otherwise you risk a fine. The easiest way is to hold your bank card against the black validator, and it is not charged on Saturdays. Alternatively, with a French SIM card you send V1 by SMS to 93000, and the message costs nothing on Saturdays.
Under-18s travel free, visitors too. Since September 2025 the Réseau Astuce has been free for everyone under 18, even without residence in the Métropole. They still need a ticket. For visitors there is the Titre 7 jours moins de 18 ans, valid for seven days from first validation. You get it with ID at an Agence des mobilités, for example in the station, or in the My Astuce app after a profile check of up to 48 hours.
ZFE-m low-emission zone around the clock. Rouen and twelve neighbouring municipalities form a low-emission zone that applies around the clock, also on the A150 and the bridges Pont Flaubert and Pont Mathilde. Every vehicle needs a Crit’Air sticker there, and vehicles with Crit’Air 4, 5 or without a classification may neither drive nor park. What counts is not where you live but the journey into the zone. A violation costs €68. For older cars there is the free pass ZFE-m 24h, a maximum of 24 times a year. The sticker is available only at certificat-air.gouv.fr.

Good to know

Currency: EUR €
Emergency number: 112
Plug type: C · E
Time zone: Europe/Paris
Driving: right

Speed limits. built-up areas 50 km/h, outside towns 80 km/h, motorway 130 km/h (110 km/h in rain)

A limit of 80 km/h has applied on rural roads without a central divider since 2018. Some départements have raised it back to 90 km/h by decision of the Conseil départemental, marked by dedicated signs at the start of the stretch. In rain, the motorway speed drops to 110 km/h, while within built-up areas it stays unchanged at 50 km/h.

Tipping. Service is included by law. If you were happy, leave a few euros, nothing more.

Tolls. Most motorways are tolled. Take a ticket, pay on exit, cards accepted everywhere.

Access restrictions. Many cities have low emission zones. You need a Crit'Air sticker, ordered online in advance and delivered by post. Without one you risk a fine.