Rouen Old Town

Rouen has around two thousand half-timbered houses, more than any other French city, leaning over narrow lanes around a cathedral whose west front Monet painted more than thirty times from a room opposite, working on several canvases at once and switching as the light moved, to record the same stone under different conditions. The cathedral's iron spire made it briefly the tallest building in the world in 1876. Joan of Arc was tried and burned in the Vieux-Marche in 1431, marked now by a modern church with a roof shaped like flames and a boat. The Gros-Horloge, an astronomical clock of 1389, spans a street on an arch.

What you actually see

• The cathedral west front - the facade Monet painted through changing light.
• The half-timbered lanes - around two thousand timber-framed houses.
• The Gros-Horloge - a 1389 astronomical clock over a street arch.
• The Joan of Arc site - the Vieux-Marche where she was burned in 1431.

When to go

April to October; the Armada tall ships gathering comes to the Seine every four to six years. Rouen is wet, and the covered lanes help. Museums close on Tuesdays.

Honest expectations

Much of the centre was destroyed in 1944 and rebuilt, so the timber-framing is a mix of original and reconstruction. Monet's cathedral canvases are scattered across museums worldwide - the Musee d'Orsay in Paris holds five, and Rouen's own Musee des Beaux-Arts keeps just one. The city is grey and rainy much of the year.

Nearby

Jumieges lies west; Giverny is southeast.