To the clocks of time 3000 years of History

Rouen has retained a crazy charm with its half-timbered houses and its pedestrian walkways that retain an undeniable cachet. The half-timbered houses are jewels of carpentry. Rouen is home to nearly two thousand and has restored more than a thousand. The oldest ones date from the fourteenth century. Others are much more recent as we build homes of this type as far back as the 19th century.

Look up the street of the Gros-Horloge, arguably the most beautiful, imposing and colorful storefront, and wander through thequartier des Antiquaires, which is full of equally quaint specimens. It is also the memory of Jeanne d’Arc that vibrates in the streets of Rouen. The Historial, the Donjon, the bûcher de la Place du Vieux Marchéor the Church of Joan of Arc are must-see locations. For a complete medieval adventure, take the route des abbayes, from the Saint-Ouen Abbey Church in downtown Rouen to the abbaye de Jumièges and that of Saint-Martin de Boscherville in the boucles of the Seine with its sumptuous landscapes.

There are nearly a hundred of them lining the alleys of Rouen and 26 of them are protected. Their charm remains discreet, but Rouen is also famous for its magnificent demeures with a classical look that made the golden age of merchants and that saw the light of day from the end of the 15th to the beginning of the 19th century. The Hôtel de Bourgtheroulde is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful stone mansions of the Renaissance in Rouen with its “galerie d’Aumale”, adorned with bas-reliefs carved into the limestone that show a historical scene contemporary to the monument: the interview of the camp of the Cloth of Gold in 1520. Discover the Hôtel d’Hocqueville, which today houses the Musée de la Céramiqueor the Hôtel Levavasseur, rue Stanislas Girardin, the spectacular home of a spinning mill owner.