Explore Rouen

Explore Rouen is a map and city guide to facilitate your visit and stay in Rouen

Explore Rouen Map and City Guide is an application to facilitate your visit, stay and discovery of Rouen. You can search, find and discover places, companies and businesses around you in Rouen.

- Free of charge

- City map

- Geolocation

- Get directions to the places you want to go

- Complete information on thousands of places, tourist sites and points of interest.

- Find the best restaurants, shops, tourist sites, hotels, bars, etc. around you.

Since Explore Rouen is a "Find Places Around Me" mobile application, you should use it while visiting Rouen. If you want to try it from your current location, you can always install a "Fake GPS" app and setup your new location in the city of Rouen.

Rouen, capital of the northern French region of Normandy, is a port city on the river Seine. Important in the Roman era and Middle Ages, it has Gothic churches, such as Saint-Maclou and Saint-Ouen, and a cobblestoned pedestrian center with medieval half-timbered houses. The skyline is dominated by the spires of Cathédrale Notre-Dame, much-painted by Impressionist Claude Monet.

Rouen, stretching beside the Seine, is Normandy’s cultured, historic, gastronomic, vibrant capital. Monet’s canvases of the cathedral have made it the best-loved building in town, but many other glories stand out, including fine museums and the church dedicated to tragic visitor Joan of Arc.

The old city, on the right bank of the Seine River and surrounded by a natural amphitheatre of hills, has so many historical buildings that it has been called a ville-musée (museum-town). Indeed, much of this area was designated a preservation zone. Despite its variety of architectural styles (from early Gothic to late Flamboyant) and its lack of symmetry, Rouen cathedral is considered one of the finest Gothic churches in France.

Damaged during World War II, it has been admirably restored. The immense facade, covered with lacelike stonework, stands between two dissimilar towers, the left dating mostly from the 12th century, and the right from the 15th century. Its Tour de Beurre has a carillon of 55 bells. The central lantern tower (13th–16th century), with a late 19th-century spire, is the highest church tower in France (495 feet [151 metres]).

The cathedral also has an 11th-century crypt, a 13th-century choir, and Renaissance tombs in the Lady Chapel. The adjoining Archbishop’s Palace has a 15th-century facade, behind which stands the mainly 15th-century church of Saint-Maclou, a rich example of Flamboyant Gothic. The church of Saint-Ouen (mainly 12th–15th centuries) has a striking interior and 14th-century windows. Famous secular buildings include the late Gothic Palais de Justice and the 16th-century Hôtel de Bourgtheroulde. The Gros-Horloge, a Renaissance gateway (1527) with an ancient clock, standing next to a 14th-century belfry, is in the centre of the city.

The Fine Arts and Ceramics Museum includes a collection of 17th- and 18th-century French paintings and Rouen ceramics. Other museums are devoted to the 17th-century dramatic poet Pierre Corneille and to the 19th-century novelist Gustave Flaubert, who were born there.

Today, the city of Rouen is a vibrant city with old and new attractions to welcome its visitors.

Enjoy your visit and stay in Rouen !