Rouen

Rouen’s famous ghosts from years past still occupy it

The capital of Normandy and France’s fifth-largest port, Rouen is a hub of commerce. It's a bustling, vibrant place bursting with activity generated by the industries connected to the port and the students at nearby universities and art schools. Former occupants include the writers Pierre Corneille and Gustave Flaubert, Claude Monet (who endlessly painted Rouen's Cathédrale de Notre-Dame), and Joan of Arc ("Oh, Rouen, art thou then my final resting place?"). Today, it's a city of half a million people.

Victor Hugo called Rouen "the city of a hundred spires." Half of it was destroyed during World War II, mostly by Allied bombers, and many Rouennais were killed. During the reconstruction of the old quarters, some of the almost-forgotten crafts of the Middle Ages were revived. The city on the Seine is rich in historical associations: William the Conqueror died here in 1087, and Joan of Arc was burned at the stake on place du Vieux-Marché in 1431.

As in Paris (which is an 84-mile travel to the northwest), the Seine splits Rouen into a Rive Gauche (Left Bank) and Rive Droite (Right Bank). The old city is on the right bank.

© 2009, Wiley Publishing, Inc.