Tour Audio a Rouen

On the morning of May 30, 1431, in the Place du Vieux-Marché, Joan of Arc was burned at the stake by English occupiers. That fact sits at the center of Rouen's identity, the moment the city cannot escape and has long since stopped trying to. The square still exists, now flanked by a cross-shaped modern church and a market hall, and if you stand there on a quiet morning it is still possible to feel the weight of it.

Rouen was the medieval capital of Normandy, and its Gothic skyline has barely altered since the 14th century.

The Gros-Horloge, an astronomical clock set into a Renaissance arch above the Rue du Gros-Horloge, has been counting the hours since the 1300s. Claude Monet painted the facade of Rouen Cathedral more than thirty times from a rented room across the street, chasing the same stones in different light from grey February mornings to amber July afternoons.