We are planning a trip from Paris to Rouen on a Friday in October. I read somewhere that everything closes in Rouen from 12-2PM.
Does anyone knows if this is true? Are the churches/museums open, just not the shops? Thank you for any guidance that you can provide. -Jennifer
Posted by
Boston MA, USA
14 posts
We were just there, and arrived at 12. I noticed some of the smaller shops were closed but the churches, TI, and majority of the stores on the main Street were open. I think the museums were all open but check their websites.
Posted by
OP
2 posts
Oh thank you! We only have an afternoon. Do you mind sharing what you enjoyed the most? Did you visit the outdoor market?
Posted by
Chicago
8556 posts
We were there on a day when the major churches in the center were all supposed to be open; two of them were closed for no particular obvious reason. The signs out front indicated they were open.
Posted by
Boston MA, USA
14 posts
We only had a few hours and spent most of our time on the walking tour in Rick Steves' France book. We loved the architecture and roaming the narrow lanes, and really enjoyed the cathedral and detail on the clock. I'm glad we went but to be honest it felt like Disney World. All the beautiful half timbered structures were filled with shops you'd find on Rue de Rivoli, even a McDonalds. There were so many tourists and large groups following their leader holding the flag. I was surprised that the shops were filled with so many shoppers and even more surprised that the cathedral had so few visitors! We walked through a covered market but didn't spend much time there as we needed to pick up our rental car and head to Bayeux. Like I said, I'm glad we went, but i was a little disappointed as well.
Posted by
Washington DC
28084 posts
Rouen has (reconstructed) historic architecture rather widely scattered throughout the city. The tourists, as usual, tend to concentrate right around a handful of key sites. I walked down many deserted (not in a bad way) blocks.
Rouen has a de-consecrated church now used for a museum of wrought iron. It sounds strange, but there were many lovely objects. TripAdvisor tells me it's called the "Musee Secq des Tournelles". In July that museum had a special Picasso-related exhibit. (There was at least one other Picasso exhibit at one or two other local museums.) Google will probably reveal all. I think the museum itself was free but there was a charge for the Picasso exhibition.
The city also has a good art museum. I'm sorry, but I don't remember whether it was one of the several such museums I visited this year that were partially closed for reasons of either renovation or re-design of the exhibits.