Rick says Rouen feels "less welcoming" at night. Does he just mean getting hassled by panhandlers, etc., or worse? Please let me know your experience, we'll be there in about two weeks. We're staying at Hotel Versat, any info about that would also be appreciated.
We stayed at the Mercure and it sure felt welcoming enough for us. Hard to find our hotel (and we had SatNav and are highly practiced in using it) but once we did we thought the town was very nice. Never heard of your hotel though.
We stayed at Hotel de la Catheral right in the old part of town. We walked at night and had no problems. There were groups of young people hanging around with seemingly no where to go but they didn't hassle us. We only stayed one night.
We day tripped it to Rouen from Paris. The old town area is full of charm but the surrounding newer town is charmless. Be sure to visit the plague memorial-architecture of the buildings there is very Norman and interesting. The creperie mentioned in RS Guide was excellent and was a cute little place. Joan of Arc Church was a disappointing place(very contemporary) but you should see it. Museum of Beaux Arts is worth a look for certain Monet paintings. Enjoy your trip!
"Does he just mean getting hassled by panhandlers." Panhandlers: You'll probably see way fewer of them in France than here.