The City of a Hundred Spires — where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in 1431, Claude Monet painted the cathedral 30 times in changing light, and a medieval old town of half-timbered houses and Gothic churches survived the 1944 bombing more intact than almost anywhere else in Normandy
Rouen (110,000; metro 670,000) is the historical capital of Normandy on the Seine, 140km from Paris, a city of extraordinary medieval density — nearly 2,000 half-timbered buildings (colombages) survived the 1944 Allied bombing that destroyed much of the city centre. The Cathedral Notre-Dame de Rouen was the tallest building in the world from 1876–1880; Monet painted its west façade 30 times (1892–1894) from a rented room opposite, capturing the stone in changing light from dawn to dusk. The Place du Vieux Marché marks where Joan of Arc was burned as a heretic on 30 May 1431 — a memorial flame…
Rouen (Roman Rotomagus) was the capital of Roman Gaul's second province and later the Viking chieftain Rollo's grant from the Carolingian king in 911 — the founding moment of Normandy. William the Conqueror was born in Normandy in 1028, died in Rouen in 1087, and is buried (in two pieces, after his body exploded during transport) at Caen; his duchy's administrative capital was Rouen. Richard the Lionheart's heart is buried in Rouen Cathedral. Joan of Arc was captured by Burgundian allies of the English in 1430 and tried in Rouen by a French ecclesiastical court under English political control…