Rouen · Self-guided audio walk

From the Donjon to Saint-Ouen

North of the cathedral, a keep Joan of Arc once entered, a free museum with a Monet cathedral, a vast Rayonnant abbey church, and the garden the monks left to the city.

5Stops
1.2 kmDistance
20+ minTime

Photo by Zairon on Wikimedia Commons

This walk stays north of the cathedral, where Rouen's oldest stonework meets its grandest abbey. It starts at the Tour Jeanne d'Arc, the keep of the castle Philip Augustus began in 1204 and the place where Joan of Arc was shown the instruments of torture in 1431. The tower reopened in June 2026 as a hands-on reconstruction of a thirteenth-century fortress interior.

A block away, the Musée des Beaux-Arts keeps its permanent collection free, including the Monet view of Rouen cathedral that arrived in 1909 with the Depeaux gift.

The walk ends at the Abbatiale Saint-Ouen, a Rayonnant Gothic church with eighty stained-glass windows and the last great Cavaillé-Coll organ, then steps into the Jardin de l'Hôtel-de-Ville, the city's first public garden, laid out on the old abbey grounds.

Hear it on the street

Get the turn-by-turn audio guide in the app. The narration plays itself as you reach each stop, hands-free and offline.

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Stop by stop

The route

Interactive map of the route. The full stop list below works without it.

Must see

Photo by Fab5669 on Wikimedia Commons

Tour Jeanne d'Arc

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The keep where Joan of Arc faced her accusers in 1431.

You're standing beside the last tall survivor of the castle Philip Augustus began building in 1204, just after he conquered Normandy and brought the duchy into the French crown. For centuries this keep was a military tower, and its most famous visitor came through on 9 May 1431. Joan of Arc was brought here and shown the instruments of torture. They were never used on her, and she was not held in this tower. She was locked instead in the tour de la Pucelle, a round tower of the castle that has not survived.

The rest of the castle was pulled down long ago, and in 2026 this survivor got a second life. Since 20 June that year, its three levels have been fitted out as a hands-on thirteenth-century fortress interior. On the ground level you find the rooms of daily life, a banquet hall sits above, and the lord's chamber is at the top. The tower closes on Mondays. Nothing here is roped off. The plates, helmets, trunks, and even the beds are made to be handled.

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≈3 min walk to the next stop

Must see

Photo by Fab5669 on Wikimedia Commons

Musée des Beaux-Arts

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A free museum holding a Monet view of the cathedral.

The museum's permanent collection costs nothing to enter, and the building is open every day except Tuesday. Inside, one canvas tells this walk's whole story. Monet painted La Cathédrale de Rouen, le Portail et la tour d'Albane, temps gris in 1894. It shows the cathedral's portal and Albane tower under grey weather, the stone dissolving in soft light.

The painting reached this museum in 1909 as a gift from François Depeaux, a Rouen industrialist who made his fortune in coal and shipping and spent much of it on Impressionist painters who were still struggling to sell their work. He was the first collector to buy one of Monet's cathedral canvases, and in 1909 he gave dozens of Impressionist works to the city. His gift made Rouen the first provincial museum in France to hold an Impressionist collection. Find the Monet first, then walk the rooms and see what else his gift put on these walls.

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≈3 min walk to the next stop

Local pick

Photo by Chabe01 on Wikimedia Commons

Rue des Fossés Louis VIII

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A lane that follows Rouen's old Roman ditch.

You're standing on Rue des Fossés Louis VIII, a lane that follows the northern ditch of Rouen's Roman wall. Around the year 300, the town of Rotomagus closed itself inside a stone rampart, and a ditch ran along its outer face. This street follows that line. The ditch itself was filled long ago, but the name keeps its course. The wall stood just south of you, and its eastern end ran between today's Rue Damiette and Rue de la République.

Louis VIII, the son of Philip Augustus, gave this ditch land to the city in 1224 so it could raise houses for the poor. For centuries the lane was called Rue de l'Aumône, Alms Street. Its present name, adopted in the early nineteenth century, joins the ditch with the king who gave it away.

Now look north. The keep you stood beside at the start of this walk sat on the hill of Bouvreuil, outside that Roman wall, built from 1204. You are on the seam between the walled Roman town to the south and the royal castle hill to the north.

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≈7 min walk to the next stop

Free preview ends here · stops 4 to 5 continue in the app

Abbatiale Saint-Ouen

A Rayonnant abbey church filled with medieval glass.

in app

Jardin de l'Hôtel-de-Ville

The city's first public garden, on old abbey ground.

in app

Good to know

Before you go

Which day opens the donjon, the Beaux-Arts and Saint-Ouen together?

Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday are the days the donjon, the Musée des Beaux-Arts and the Abbatiale Saint-Ouen are all open. The three keep different closure days: the donjon closes Mondays, the Beaux-Arts Tuesdays, and Saint-Ouen Mondays and Fridays. Saint-Ouen is the one to plan around, since it also shuts between 12:00 and 14:00 and again at 17:00, 18:00 from April to September.

SourceLe Donjon de Rouen, infos pratiquesMusée des Beaux-Arts, informations pratiquesOffice de Tourisme de Rouen, Abbatiale Saint-Ouen

Is the Musée des Beaux-Arts really free?

Yes. The Musée des Beaux-Arts opens Wednesday to Monday from 10:00 to 18:00 and closes Tuesdays, and its permanent collections are free, including the Monet view of the cathedral. No booking is taken, though entry is capped by the room limits. Le Secq des Tournelles, the ironwork museum next door, is also free and opens afternoons only, 14:00 to 18:00, closed Tuesdays.

SourceMusée des Beaux-Arts, informations pratiquesMusée Le Secq des Tournelles, informations pratiques

How do I book the Tour Jeanne d'Arc keep?

The Tour Jeanne d'Arc sells through the Rouen Sites et Monuments ticket office online, which the operator asks you to use in preference to the door. The keep opens Tuesday to Sunday from 11:00 to 13:00 and 14:00 to 19:00, from 11:30 on Saturdays, and closes Mondays. Entry costs 7 euros, or 5 reduced, with a 20 euro family rate; the desk takes cards only, no cash.

SourceLe Donjon de Rouen, infos pratiques

Keep exploring

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Six stops on one straight pedestrian line: the market where Joan of Arc burned, the great clock, the courthouse, Monet's cathedral, and the palace where her trial was reopened.

6 stops1 km20+ min

The hidden side

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Seven stops through the quarter where Rouen's half-timbered streets earn their keep: a flame-shaped church, working antiques dealers, a plague cemetery turned craft gallery, a real market, the dyers' stream, a weavers' hall church, and the city's oldest fountain.

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Provenance · last verified August 28, 2026

Built from the Wayside route itself: the stops, their order, and the walk between them.

Photo by Zairon on Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo by Fab5669 on Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo by Chabe01 on Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo by kirkandmimi on Wikimedia Commons · CC0

Photo by Martpan on Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0