Every design for Rouen

In the rue du Gros-Horloge, the first street in France handed back to pedestrians, Rouen's day begins among half-timbered houses, with the cathedral rising above the rooftops. This is a working city on both banks of the Seine, a regional capital with a court of appeal, a university and a large seaport, and it feels busy from morning to night.

The Cathédrale Notre-Dame, one of the tallest in the world, is the centrepiece of the "city of a hundred spires". Around it, the Musée des Beaux-Arts and the Musée Le Secq des Tournelles draw visitors, and the Historial Jeanne d'Arc tells how Joan of Arc was tried and burned here. Every four to six years the Armada fills the quays with tall sailing ships, and for a few days Rouen becomes a capital of the maritime world.

Coming home to Rouen means crossing the Seine and seeing those spires lift on the right bank, exactly where the city began.