Over the centuries, Rouen has suffered repeated devastation; there were 45 major fires in the first half of the thirteenth century alone. It has had to be almost entirely rebuilt during the last fifty years, and now you could spend a whole day wandering around the city without realizing that the Seine ran through its centre. War-time bombs destroyed all its bridges, the area between the cathedral and the quais , and much of the industrial quarter. The riverside area has never been adequately restored, and what you might expect to be the most beautiful part of the city is in fact something of an abomination.

Enormous sums have, however, been lavished on an upmarket restoration job on the streets a few hundred metres north of the river, which turned the centre into the closest approximation to a medieval city that modern imaginations could come up with. The suggestion that for historical authenticity the houses should be painted in bright, clashing colours was not deemed appropriate, but so far as it goes, the whole of this inner core can be very seductive, and its churches are impressive by any standards.

Outside the renovated quarters, things are rather different. The city spreads deep into the loop of the Seine, with its docks and industrial infrastructure stretching endlessly away to the south, and it's increasingly expanding up into the hills to the north as well, while the river bank itself is lined with a fume-filled, multi-laned motorway. As the nearest point that large container ships can get to Paris, even in decline this remains the fourth largest port in the country