8 reasons to visit Rouen Cathedral (and why it’s the best place in Normandy)
June 12, 2021
We share with you the 8 reasons to come and visit Rouen’s Cathedral which is a must if you come to Rouen or Normandy.
Generous axis 32 meters wide, the avenue Pasteur is organized around a central lawn framed by shrubs in shimmering colors and by a double alley of Ginkgo biloba. It descends gently towards a vast two-hectare garden which opens onto a range of tall grasses called Herbe de la Pampa, Miscanthus, Pennisetum.
Very popular with students from the nearby faculty and local residents, the pedestrian promenade continues along the flowering ash trees, Burgundy oaks, silver lindens and maples to end in a grove of willows and shrubs that evoke the presence of the Seine. At night, the avenue lit up with candelabra and small lights that make the lawns iridescent offers a magical perspective from Place de la Madeleine to the Picasso cranes, also illuminated on the other side of the river.
Access
TEOR: 1, 2, 3
Buses: 9, 26, 29
Masséot-Abaquesne Garden
Evolving for several decades, the garden now named Masséot-Abaquesne, in memory of this 16th century potter, offers privacy in the heart of the dense urban fabric of the city of Rouen.
This garden first had a classic English layout with its winding paths and its remarkable spontaneous trees. Accompanied at the time
by a bandstand whose woodwork we can still admire on the 1st floor of the museum, the garden was then enclosed by the executioner’s house and its courtyard. It was only in the second half of the 20th century that this garden underwent a major transformation. Indeed, the paths were replaced by a high garden structured in the French style, accompanied by topiaries and alignments of trees and shrubs.
In 2009, the City of Rouen commissioned a project to embellish this garden on the occasion of the Normandy Impressionism festival. City departments have designed a garden with varied plant structures that soften it with the help of perennial plants that are light and undulating in the wind. These plants enliven the courtyard and become exuberant in order to apostrophize the visitor immersed in a garden that looks like the 19th century.
Now composed of three distinct spaces, the garden evolves over the four seasons around the God Pan, Sèvres ceramics placed on the central lawn. This statue from the City’s Jardin des Plantes challenges and refers to the museum’s collections.
St. Paul’s Garden
Built in 1985, this garden had a dual objective: to create effective protection against the noise emitted by traffic on the eastern expressway, and to prevent the isolation of the Mont-Gargan district linking the Saint-Marc and Champ-de- March.
Established on a slab, this astonishing green space is subject to delicate technical constraints: possible problems of overloading, sealing, rainwater drainage, etc.
Light materials were therefore used as substrates (high density expanded polystyrene, foam of organic resin…) and the choice fell on plants with superficial roots such as roses!
This explains the large presence of the queen of flowers in the Saint-Paul garden. This one has no less than 23 different essences responding to the sweet names of “Swany”.
City Hall Garden
On the vast undulating lawn, under the rays of a sun tempered by the shade of the chestnut trees and the plane trees, many are those who rest, discuss or roll in the grass. A place of relaxation, halfway between the urban park and the meadow, this garden is also a pedestrian passage that connects the city center to the Saint-Nicaise and Saint-Vivien districts.
Created at the beginning of the 19th century on the land adjoining the Saint-Ouen abbey, the gardens astonish by this mix of styles which invites discovery. Located at the foot of the Hôtel de Ville, their historical core “à la française” radiates around a large round pool, an aquatic setting for a sculpture evoking the kidnapping of Dejanira by the Centaur Nessus. Because history and landscape are intimately intertwined, the remains of the abbey wall have been enhanced and integrated into a “peat bog”. Note also the presence near the Portail des Marmousets of the exact reproduction of the Jellinge stone in Denmark, a thousand years old, offered to the City of Rouen on the occasion of the millennium of Normandy in 1911.
A historic garden therefore, but also a contemporary space. Separated by an alley of chestnut trees which extends the pedestrianized rue de l’Abbé-de-l’épée, a large playground has brought together toddlers and older children since the extension of the garden in 1982. The lawn then descends in a gentle slope towards the goldfish basin… And in the background, the apse of the Saint-Ouen abbey church completes the look of the countryside.
Albane Gardens
An essential place in the archiepiscopal history of Rouen, the Cour d’Albane revealed its secrets during archaeological excavations in 1987 and 1991: Ancient villa with atrium, large early Christian church from the 4th century, medieval chapel, partially built 13th century cloister, bell ovens in the 15th century, canonical houses…
From this past, the design inspirations for the 8 gardens that make up the Albane Gardens were drawn. The garden of the Cloister, located below, centerpiece of the development, resumes in its delimitation the volume of the unfinished cloister. The mineral and vegetal treatment makes it possible to apprehend the contours and surfaces of the building. 13,000 box trees make up the central square. The fastigiated yews mark the buttresses of the building with their presence.
The other gardens, located in the peripheral and elevated part of the courtyard, take up 7 historical themes, in 7 small, strongly delimited spaces: the courtyard of the sculptors, the porch of the 4 winds, the garden of the stonemason, the garden of the lime tree, the cat garden, the iron cross garden and the garden of the Saint Romain chapel.
Architectural pieces from the renovation campaigns of the cathedral have been inserted and punctuate with their decorations the low walls surrounding the different places. The choice of plants planted was guided by the desire to accommodate a faunal diversity within this space, with the aim of making it a haven of biodiversity in the heart of the city.
The Cloister garden
Adjoining the cathedral, this garden follows the lines of a cloister which should have been built in the 13th century. A carpet of boxwood and 16 Irish yews structure the space. The whole of this plant zone hosts a wide variety of species in order to allow the development of biodiversity in the city centre.
Achille-Lefort Park
Covering an area of 3,500 m2, the Achille-Lefort Park is located rue du Renard, in the heart of the West district. Frequented by the public and also by children from the school and the leisure center of the same name, this park is about to extend its opening hours. Some development and embellishment work was carried out in 2013. A tree replanting campaign made it possible to renew, enrich and diversify the existing tree heritage.
Areas of undergrowth are preserved, the paths barely formalized are left as they are in order to maintain the natural and wooded side of the place. Two remarkable trees are present in the heart of the park: a beech (Fagus sylvatica), and a cedar (Cedrus atlantica). They are accompanied by children’s games distributed in the park and, not far from the entrance, two statues representing Monsieur and Madame de Boishebert, owners at the time of the place, dressed as a gardener.
Saint-Exupéry Park
Well known to fans of leisure sports and lovers of major sporting events, “Saint-Ex” is also a landscape park of great importance.
It is the garden of the three rivers. Above, flow the Robec and the Clérette. Below, the Aubette which, although less familiar to the minds of the people of Rouen, nevertheless gives this vast outdoor sports complex, the covered hall and the multi-sports gymnasium its full dimension of an authentic landscaped park. Its pleasant banks are one of the many prides of the gardeners of the City. Bank plants abound there in a stimulating freshness conducive to the strides of joggers and the thoughts of walkers. The paths surrounding the football fields and bordering the baseball field are planted with flowering shrubs, bulbs and perennials.
The marsh iris, this flower of Louis, which by deformation has become “fleur de lys”, grows there with its feet in the water. From a beautiful height, its luminous yellow illuminates the beautiful days of spring… But in all seasons, the collections of trees of “Saint-Ex” are the real champions of the park. Tulip trees, Louisiana bald cypresses, Caucasian walnut trees, metasequoias soar powerfully against the sky.
Wooded slopes of the Grand’Mare
The wooded areas in Rouen constitute a natural heritage of an exceptional surface area for a location in the heart of the agglomeration:
- 37 hectares of forest belt around the Grand’Mare plateau,
- 7 hectares at the “Triège des Sapins”, under the North Cemetery,
- 23 hectares around the “Petite Bouverie” sports complex.
So many spaces still unknown to Rouennais that constitute the backbone of our urban landscape.
Like all forests, their environmental value is essential (climate regulation, biodiversity, etc.). Everyone can find in these places of walk and leisure, a direct contact with the flora and the fauna, in all seasons.
Green belt overlooking the districts of Grand’Mare and Lombardy, the wooded slopes have woodland scents reminiscent of mountainside paths. Extended by the Hêtraie playground, the walk gently puts the walker back in an urban atmosphere.
