Best time to visit Rouen

France · Europe

All twelve months scored on daily temperature, rainfall, humidity and holiday crowding.

The year in Rouen

Tap a month for its page

Sweet spot
Good
OK
Avoid
Busy

Go in Apr, May, Jul, Aug or Sep — these months score within a whisker of each other; 18C max, 10 rainy days. Jun is the next best.

Plan this trip

Each site opens on its own search: choose your dates there. A few open on their home page, where you type the place too.

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Flights

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Where to stay

Things to do

Car hire

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Travel insurance

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Each opens in a new tab, on the site's own pages.

Things to do in Rouen

Rouen Cathedral A stunning building that dates back to the 4th century and is a wonderful mixture of…
La Gros-Horloge The mechanism of the clock is one of the oldest in France.
Musée des Beaux-Arts It was founded in 1801 by Napoleon, and has paintings by Monet, Caravaggio…
Pont Gustave-Flaubert It is the third tallest building in the town.
Palais de Justice One of the finest examples of Gothic civic architecture in France.
Jardin des Plantes These botanical gardens were created in 1691, and opened to the public in 1741.
Théâtre des Arts The Rouen Opera House, home of the Rouen Philharmonic Orchestra.

Tours and tickets in Rouen

Each site opens on its own search: choose your dates there. A few open on their home page, where you type the place too. Links marked Ad pay us a commission if you book, at no extra cost to you; most pay nothing, and what a site pays never decides whether it is listed or where. How we rank

Sights and their lines from Wikivoyage (Rouen), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; in order of how often each one's Wikipedia article was read on phones in the last 12 months.

Month by month

No fare history for this route yet, so this ranking is climate and crowds only — the price column will fill in as the scanner collects.

Month	Max °C	Rain days	Humidity	Sun h/day	Verdict	Why
Jan	7°	11d	88%	3.7h	avoid	7C max, 11 rainy days
Feb	9°	10d	83%	5.2h	ok	9C max, 10 rainy days
Mar	12°	10d	79%	7.4h	ok	12C max, 10 rainy days
Apr	15°	7d	72%	10.3h	sweet spot	15C max, 7 rainy days
May	18°	10d	74%	11.2h	sweet spot	18C max, 10 rainy days
Jun	23°	9d	73%	12.3h	goodbusy	busier than usual
Jul	24°	6d	70%	12.1h	sweet spot busy	busier than usual
Aug	24°	7d	73%	10.8h	sweet spot busy	busier than usual
Sep	20°	9d	78%	8.9h	sweet spot	20C max, 9 rainy days
Oct	16°	11d	83%	6.5h	ok	16C max, 11 rainy days
Nov	11°	11d	87%	4.7h	avoid	11C max, 11 rainy days
Dec	8°	13d	89%	3.5h	avoid	8C max, 13 rainy days

Rain days are the days with at least 1 mm of rain, as a weather station counts them.

Weather read at the old town: ten years of ERA5 and ERA5-Land reanalysis, through Open-Meteo's open data.

A busy month is a crowded one, not a bad one — usually it is crowded because the weather is good. It is flagged rather than scored down, and crowds alone never make a month “avoid”: that is reserved for weather worth skipping.

How busy it gets

Busiest from June to August; quietest in January, March, April and December.

Then and now

Rouen's June days now average 22.5°C, 3.0°C warmer than in 1981–1990. 6 of 12 months are clearly warmer.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
1981–90	6.6°	7.2°	10.5°	13.0°	16.9°	19.5°	22.4°	21.8°	19.3°	15.6°	10.3°	7.6°
2017–26	7.2°	9.4°	12.1°	15.4°	18.4°	22.5°	23.9°	23.6°	20.5°	16.4°	10.9°	8.5°
Change	+0.6°	+2.2°	+1.6°	+2.4°	+1.5°	+3.0°	+1.6°	+1.8°	+1.2°	+0.8°	+0.6°	+0.9°

The average daily high, month by month, for the nearest ERA5 grid cell. Bold is a clear change; grey is within the ordinary spread between years. Every destination, ranked.

Getting there

Fly into PAR, then drive. The flights under Where to book are to PAR.

The drive from each airport is the road's, from openrouteservice.org by HeiGIT: typical, not a schedule.

How far Rouen is, and what it costs, depends on where you set off from — the months above do not.

Before you go

Type C and E plugs at 230 / 400 V. Drives on the right. The currency is the Euro. No UK Foreign Office advice against travel. Everything for France: cost of living, languages, emergency numbers and health.

Being there

On arrival

Paying — Visa, Mastercard and French CB cards work in almost all shops, restaurants and hotels, and contactless is widespread. Some places post a minimum spend for cards.
UPI, for visitors from India — Only at a few places, through Lyra: Eiffel Tower tickets bought online and the Galeries Lafayette store on boulevard Haussmann in Paris. Bring a card for everything else.
Tipping — Not expected, as service is included by law; locals leave small change or a few euros for good service. Taxi tips are optional.

Getting around Rouen

Apps — Rides: Bolt, FreeNow, G7, Uber. Maps: Google Maps, Apple Maps. Messages: WhatsApp.

The city center is compact and all sights can easily be seen by foot, however, there is public transport throughout the town. More on Wikivoyage

From the Wikivoyage article on Rouen, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Help

Emergency — 112 (any emergency) · police 17 · ambulance 15 · fire 18.
TravelCharika is not an emergency service: we cannot call for help or send anyone. Numbers can change; if one fails, ask someone local or your hotel.

Put together by hand from the sources listed, checked 7 October 2026. Apps, cards and rules change, so check before you rely on one.

Sources (67)

Rouen in pictures

Rouen France Church Saint Ouen 01 — i

CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Rouen France Market Square 01 — i

CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Looking down Rue du Gros Horloge, with balloons, Rouen, 2024 — i

DimiTalen, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Abbaye Saint Ouen de Rouen as seen from Gros Horloge 140215 3 — i

DXR, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Hôtel de Ville de Rouen, West View 140215 5 — i

DXR, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

What Rouen is like

Rouen is the capital of the French region of Normandy on the River Seine, 135 km (approximately 90 minutes drive) northwest from the centre of Paris. The city has a population of 116,000 (2022), and its metropolitan area includes some 700,000 inhabitants. More on Wikivoyage

Worth seeing: Rouen Cathedral (la cathédrale de Rouen). A stunning building that dates back to the 4th century and is a wonderful mixture of various architectural styles since then. More on Wikivoyage
Worth doing: Rouen has many biking trails and forests nearby. There is a trail on the north side of the Seine to the Foret Roumare. More on Wikivoyage
Getting in: From Paris, Rouen is approximately an hour and a half's drive (135 km) north-west from the centre of the French capital, the fastest route including the A13 motorway (note: this a toll road). More on Wikivoyage
Staying safe: CHU de Rouen has five hospitals in the Rouen area. Hôpital Charles-Nicolle, 43 rue Gambetta (TEOR lines T1, T2, T3 stop "CHU Charles-Nicolle"). More on Wikivoyage

From the Wikivoyage article on Rouen, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; the full article has far more. The numbers above are measured; this is experience.

Around Rouen

Also in France

Nearby

Kind of place

Rouen is in France, Europe. Distances are great-circle, so a short one can still be a long way round.

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