Digital Nomad: Results after 2.5 months in Rouen

We spent two and a half months in Rouen where we went as soon as the deconfinement was over and it was a good decision.

Our Airbnb

Where do we start? A tour of the apartment? Yes, that’s my favorite part too!

As you can see, this apartment (former artist’s studio) is just amazing. It’s the kind of overpriced place we couldn’t have afforded outside Covid (this time we paid 3024€ for 77 nights, or 39€/night – to find out the price and get the link to all our Airbnb, click here). This is typically the style of apartments I will observe, jealous, as a tourist, thinking “the owners of this place must be too lucky”. Usually, in the summer, the apartment is occupied by American students who come to learn French, but because of the Covid, more American students, and we were able to book it for 2.5 months.

It is right in the center of Rouen, just in front of the Abbey Saint-Ouen and 2 minutes from the most commercial street of the city, with lots of clothes stores, the market not far away. Really, I enjoy the life of the neighborhood, while having a splendid view of tourists.

I put a lot of pictures here because I like it too much. I have 2 offices, one just for my paper flowers and it’s thanks to this huge space that I could be creative again.

JB found a second hand screen at Cash Express for 19€ (which allows him to have a double screen for the first time since we’ve been nomads), and after sitting on beautiful chairs that were too “vintage” to be comfortable, we took a little trip to Ikea to get two competent office chairs. Frankly, we spoiled ourselves too much because we could never work in such optimal conditions.

In the old town, all the apartments seem to be reserved for tourists because in the evening there is very little light on. Not only do we dominate the other apartments (not opposite), but we really have no neighbors

Every morning, the bells of the Abbey church ring at 8:00-8:30 am, but with the habit, you don’t hear them anymore and you can sleep in without any problem.

Frankly, the old city of Rouen is beautiful but we are so comfortable at home that we did not visit much. I find that apart from the old city, the other parts of the city are less beautiful, even the buildings are a bit old, so even if we see ourselves living well here because life is sweet and everything is at hand, we don’t see ourselves owning an apartment in an old building, to be constantly renovated, nor an apartment in a modern but ugly building.

The visits

It’s only at the end of the stay that we finally visited the Big Clock, with a hidden mechanism in addition (the one that doesn’t work anymore is highlighted but the one that works and well I didn’t see it).

From the Big Clock, you can see all over Rouen.

The cathedral of Rouen still impresses us as much. In summer, there is sound and light every night or almost every night, it’s not as beautiful as in Reims but it’s still worth it.

I overdid a little too much shopping. Between Galeries Lafayette, le Printemps, the art & craft store right next door, and the ultra-reliable delivery people, I robbed several stores and websites. So much so that when checking in at the airport for Rome, we almost had to pay extra kg.

We also visited the very modern church near Joan of Arc’s pyre. I highly recommend this place, it is very lively, animated, there is a small seafood market.

Food

Unfortunately, we couldn’t take advantage of the restaurants because not only were they closed most of the time because of Covid, but when they reopened, JB found a delivery service for homemade meals. Not to mention the fact that I still had 9kg of rice purchased during the lockdown, so we had to make do with home-cooked meals.

The friends

In exchange, we were able to see our friends several times, they settled in Rouen and I hope we will have the opportunity to tour Vietnam with them. They took us to see the sea, at the foot of the cliffs, it was splendid.

Thanks to its proximity to Paris, and train tickets between 9€ and 20€ one way, Paris has never been so close and affordable. I made many round trips during the day to see my sister (incidentally my cat), and to tour the luxury Parisian stores with her (I talked about it here, here , here and there). JB went back and forth a few times for work.
A Parisian girlfriend, originally from Rouen, visits her grandmother in Rouen frequently, and we meet in one of the many parks in Rouen to chat or shop. Finally, if during the Covid, people lacked social relations, for us it was the opposite, we have never seen so many people since we left on our world tour.

Around Rouen

In addition, around Rouen, there are many beautiful villages. We were able to rent a car to go away for an extended weekend (here, here, and there), we even found a field of poppies between 2 small villages. Veules-les-Roses, my favorite village, is only one hour away, Etretat isn’t far either.

And then the Leclerc near Rouen has cars available for our 4 week tour de France. The planets being aligned, everything was going so well for us.

In short, did we enjoy our stay in Rouen? YesiiiDo
we see ourselves living there ? Why not, but it will depend a lot on the accommodation we find thereDo
we recommend Rouen as a stopover for digital nomads? Yes, thanks to the proximity to Paris, you can come and see your clients at any time without ruining yourself, and the environment is relaxed enough to enjoy your beautiful life

After several months in France, even if we enjoyed it thoroughly, we were still very happy to go to Rome, because we understood that we really needed a change of scenery, to be in a country where we don’t understand the language, it’s good too 😀

You will find my favorite addresses in Rouen here & our travel notebook when we went there for a weekend