Up the Seine by sea-going ship, to Rouen and Honfleur

Rouen has always been a port. Although it lies well inland, on the Seine between Paris and the sea, the river is wide and deep enough below the city for sea-going ships, and for centuries Rouen was one of the most important ports in France, handling the trade of Paris with the world. It still is a major port, and it is one of the few places in Europe where a cruise ship can sail far inland along a river and moor in the centre of a historic city.

The passage up the Seine from the estuary takes several hours, and it is one of the pleasures of the voyage: a gentle progress through the Normandy countryside, quite unlike a day at sea.

The estuary

The Seine meets the sea in a wide estuary between Le Havre, on the north bank, and Honfleur, on the south. Ships coming up the river pass beneath the Pont de Normandie, a huge cable-stayed bridge opened in 1995, which for a time had the longest main span of any bridge of its kind in the world. Further upstream comes the Pont de Tancarville, a suspension bridge, and then the Pont de Brotonne.

Honfleur, on the estuary's southern shore, is one of the most charming ports in Normandy, its old harbour lined with tall, narrow, slate-hung houses, its church of St Catherine built of wood by the town's shipwrights. It was beloved of the painters who gave birth to Impressionism, and the light over the estuary that drew them is still there.

The meanders

Above the estuary, the Seine winds through Normandy in a series of great loops, the meanders, between chalk cliffs on the outside of each bend and flat meadows and orchards on the inside. The river is busy with barges and ships, and the views from the deck change constantly.

On the way, it passes some of the finest sights of Normandy. The ruins of the abbey of Jumièges, on the inside of one of the loops, are among the most impressive in France, the white stone towers of its great church rising roofless above the trees, a monastery founded in the seventh century and wrecked after the Revolution. Victor Hugo called it one of the most beautiful ruins in France. Caudebec-en-Caux and La Bouille are small riverside towns of half-timbered houses, and the abbey of St-Wandrille, still home to a community of monks, lies a little way from the river.

Rouen

Rouen, at the end of the passage, is the historic capital of Normandy, a city of half-timbered houses, Gothic churches and the great cathedral that Claude Monet painted more than thirty times in different lights. In the old market square, a modern church marks the spot where Joan of Arc was burned in 1431. The Gros-Horloge, a Renaissance astronomical clock set in an arch over one of the main streets, is the city's emblem. Ships usually moor along the quays close to the centre, so that the old town is a short walk away.

Above Rouen, the river is too shallow and its bridges too low for sea-going ships, and Paris is reached by road. Some sailings combine the Seine with other ports across the Channel. Antwerp, on the Scheldt, is one of the great ports of Europe, a city of guildhalls, the Gothic Cathedral of Our Lady with its paintings by Rubens, the painter's own house, and a diamond quarter that has traded stones for centuries.

The sailings

Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines' France with Bordeaux & the River Seine, nine nights, sails from Southampton in July, with calls at Bordeaux, St Malo, Rouen and Honfleur.

Fred. Olsen's Belgium & France with the River Seine, seven nights, sails from Portsmouth in February and calls at Antwerp, Rouen and Honfleur, with Paris among its places.

The best place to be for the passage is out on deck, with a coat in any season, and a map of the river's loops. Sailing up to Rouen in the morning, as the mist lifts off the river, is one of the loveliest arrivals in Europe.