What to see and do in Normandy on holiday. The main attractions are Mont Saint Michel, Bayeux and the D-Day landing sites. Food and drink feature highly as do heritage sites and quaint towns and villages.
February sees the arrival of La Chandeleur in France. It’s another food-based tradition and follows the frangipane flavoured puff pastry cakes in January. La Chandeleur is a religious festival that is celebrated on the 2nd February – exactly 40 days after Christmas. This festival involves pancakes (crêpes) instead. La Chandeleur is the equivalent of Candlemas…
Renowned for the role Normandy has played in history, it’s home to Bayeux and the D-Day landing beaches. It’s perfect for history buffs or beginners and you can trace William the Conqueror’s footsteps in Caen and Falaise. Quaint towns and villages with markets selling local produce are perfect for a stroll and a browse. Chateaux,…
Le réveillon is the Christmas meal traditionally eaten on the 24th December in the evening. More recently families have started enjoying two celebration meals particularly if they spend time with both families. In this case there’s one meal on the 24th and another on the 25th. Christmas in Normandy is generally the same as throughout…
Normandy’s most popular visitor attraction waited almost 790 years for a facelift that cost over 2.6 million euros. Was it worth the wait and the price tag? Absolutely! The cloister at Mont Saint Michel in Normandy was completed in 1228. In 2017 the renovation work started and lasted for 18 months. The photos in the…
Think of Normandy’s beaches and possibly the D-D landing beaches spring to mind. The beaches of Sword, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Utah are certainly a draw to visitors. Many come to pay their respects and reflect on the significant role the beaches played in the events of 1944. There is, however, much more to the…
The Phare de Gatteville is a Normandy lighthouse at the tip of Barfleur and is the second tallest lighthouse in France. Strong currents and numerous shipwrecks in the area prompted this Normandy lighthouse to be built. The original version of the lighthouse was built in 1774. It can be seen on the left of the larger…
The Haras National de Saint-Lô in Normandy is a horse stud farm set just outside the centre of the town. Built in 1806, the magnificent stables have a very distinctive and rather elegant exterior. The majority of the stables were destroyed during the bombings which St Lô endured during the second world war. Around 95%…
What are the key things to see and do in Rouen? The city is known for its Notre Dame cathedral, with a Tour de Beurre (butter tower) The cathedral’s gothic façade that was completed in the 1500s was the subject of a series of paintings by Claude Monet. The Gros Horloge is an astronomical clock…
Great pictures from Sabina Lorkin of the ‘normandy tide of the century’ dating from March 2015. I’m not sure why it’s called that as it happens every 18 years. Like Sabina, I also got up at silly o’clock to watch the tide near to St Martin de Brehal in Normandy. What was a road quickly…
Français 
English (UK)