From the bay of Mont-Saint-Michel to the cliffs of Étretat, Normandy offers a succession of landscapes and places of history: Romanesque abbeys, Gothic cathedrals, painters' ports, D-Day beaches and bocage countryside.
This selection brings together the great classics, such as Mont-Saint-Michel, Étretat and Honfleur, and more discreet sites: the Roche d'Oëtre above the Suisse Normande, the Nez de Jobourg, the thousand-year-old oak of Allouville-Bellefosse and the village of Veules-les-Roses.
The region is easily visited in a few days: distances are short, but tides and weather can change your plans.
On a rocky islet in the middle of immense sands subject to the coming and going of powerful tides, on the border between Normandy and Brittany, rise the "Wonder of the West", a Gothic Benedictine abbey dedicated to the archangel Saint Michael, and the village born in the shelter of its walls.
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The cliffs of Étretat are an exceptional natural site where the spectacle of cliffs cut into arches, needles and pinnacles will take your breath away.
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A historic port on the Seine estuary, with its Vieux Bassin lined with tall half-timbered houses, a source of inspiration for the Impressionist painters.
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The Giverny Museum of Impressionisms (abbreviated MDIG) is a museum in the village of Giverny, in the Eure département (Haute-Normandie region, France).
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A majestic twelfth-century fortress, built by Richard the Lionheart, King of England and Duke of Normandy.
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The primatial cathedral of Notre-Dame de l'Assomption in Rouen is the town's most prestigious monument.
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The abbey of Saint-Pierre de Jumièges (Seine-Maritime) was founded by Saint Philibert, son of a Frankish count of Gascony, around 654 on a royal treasury estate at Jumièges. Jumièges abbey became State property again in 1947, then property of the Seine-Maritime département in 2007 as part of…
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Bayeux's Notre-Dame cathedral, dedicated in 1077 in the presence of William, was one of the most important Romanesque monuments.
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The Bayeux Tapestry (Calvados) is a 70-metre-long embroidery made in the eleventh century.
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A steep rocky promontory stormed by the American Rangers on 6 June 1944, whose ground, shattered by craters, and blockhouses still bear witness to the fighting.
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The Vaches Noires in Normandy (Calvados, France) are cliffs made mainly of clays and glauconitic chalk.
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9 km north of Falaise, near Soumont-Saint-Quentin, the Laizon river has forced a passage through the hills of Armorican sandstone.
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The region's main site is the grandiose Nez de Jobourg, an ornithological reserve. These cliffs are among the highest in Europe (128 m).
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The Roche d'Oëtre, locally called "Oître", lies in the heart of the Suisse Normande, in the commune of Saint-Philbert-sur-Orne. It is a magnificent rocky ridge overlooking the Rouvre by about 120 metres.
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Planted, according to tradition, nearly a thousand years ago, this pedunculate oak standing in the church square of Allouville-Bellefosse is one of the most famous trees in France.
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Veules-les-Roses is a little jewel of the Alabaster Coast. This small seaside resort enchants with superb Norman thatched cottages, gardens overflowing with roses and hydrangeas, and mills of the past.
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A little jewel of Norman architecture, dominated by half-timbering, Beuvron-en-Auge is classified as a "most beautiful village of France".
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