What to see in Normandy

Le Mont Saint Michel

The prodigious architecture of Mont-Saint-Michel and its bay make it the most visited tourist site in Normandy and the third in France (after the Eiffel Tower and the Palace of Versailles), with some 3,200,000 visitors every year.

Château Gaillard (Les Andelys)

A majestic twelfth-century fortress, built by Richard the Lionheart, King of England and Duke of Normandy.

Honfleur

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.

L'Abbaye du Mont-Saint-Michel

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.

Les Falaises d'Etretat

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.

Pointe du Hoc

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.

Bagnoles-de-l'Orne

A spa town nestled in the heart of the Andaines forest, organised around a romantic lake lined with Belle Époque villas and its casino.

Cap d'Antifer

The extreme tip of Cap d'Antifer cannot be passed at sea level, even at low spring tide. It is therefore one of the few points on the coast where the foot of the cliff remains inaccessible.

Chêne d'Allouville-Bellefosse

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.

Granville

A fortified corsair town perched on a rocky cape overlooking the bay of Mont-Saint-Michel, birthplace of the couturier Christian Dior.

La Brèche du Diable

9 km north of Falaise, near Soumont-Saint-Quentin, the Laizon river has forced a passage through the hills of Armorican sandstone.

La Roche d'Oetre

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.

Le Marais du Grand Hazé

The Grand Hazé marsh, straddling the communes of Briouze and Bellou-en-Houlme in the Orne, occupies a vast depression of about 200 hectares carved by rivers in an old schist-sandstone substrate inherited from the Precambrian.

Le Nez de Jobourg

The region's main site is the grandiose Nez de Jobourg, an ornithological reserve. These cliffs are among the highest in Europe (128 m).

Les Falaises des Andelys

Starting from Tourville, crossing the limestone plateau through apple trees and oak forests.

Les Falaises des Vaches Noires

The Vaches Noires in Normandy (Calvados, France) are cliffs made mainly of clays and glauconitic chalk.

Les cascades de Mortain

The waterfalls capture the very essence of deep Normandy. The Cance and Cançon have flowed here since time immemorial.

Les moines et l'Elèphant

52 islets, 365 rocks at low tide (one for every day!), Chausey is an archipelago unique in France, once well known for its granite that built Saint-Malo, Fécamp, Paris and London!

Rouen

Historic capital of Normandy where Joan of Arc was burned, whose Renaissance Gros-Horloge still overlooks a half-timbered shopping street.

Abbaye St Georges de boscherville

A twelfth-century Benedictine abbey and its 4-ha monastic garden among the most beautiful in northern France, 10 km west of Rouen.

Abbaye de Jumièges

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…

Abbaye de Montivilliers

Located north of the Seine, halfway between Honfleur and Étretat, Montivilliers abbey is among the most beautiful and prestigious abbeys of Normandy.

Abbaye de Notre-Dame du Bec

Notre-Dame du Bec abbey is a Benedictine Catholic abbey now part of the Congregation of Santa Maria di Monte Oliveto and located at Le Bec-Hellouin, near Brionne, in the Eure département.

Alligator Bay

Plunge into the heart of their natural environment and live as a family an unprecedented adventure route, under the hot and humid climates of the jungles of Africa and the forests of Louisiana.

Ange Michel

Aquabowling des Falaises

Aquavire

Arromanches 360

Overlooking the Arromanches site, the circular cinema "Arromanches 360°" projects on 9 screens the film "The Price of Freedom".

Barfleur

A former Roman-Viking port, Barfleur had nine thousand inhabitants in the time of Norman power and remained the leading port of the Cotentin in the Middle Ages.

Batterie d'Azeville

Near Sainte-Mère-Église, a guided visit of a German coastal defence battery.

Beuvron-en-Auge

A little jewel of Norman architecture, dominated by half-timbering, Beuvron-en-Auge is classified as a "most beautiful village of France".

Biotropica

Blangy-le-Château

A village of the Pays d'Auge, in the heart of a Norman bocage, ranked among the Most Beautiful Villages of France.

Capfl'o

Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Rouen

The primatial cathedral of Notre-Dame de l'Assomption in Rouen is the town's most prestigious monument.

Cathédrale de Coutances

Notre-Dame de Coutances cathedral is a thirteenth-century Gothic cathedral in Coutances, in the Manche département, in Normandy.

Centre Juno Beach

A place of remembrance in homage to Canadians and a cultural centre, the Juno Beach Centre, which opened its doors at Courseulles-sur-Mer on 6 June 2003, presents the civil and military war effort of the whole population of Canada and different faces of contemporary Canadian society.

Chemin de fer miniature

One of the largest miniature railway installations in Europe in HO scale (1/87).

Chocolatrium

The Chocolatrium, a place for initiation to cocoa and chocolate.

Château Musée

Witness of the glorious or difficult hours of Dieppe, the only monument – with the churches of Saint-Rémy and Saint-Jacques – to survive the Anglo-Dutch bombardment of 1694, the Old Castle houses the town's maritime memory and one of the finest ivory collections in Europe.

Château d'Arques-la-Bataille

Set on a chalky promontory, the château d'Arques-la-Bataille is an exemplary reference of medieval military architecture.

Château d'Harcourt

Château d'Ivry la Bataille

Château d'Omonville

This residence, whose oldest part is sixteenth century, is built in the centre of a court of honour surrounded by water-filled moats and has at the back a French-style garden.

Château de Beaumesnil

Château de Caen

Founded in the eleventh century by William the Conqueror, Caen castle has known many vicissitudes during its very long history.

Château de Canon et ses jardins

The château de Canon is a château in the commune of Mézidon-Canon, in the French Calvados département, in Normandy.

Château de Carrouges