Normandy – Historic Duchy, Modern Region

Having based ourselves in the south-west corner of Normandy for our holiday, we were able to explore plenty of the region, with the occasionally foray into Brittany. Whilst these day trips were all thoroughly enjoyable, none were really long enough or in-depth enough to justify their own blog posts and so this post covers seven extra places to explore whilst in Normandy.

Villedieu-les-Poêles – This small market town was essentially our base for the holiday, with us staying in a village about 10 minutes away. With a population of about 3,500, Villediue used to be a commune in itself before merging with nearby Rouffigny in 2016. The town is famous for its historic industry of metal-work and the production of copper pans, with its residents being known as Sourdins (sourd is French for deaf, with the repeated hammering of metal causing locals to become deaf).

Villedieu is a very pretty town, with a large Hôtel de Ville (town hall), church and central square/street. A lot of the historic charm of the village remains thanks to the efforts of the wartime mayor, who offered to ride through the centre of the town following a sniper attacking American forces. Whilst the sniper had been neutralised, the American’s were concerned about other hostile forces and so were about to request aerial re-enforcements, with the mayor’s actions stopping this. The town is host to a large weekly market on Tuesdays, with free concerts also being a weekly fixture during the summer months.

Mont Saint-Michel – One of the major tourist sites of Normandy, the tidal island of Mont Saint-Michel sits in the bay of the same name and can be seen from across a large area of the west of the region. With our visit falling at the height of the school holidays, it was extremely busy and even with our earlyish start, there were hundreds of people ahead of us. The island is reached by a permanent causeway, with a free shuttle bus (or a 40–45-minute walk) linking the car parks to the island. Given the queues for the buses, we opted to walk both ways and whilst the walk there was okay, the walk back in the heat of the midday sun was probably not our best decision.

Whilst we had investigated visiting the island’s abbey, tickets for this had sold out and so we opted to explore the ramparts, heading up the main street for as long as possible before looping back round on the inland side of the island. Personally, whilst Mont Saint-Michel is definitely a bucket list item, it is also very tourist-y which detracted from the experience somewhat. It’d be interesting to visit in the quieter spring or autumn periods, but if you plan to visit I’d certainly recommend avoiding the school holidays if you can!

Saint Malo – Whilst technically in Brittany, the port town of Saint Malo sits just a few miles from Normandy and is definitely worth a mention and a visit! Wanting to ensure we did a boat trip whilst away, Saint Malo seemed the perfect location, with us taking a 90-120 minute cruise around this small part of the English channel, taking in Dinard, the Napoleonic Fort de la Conchée and Saint Malo itself. Whilst all the commentary was in French, we thoroughly enjoyed the trip and also got to see a beautiful historic sloop providing a rather more upmarket tour of the area.

Saint Malo is also famous for being a beautiful walled city, with large walls fully encompassing the city centre and the Hôtel de Ville being housed within what is essentially a castle in one corner. The city is also home to another fortress, Fort National, located on a tidal island and visitable on foot during low tide. Entrance to this was €5 and it provided a fascinating history of Saint Malo’s period of occupation during WW2 as well as excellent views back across the beach of the city walls.

Granville – About 35 minutes from our base near Villedieu, the town of Granville is one of the top beach locations on the Cotentin peninsula and has been from time to time described as ‘the Monaco of the north’. The most prominent feature of Granville is Le Roc a large rocky peninsula jutting out into Mont Saint-Michel Bay from the town. Le Roc is home to various WW2 fortifications, along with a large Napoleonic barracks and provides spectacular views with the Chausey islands (French Channel Islands) visible on clear days. Whilst I decided to explore the WW2 fortifications and enjoy the views, the rest of the family decided to visit the Museum of Curoristies which received the review of ‘a bit weird’ from Beth.

In addition to Le Roc, Granville is a lovely town to explore with markets on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays, along with the possibility of boat trips to the Chausey Islands or around Mont Saint-Michel dependant on the tide times. A visit to the Chausey Islands is a day trip in itself and so we unfortunately didn’t get chance to tick it off on this holiday, but its on the list for next time.

Bayeux – Possibly one of the most well-known towns in Normandy, Bayeux is to the north-west of Caen, and is of course famous for the Bayeux Tapestry, which tells the story of William the Conqueror’s invasion of England in 1066. Having previously visited Bayeux on a school trip when I was 11, I was expecting to be underwhelmed by the experience but was pleasantly surprised by our visit. The Bayeux tapestry museum takes you past the tapestry with a audio guide explaining the events shown, before taking you into a large exhibition which includes a film about the history of the tapestry.

Bayeux is also home to a large cathedral, which is now a national monument, along with the Battle of Normandy Museum. Completely underestimating how much detail the latter would go into, we visited in the afternoon but could have easily spent a full day there. Whilst we’ve all learnt the headlines of the D-Day landings in history lessons, 6^th June 1944 was just the start of a very bloody and chaotic period in Normandy as Allied forces struggled to gain a foothold in northern France. I’d certainly recommend spending two days in Bayeux if you can, one to cover the tapestry and town, and one to visit the Battle of Normandy Museum along with nearby War Cemetery.

D-Day Beaches – With us being in the north of the region whilst visiting Bayeux, we felt it would be inappropriate not to pay a visit to one of the D-Day beaches, and so headed to the closest, Gold Beach, where British, Dutch and Polish forces landed. The feeling of stepping onto the beach was an odd one, with locals enjoying the good weather as you would any beach, but with the knowledge that hundreds of young men lost their lives here.

Avranches – The next nearest major town to our base, we decided to visit Avranches by train and got a little bit caught out with the ridiculously steep hill between the station and town centre. However, once we’d recovered from the climb, we thoroughly enjoyed our day exploring the town which had a lot more to offer than we thought. Our first stop was the large church of Notre Dame des Champs, constructed in the 19^th century to replace the destroyed cathedral and provide the town with a large religious building. The church is built in the Gothic-Revival style and is absolutely stunning and certainly worth exploring if you visit.

In addition to the church, Avranches has a large public gardens, with views out over Mont Saint-Michel and the Sélune estuary, along with some castle ruins and Le Scriptorial. Home to Mont Saint-Michel’s historic collection of manuscripts, Le Scriptorial also fulfils the role of a local museum and a museum of Mont Saint-Michel, telling the story of the abbey’s creation by the Bishop of Avranches. Entry is just €8 for adults and certainly worth it if you want to learn more about the history of Mont Saint-Michel and the part its played in unlocking other elements of history.

Whilst we pretty much filled our holiday with day trips to explore Normandy and beyond, these are just a small selection of the places you can explore in the region. Our list at the start had more places than we had days and so some spontaneity was required to decide where to visit. If you can spend a couple of weeks exploring the region, I’d certainly recommend it, but be warned, you’ll want to stay for longer!