Normandy carries two of the heaviest stories in French history and one of its prettiest coastlines. The 1944 landing beaches run 80 km from Utah to Sword, with the American cemetery above Omaha and the Bayeux Tapestry — the other invasion, in the other direction — eight centuries older and ten minutes inland. West of them, Mont-Saint-Michel rises out of a tidal bay that empties for kilometres. East, the Alabaster Coast throws up the arch and needle at Étretat that Monet painted more than eighty times, and the Impressionists' harbour at Honfleur. Inland it is cider, camembert, half-timbered manor houses and Rouen's cathedral façade.
- Mont-Saint-Michel and its bay
- The D-Day beaches and the Normandy American Cemetery
- The Bayeux Tapestry
- Étretat's cliffs and Honfleur's Vieux Bassin
- Monet's house and water garden at Giverny
- Rouen — the cathedral and the old town
- Best time to go
- June for the D-Day commemorations and long light; May and September for Mont-Saint-Michel without the crowds. Check tide tables before crossing the bay — the highest spring tides are the spectacle.
- Getting there
- Ferries from Portsmouth and Poole to Caen, Cherbourg and Le Havre; Paris–Rouen 1h15 and Paris–Caen 2h by train. A car is close to essential for the landing beaches and the Cotentin.
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Headline places
What france.fr leads with in Normandy.
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Mont-Saint-Michel Abbey A Gothic abbey balanced on a granite rock in a tidal bay -
The Bayeux Tapestry Seventy metres of embroidery telling the 1066 invasion, made in the 1070s -
Omaha Beach The bloodiest of the five landing beaches, six kilometres long -
Normandy American Cemetery 9,388 graves on the bluff directly above Omaha -
Pointe du Hoc A 30 m cliff scaled under fire, and a clifftop still full of craters -
Arromanches & the Mulberry Harbour The concrete caissons of a portable harbour, still out in the bay -
Utah Beach The westernmost landing beach, and its museum built on the dune -
Sainte-Mère-Église The first town liberated — and the paratrooper still on the church tower -
Longues-sur-Mer Battery The only Atlantic Wall battery with its original guns still in place -
The Cliffs of Étretat The arch and the needle, painted by Monet more than eighty times -
Monet's Garden at Giverny The water lilies, the Japanese bridge, and the house he painted them from -
Rouen Cathedral The façade Monet painted thirty times in different light -
Honfleur's Vieux Bassin Tall slate-fronted houses round a harbour, and the wooden church behind
Tourism areas
The names people actually use for this part of France — some of them cross into the next region.
Cities & bases
Where to sleep, and what each place is good for.
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Rouen The cathedral Monet painted thirty times, and where Joan of Arc died -
Caen William the Conqueror's abbeys and the Mémorial peace museum -
Bayeux The Tapestry, an untouched old town and the D-Day beaches next door -
Honfleur The slate-fronted harbour that the Impressionists could not leave alone -
Deauville Parasols, racehorses and the boardwalk Paris goes to at weekends -
Étretat The chalk arch and needle Monet painted more than eighty times -
Le Havre Auguste Perret's rebuilt concrete city, listed by UNESCO -
Giverny Monet's house, his water garden and the bridge -
Mont-Saint-Michel An abbey on a rock in a bay that empties for kilometres
Islands
Our guides
Full destination guides we already publish in this region.
Normandy by experience
The themes this region delivers on.
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Culture & heritage 53 UNESCO World Heritage sites, and the cathedrals that invented Gothic -
Food & wine Seventeen wine regions, 1,600 cheeses, and the gastronomic meal on the UNESCO list -
Nature & outdoors Glaciers, gorges, volcanoes and 180,000 km of waymarked footpath - Coast & beaches Three seas and an ocean — around 5,800 km of mainland coast, and far more overseas
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Cities Paris, and eleven more cities that would headline any other country - Villages & countryside The 180-odd villages on the official 'most beautiful in France' list
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Remembrance The Somme, Verdun and the Normandy beaches — two wars written into the landscape -
Pilgrimage & spirituality Four Camino routes, Lourdes, Mont-Saint-Michel and the Romanesque abbeys -
Spa & wellness Around 90 working thermal spa towns, and the coastline that invented thalassotherapy -
Romance The Riviera corniche, a Loire château, a Provençal village, a Paris weekend -
Shopping & savoir-faire Perfume in Grasse, porcelain in Limoges, crystal in Lorraine, couture in Paris -
Nightlife & entertainment Festival season, cabaret, beach clubs and the theme parks
