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Normandy

Normandy, a region that has provided inspiration for countless artists and writers, is the land of apple orchards and rolling farmland dotted with villages of half-timbered houses. Boasting a wealth of abbeys and châteaux, as well as a superb coastline, it offers something for everyone.

The Land of William the Conqueror

Numerous events have inextricably entwined the history of Normandy with that of Britain. William the Conqueror’s defeat of King Harold at Hastings, the final battle of the Hundred Years’ War at Formigny which saw the English ousted from France on 18 April 1450, and the D-Day landings are but three of the most prominent. A memorial to the Missing links the events of June 6 1944 to the conquest of England with the inscription: Nos a Guilielmo Victi Victoris Patriam Liberavimus (We, once conquered by William, have set free the Conqueror’s land).

Many Norman towns can claim a link of some kind with the region’s most famous historical figure. William was born at Falaise, where the castle still stands. Caen later became his favoured residence, and William bestowed two abbeys upon the town, the Abbaye aux Dames, a fine example of Norman Romanesque architecture, and the Abbaye aux Hommes. Between the two, he built a castle, enlarged by his son, Henry I. It was from the port at Dives-sur-Mer, long since silted up, that William and his fleet set sail for England in September 1066, and it is of course in Bayeux that hangs the tapestry that recounts with such painstaking attention to detail the preparations for the attack and the Battle of Hastings itself.

La Côte Fleurie

Normandy has a beautiful coastline, from the dramatic cliffs at Etretat to the windswept bays of the Cotentin Peninsula. The beaches that were the scene of the D-Day landings continue to draw hundreds of thousands of people. Besides the cemeteries and memorials, one of the most poignant reminders of the events of the summer of 1944 is the Pointe du Hoc headland which is still pockmarked with shell craters and dotted with ruined bunkers.

Further east, another much visited area is the Côte Fleurie, a 25-mile stretch of coast between Cabourg and Honfleur lined with wide beaches and grand villas and crowned by the seaside towns of Trouville and Deauville. Both are synonymous with wealth and glamour, particularly Deauville, where the rich and famous parade along the planches (boardwalk). Trouville may nowadays take second place, but it was this resort that first drew artists in the 1830s, followed soon after by the rich and fashionable. So big was the trend, which was heightened further still by the construction of a railway from Paris to the north coast, that it was decided to drain the marshes on the other side of the Touque estuary and build Deauville. Famous summer visitors included Emperor Napoleon III, Alexandre Dumas, Henry James and Marcel Proust.

Despite the glamour of Deauville and Trouville, the real gem of the Côte Fleurie is arguably Honfleur. It first became an important port during the Hundred Years War, when it was fortified (only one gate remains of the ramparts). Later, many of Normandy’s numerous explorers set sail from here, including Samuel de Champlain, who founded Quebec in 1608 and explored great tracts of Canada. However, visitors are drawn by its prettiness and its timeless quality, attributes that have inspired many an artist.

The Birthplace of Impressionism

Normandy is generally considered to be the birthplace of Impressionism. A lot is owed to Eugène Boudin, a native of Honfleur. Born there in 1824, he is recognised not only for immortalising Normandy’s coast in paintings of blustery seas and women with billowing petticoats, but also as mentor to one of the 20th century’s most prominent artists, Claude Monet. Although Monet was born in Paris, he was brought up in Le Havre and started life as a caricaturist. It was through this work that he met Boudin, who recognised his potential and persuaded him to start painting out of doors, capturing the effects of changing skies and light on the landscapes. Monet’s skills developed further still under the tutelage of Dutchman Johann Barthold Jongkind. Jongkind is one of several artists since dubbed ‘the first Impressionist’, but the movement did not gain recognition until 1874, when Monet exhibited some of his work, including the now famous painting of the sun rising over the port at Le Havre (Impression: Soleil Levant) in Paris. Even then, it was some time before Impressionism became fashionable.

Literature

Normandy has also been home to many great writers and has provided the setting for numerous novels. Pierre Corneille, the dramatist often compared to Shakespeare, was a native of Rouen, as was Gustave Flaubert, who later set Madame Bovary in his home city. Born in Fécamp, Guy de Maupassant lived in neighbouring Etretat for many years, setting his tragic tale of Miss Harriett there. More recently, Jean-Paul Sartre’s five years in Le Havre, with its wealth of sailors and seedy cafés, inspired his first novel, La Nausée (1938).

Camembert, Cream and Le Trou Normand

Normandy is associated with rich and varied cuisine. The Atlantic provides a vast array of seafood - oysters, mussels, clams, whelks, shrimps, prawns, crabs, limpets and winkles - and fish (a classic Norman dish is sole normand, flavoured with mussels), while lambs are raised on the salt meadows, the minerals in the grass flavouring the meat. The large number of dairy farms means a ready supply of milk, cream and cheese. Indeed, within Normandy the province of Calvados boasts no less than five appellation d’origine contrôlée cheeses, a number which is above the French national average. Any half-decent Norman restaurant will include on its cheese board delights such as Pont l’Evêque, Brillat Savarin and Neufchâtel, as well as the region’s most celebrated cheese, Camembert.

Normandy’s wide range of produce is so full of flavour that little embellishment is usually required, but when sauces are made to accompany a dish, these are often laced with cream or another abundant ingredient: calvados. Calvados is made by distilling cider (once in the case of appellation réglémentée calvados, and twice for the superior appellation d’origine contrôlée variety). It is this potent liqueur that the French refer to as le trou normand as it is often served between courses to revive appetites, literally to make a ‘hole’ for the remaining dishes.

We offer a wide selection of Country Auberges in Normandy within our Shortbreaks programme. This also features two popular Weekend Walks: the Heart of Normandy Walk in the Suisse Normande, and the Woods and Abbeys Walk

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