HISTORY
WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR – 1066
 In the Middle Ages, Normandy was,like Burgundy, a great dukedom which rivalled in power and prestige with the kingdom of France. King Edward the Confessor named his nephew William (the Conqueror) as his successor and he invaded England in 1066, to assert his claim. The story is told in the historic Bayeux Tapestry, which can be visited in Bayeux, near Caen.The former dukedom of Normandy is nowadays divided into two regions; Upper Normandy (Haute Normandie) in the east, and Lower Normandy (BasseNormandie) in the west.

D-DAY
This year Normandy will commemorate the 70th anniversary of D-Day and the Battle of Normandy from March through to the end of August with ceremonies, firework displays, street dances, parades and re-enactments.

LOWER NORMANDY

Mont St Michel -  the world famous mediaeval abbey built on a rock in the bay - a UNESCO world heritage site. Perched on a rocky islet in the midst of vast sandbanks exposed to powerful tides between Normandy and Brittany stand the 'Wonder of the West', a Gothic-style Benedictine abbey dedicated to the archangel St Michael, and the village that grew up in the shadow of its great walls. Built between the 11th and 16th centuries, the abbey is a technical and artistic tour de force, having had to adapt to the problems posed by this unique natural site. The slender towers and sky-scraping turrets of the abbey is iconic, rising from  stout ramparts and battlements, the whole ensemble connected to the mainland by a narrow causeway (which will be replaced by a bridge by 2014; he Mont manages to whisk you back to the Middle Ages. The bay around Mont St-Michel has Europe's highest tidal variations; the difference between low and high tides can reach 15m. The Mont is only completely surrounded by the sea every month or two, but regardless of the time of year, the waters sweep in at an astonishing clip, said to be as fast as a galloping horse. At low tide the Mont is surrounded by bare sand for kilometres around, but at high tide, barely six hours later, the whole bay can be submerged.Astounding, and will even appeal to kids - it’s the location of Mickey Mouse's dungeon from The Three Musketeers; the crowded streets are the place to buy beignets like Tiana made in The Princess and the Frog, and kids might even love the atmospheric mussel and oyster bars along the edge of the bay of Mont St Michel.

•    Bayeux - attractive old Norman town where the historic Bayeux tapestry is preserved, 900 years after it was made. The 231-foot-long (and only 20 inches wide) Bayeux Tapestry, which unspools in its very own museum. People use the audio device that comes with the entrance ticket, but it’s set up to send you rocketing the length of the tapestry in 20 minutes, but no one goes that fast: This matchless visual documentation of the events leading up to the Battle of Hastings in 1066, the culmination of the Norman conquest of England, teems with details—messengers delivering urgent dispatches, warships being built, battles being fought (complete with decapitations), treaties being negotiated. A highlight is the banquet scene, in which soldiers fortify themselves with roasted meats, wine swigged from drinking horns, and what look like loaves of bread.
Bayeux is also the departure point of coach tours of the Normandy beaches. There is also a fine medieval cathedral.

•    The Normandy Beaches - the site of the D-Day Landings - Omaha Beach, Juno Beach, Utah Beach and the others. The  landings are commemorated in monuments, museums and the war graves of the thousands who gave their lives.  Normandy Beaches coach tours depart from Bayeux, they take about 9 hour tour for €90 of Utah beach, Omaha beach - the two main beaches where the United States First Army stormed ashore on D-Day. The tour also takes you to see the impressive fortifications built by the Germans to repel the Allies' inevitable attack, and  the German and American cemetery, the Airborne Museum of Saint-Mere-Eglis.

•    Omaha beach - one of the five Landing beaches. The future of France and Europe was at stake here on 6th June 1944, most casualties here, earned the title Bloody Omaha. You get a clearer idea of the progress of the battles. The coastline is composed of steep chalk cliffs, which rise one hundred feet or so above the sea. At the Visitor Center the details of Operation Overlord are explained. Outside, a viewpoint diagram placed in front of a water mirror, shows the beaches where the Allied forces landed.  The American cemetery at Colleville - 70 hectares ceded to the United States by the French government.  The cemetery contains 9,387 gravestones perfectly aligned on a majestic expanse of green lawn. You can watch the ceremony of the Lowering of the Colours to the sound of a military hymn, the American flag is lowered and folded. An important, moving daily ceremony.

•    The seaside resortsof Honfleur, Deauville- genteel resorts that flourished in the nineteenth century, as the closest to Paris.The harbours have long esplanades lined with colourful gingerbread villas that resemble the home of the Munsters or the Adam's Family.

•    Deauville is the swankiest of the three coastal resorts, founded in the late 1800s by a half brother of Napoleon III, Deauville is renowned for its seaside promenade, horse races, and long-running Deauville American Film Festival. With its mix of astounding architecture—here vintage belle époque, there half-timbering more distinctive and ornamental than in Alsace—it’s where Normandy meets Burberry.
•    Honfleur -“The jewel of Normandy” a fishing town since the Middle Ages—the local fleet still unloads its catch daily— mussels and fries served in the boat-filled harbour  (mussels are to Normandy what burgers are to America). Nearby, a parade of steep-roofed timber-frame buildings line Place Sainte-Catherine, a square presided over by the largest wooden church in France, the medieval Église Ste-Catherine, celebrated in painting by both Claude Monet and Gustave Courbet. It’s breath-taking in its sombre simplicity and primacy.
•    Le Cité de la Mer, Cherbourg: Devoted to underwater exploration, the museum includes a visit of the Redoutable, the biggest visitable sub in the world, plus the deepest aquarium in Europe.
•    Caen- a large part of which was destroyed in the Second World War, has a Memorial museum of the Normandy Landings and the Liberation

UPPER NORMANDY
Giverny: On the right-hand bank of the Seine. The home of the greatest Impressionist, Claude Monet, and the Giverny Museum of Impressionism. Monet lived here for many years, it has become a very popular place to visit for art lovers. ½ million visitors a year to his house, to see the Flower Garden in the front and the Water Garden in the rear, with the famous Japanese bridge covered with wisterias, other smaller bridges, weeping willows, a bamboo wood and above all the famous nympheas which bloom all summer long. Never before had a painter so shaped his subjects in nature before painting them. Monet would find his inspiration in this water garden for more than twenty years. After the Japanese bridge series, he would devote himself to the giant decorations of the Orangerie. Always looking for mist and transparencies, Monet would dedicate himself less to flowers than to reflections in water, a kind of inverted world transfigured by the liquid element.The Impressionist movement is named after Claude Monet's Impression, sunrise painted in 1872 in Le Havre.     The HôtelBaudy: In the old days this mythical site was visited by many artists, including Cézanne and Rodin, who came to Giverny in search of inspiration. The HôtelBaudy is now a café-restaurant, whose espaliered garden, with its numerous varieties of old roses, is a place of contemplation. (There are more works by the major Impressionists in the museums at Rouen and Le Havre.)
Rouen with its quays on the river Seine, its picturesque historic centre, with half-timbered houses, an ancient clock, and a magnificent gothic cathedral, Rouen is one of France's great historic cities. The Rouen Fine Arts museum - musée des beaux arts - has a good but small collection of Impressionists, plus a broad collection of old masters from 15th century to the 20th century, including Rubens, Velasquez, Poussin and many more. There is also the Joan of Arc museum .
Le Havre  In the 1950's, the old town, destroyed in the war, was rebuilt in concrete by architect AugustePerret, to the wishes of the Communist city council. This example of postwar Soviet-style urban planning is classed as a UNESCO world heritage site. Musée Malraux : one of the best museums outside Paris for impressionism & fauvism. Large collection of 19th & 20th century masters including Monet, Renoir, Boudin, Marquet, Pissaro and many others.

FOOD: Cream. Butter. Cider. Calvados. Oysters. Smelly cheeses such as Camembert and Pont-l’Évêque pungent, washed-rind, cow’s milk cheeses—the staple of Normandy.
The Route du Cidre, is a 25-mile drive through cider and Calvados brandy country.
It’s a region of old-school artisanal producers, people whose way of life has always been about craftsmanship, not the nouveau rural types who move to the countryside and purchase a herd of goats. The restaurants are traditional and unfussy, for the most part unsullied by Michelin stars, which tend to reward expense and extravagance. The best eclairs, brioche, gallettes and apple-filled tart tatin, rich with milk, sugar, and caramelized butter.

PHENOMENAL WALKING, HIKING AND BIKING
Pilgrims Trail-two separate routes from Cherbourg (7 stages) and Barfleur (8 stages) to Mont St Michel. Each stage varies between 25-30km and consists of on and off-road sections.
The Dukes of Normandy routes, from Caen and Rouen- Follow the routes taken by Norman pilgrims in their thousands across the old Duchy of Normandy. The Caen route opened in 2001 and Rouen route was inaugurated in 2004.

NATIONAL &REGIONAL PARKS
Normandy Seine Regional Park http://www.pnr-seine-normande.com/
Normandy Maine Regional Park - 257,000 hectares
Contentin&Bessin Regional Park http://www.parc-contentin-bessin.fr/
The Perche Regional Park http://www.le-perche.org/
The ParcNationale des Boucles de la Seine (the Curves of the Seine National Park) is a national treasure. The towns which lie within the boundaries of this reserve are of high environmental interest but are fragile as their existence depends on the twists and turns of the river, and maintaining their ecological balance. From Rouen to Le Havre, the Seine flows over 180km and the landscape surrounding the river offers a beautiful way to spend a day exploring the Haute Normandy countryside. Norman countryside, with its small villages and traditional half-timbered cottages.
“La Base de Plein Air et de Loisirs” is the ideal place for sports enthusiasts and amateurs, offering 25hectares of climbing walls, tennis courts, archery targets as well as lakes for sailing and wind surfing.

You get to hike through a mantel of ancient oak and sweet chestnut which covers the hills in all directions, with maize fields in the valleys and ochre cattle grazing the lower slopes. Development is strictly curtailed within the park and so almost all of the houses were elegant lime-washed, oak-beamed buildings with authentic 19th century outhouses, and well maintained orchards and vegetable gardens. Heavy snow and lightning storms in winter mean that households must be self-sufficient in terms of fuel, and so each house had neatly-stacked cords of well-seasoned wood which the owners had chopped themselves from pollarded trees, or well-managed hedgerows. After the summer hunting season  comes to an end,each weekend people gather in the forests collecting mushrooms, with guns slung over their shoulders in the hopes of bagging the last of the season’s boar quota.  
My favourite spots are Lonlay-l’Abbaye, Domfront, Flers, Sourdeval or any of the other towns within the park that covers a vast area of rolling  hills, thick woodland, and open country.

HOW TO GET THERE:
Flights:Beauvais& Charles de Gaulle - parts of it are 100km from Paris.
Dublin to Rennes (in Brittany) Aer Lingus - €122
Cork to Rennes Aer Lingus €130

CELTIC LINK - Rosslare to Cherbourg: 3  sailings every week . Between €200 to €300.
IRISH FERRIES - Rosslare to Cherbourg: sailings three times a week - €300
Dublin to Cherbourg: weekly sailings - €300