The 12 essential things to do in Normandy

Set on a rocky islet at the head of a bay with some of the strongest tides in Europe, Mont-Saint-Michel is crowned by a Benedictine abbey whose sanctuary dates back to 708. The narrow, steep Grande Rue leads to the ramparts and then the abbey: the abbey church, the cloister perched in the air and the rooms of the Merveille, a 13th-century Gothic ensemble. The Mont and its bay have been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1979.

The abbey is open every day; the village itself is free to enter. At spring tides the sea surrounds the Mont.

On 6 June 1944 the Allies landed on five beaches in Calvados and the Manche: Utah and Omaha for the Americans, Gold, Juno and Sword for the British and Canadians. Along some 80 km of coast you can link Sainte-Mère-Église and its drop zone, Utah Beach, the American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer overlooking Omaha, Pointe du Hoc taken by the Rangers, and Arromanches, where the caissons of the artificial harbour still stand.

The American Cemetery is free; museums and memorials charge admission. A full day by car covers the American sector, a second day the British and Canadian sector.

On the Alabaster Coast, the chalk cliffs of Étretat frame a pebble beach. To the west, the Falaise d'Aval carries the Porte d'Aval arch and the Needle, about 50 metres high, made famous by Maurice Leblanc in Arsène Lupin's 'The Hollow Needle'; further on opens the Manneporte. To the east, the Falaise d'Amont is topped by the chapel of Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde. Courbet and Monet painted here many times.

Two free, waymarked paths climb each cliff from the beach; the full loop takes two to three hours.

At Giverny, in the Eure, Claude Monet lived from 1883 until his death in 1926. You visit his house with its green shutters, yellow dining room and collection of Japanese prints, then his two gardens: the Clos Normand, flower beds in front of the house, and the water garden across the road, with the water-lily pond and the Japanese bridge he painted for nearly thirty years.

The site is open from 1 April to 1 November; allow 1.5 to 2 hours.

The historic capital of Normandy, Rouen keeps a centre of half-timbered houses around Notre-Dame cathedral, whose façade Monet painted more than thirty times and whose cast-iron spire rises to 151 metres. Rue du Gros-Horloge passes under the 14th-century astronomical clock, set in a Renaissance arch, and leads to Place du Vieux-Marché, where Joan of Arc was burned in 1431; the church of Sainte-Jeanne-d'Arc now stands there.

Also worth seeing: the Aître Saint-Maclou, a former charnel house decorated with macabre motifs, the abbey church of Saint-Ouen and the Fine Arts Museum.

At the mouth of the Seine, Honfleur is built around the Vieux Bassin, a 17th-century harbour lined with tall, narrow slate-hung houses. Two streets away, the church of Sainte-Catherine, built in wood by ship's carpenters after the Hundred Years' War, has its bell tower standing apart on the square. The painter Eugène Boudin, born here, drew Monet to these quays; the museum named after him shows the painters of the estuary.

Round off with the 17th-century salt stores and the Côte de Grâce hill, overlooking the estuary and the Pont de Normandie.

About 70 metres long, the Bayeux Tapestry is an 11th-century wool embroidery on linen that tells, scene by scene, the conquest of England by William, Duke of Normandy, up to the battle of Hastings in 1066. Listed on UNESCO's Memory of the World register, it is normally displayed at the Bayeux Tapestry Museum.

While that museum is being renovated, it is on loan to the British Museum in London, where it is on show from 10 September 2026 to 11 July 2027, before returning to Normandy by 1 September 2027 at the latest.

Liberated on 7 June 1944 without major fighting, Bayeux kept its medieval centre, its half-timbered houses and stone mansions. Notre-Dame cathedral, consecrated in 1077 in the presence of William the Conqueror, combines a Romanesque crypt and a Gothic nave. Along the Aure you pass the mill on Rue Saint-Jean; south of the centre, the British military cemetery faces the Memorial Museum of the Battle of Normandy.

About ten kilometres from Arromanches and twenty from Omaha Beach, Bayeux is the most practical base for the D-Day beaches.

William the Conqueror and his wife Matilda of Flanders founded two abbeys in Caen in the mid-11th century, in return for the lifting of the papal ban on their marriage. The Abbaye aux Hommes, dedicated to Saint Stephen, holds William's tomb; its 18th-century monastic buildings now house the town hall. The Abbaye aux Dames, dedicated to the Trinity, holds Matilda's tomb and the seat of the Normandy Region.

The two abbey churches, major examples of Norman Romanesque, are about a 20-minute walk apart.

Perched on a rock above the Ante valley, Falaise castle is the birthplace of William the Conqueror, around 1027-1028. The great square keep was raised in the 12th century by his son Henry I Beauclerc, and the small keep and the 35-metre Talbot tower were added later. Restored, the fortress is visited with a HistoPad, a tablet that recreates the rooms in augmented reality as they were in the days of the dukes of Normandy.

The town is about forty minutes south of Caen.

William the Conqueror had Caen castle built around 1060, on a rocky spur in the heart of the city. Its walls, among the largest in Europe, enclose the church of Saint-Georges, the Exchequer hall and the remains of the keep. The rampart walk looks over the Abbaye aux Hommes and the roofs of the city rebuilt after 1944.

The enclosure also houses the Musée de Normandie, devoted to the region's history, and Caen's Fine Arts Museum.

About twenty minutes north-west of Caen, the Château de Fontaine-Henry is a 16th-century Renaissance building on medieval foundations. It is known for its French-style roof, one of the tallest in France, higher than the walls beneath it. Still lived in by the same family, it is visited with a guide who shows the carved façades, the furnished rooms and the park.