TOURISM IN NORMANDY



Rugged cliffs, magnificent beaches and a lush inland landscape are irresistible magnets for those who love a varied and relaxing holiday. Add a mild climate, ideal for getting out and about, plus mouth watering local cuisine, and you have a perfect recipe for a memorable holiday experience.

Enjoy the coast, by all means, but take the opportunity to appreciate the Norman countryside, with its villages, leafy lanes, clear streams, rolling fields and wooded valleys with beech and pine forests.



Normandy (in French: Normandie, and in Norman: Normaundie) is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is situated along the coasts of the south of the English Channel between Brittany (to the west) and Picardy (to the east) and comprises territory in northern France and the Channel Islands. The territory is divided between French and British sovereignty. The continental territory under French sovereignty covers 30,627 km²[1] and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions: Basse-Normandie and Haute-Normandie. The Channel Islands (referred to as Iles Anglo-Normandes in French) comprise two bailiwicks: Guernsey and Jersey.

Touring in Normandy
There is no shortage of interesting and sometimes charming places to visit in Normandy. The region’s main tourist attraction is La Cité de la Mer, the Sea City. This huge scientific and cultural centre is dedicated to mankind’s exploration and adventures in the ocean depths. The aquarium boasts some 4,000 species of fish while the exhibition centre displays the history of ocean discovery. For the stout hearted, there is a simulated submarine dive aboard Le Redoutable.

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Seaside towns are particularly pleasant. Courseulles is a seaside resort and marina with windmills, the châteaux of Fontaine-Henry, Creully, and Brecy, the 11th century church at Thaon and the priory of Saint Gabriel are all nearby.
Fécamp is an interesting town by itself. However, the secrets of the Benedictine Palace might be the main attraction here. Granville is a resort and has a picturesque fortified old town with its church of Notre-Dame and 15-18th century houses.

Inland villages also wait to charm you. Lisieux has interesting architecture restored after the war, and is becoming a major destination for pilgrims coming to the Basilica of Ste-Therese. Beuvron-en-Auge is classified as one of France’s most beautiful villages, while Beaumont-en-Auge, standing on a high promontory offers a picturesque view up to the seaside, and Cambremer is a lively market town.



Things to do in Normandy
Normandy is blessed with the geography and climate of a golfer's paradise. A total of 37 courses are open year round with 23 full courses. There are links as well as park courses, and many offer other facilities such as bars restaurants and fitness centres.




Touring by car can be fun, but if you really want to feel the nature and history of your holiday destination, you might want to leave the car behind and enjoy the delights of Normandy on foot, horseback or bicycle. Normandy is literally criss-crossed with rivers and abundant opportunities for first class fishing and exploration by canoe and kayak.

Normandy is an ideal region for touring by bicycle, with quiet roads and respect from drivers. Its countryside is friendly and cycling not too arduous, its coastline beautiful and interior lush. The coast, the inland farms and villages provide enchanting and varied vistas. So, plan your route, make sure you can get to a pretty destination like Barfleur or Honfleur for lunch and get to know this rich part of France in person.



Normandy, renowned for its green landscapes, horses, cider and cheeses has an added rare asset - its rivers. This is one of the best regions in France to fish for salmon, and is undisputedly the best region for sea-trout. Its rivers contain the famous brown trout, and the lakes and marshlands are also populated with good quantities of pike and other carnivorous fish.

Food and drink

Abroad, Camembert cheese is thought of as typically French, but is specifically a Norman dairy product.
Abroad, Camembert cheese is thought of as typically French, but is specifically a Norman dairy product.




Parts of Normandy consist of rolling countryside typified by pasture for dairy cattle and apple orchards. A wide range of dairy products are produced and exported. Norman cheeses include Camembert, Livarot, Pont l'Evêque, Brillat-Savarin, Neufchâtel, Petit Suisse and Boursin.[3] [4] Normandy butter and Normandy cream are lavishly used in gastronomic specialties.

Fish and seafood are of superior quality in Normandy. Turbot and oysters from the Cotentin Peninsula are major delicacies throughout France. Normandy is the chief oyster-cultivating, scallop-exporting, and mussel-raising region in France.




Normandy is a major cider-producing region (very little wine is produced). Perry is also produced, but in less significant quantities. Apple brandy, of which the most famous variety is calvados, is also popular. The mealtime trou normand, or Norman break, is a pause between meal courses in which diners partake of a glassful of calvados, and is still observed in many homes and restaurants. Pommeau is an aperitif produced by blending unfermented cider and apple brandy. Another aperitif is the kir normand, a measure of cassis topped up with cider. Bénédictine is produced in Fécamp.

Apples are also used in cooking: for example, moules à la normande are mussels cooked with apples and cream, bourdelots are apples baked in pastry, partridges are flamed with reinette apples, and localities all over the province have their own variation of apple tart. A classic pastry dish from the region is flan Normand a pastry-based variant of the apple tart.



Other regional specialities include tripes à la mode de Caen, andouilles and andouillettes, salt meadow (pré salé) lamb, seafood (mussels, scallops, lobsters, mackerel…), and teurgoule (spiced rice pudding).

Normandy dishes include duckling à la rouennaise, sautéed chicken yvetois, and goose en daube. Rabbit is cooked with morels, or à la havraise (stuffed with truffled pigs' trotters). Other dishes are sheep's trotters à la rouennaise, casseroled veal, larded calf's liver braised with carrots, and veal (or turkey) in cream and mushrooms.

Normandy is also noted for its pastries. It is the birthplace of brioches (especially those from Évreux and Gisors) and also turns out douillons (pears baked in pastry), craquelins, roulettes in Rouen, fouaces in Caen, fallues in Lisieux, sablés in Lisieux. Confectionery of the region includes Rouen apple sugar, Isigny caramels, Bayeux mint chews, Falaise berlingots, Le Havre marzipans, Argentan croquettes, and Rouen macaroons.

Normandy is the native land of Taillevent, cook of the kings of France Charles V and Charles VI. He wrote the earliest French cookery book named Le Viandier. Confiture de lait was also made in Normandy around the 14th century.


GEOGRAPHIE OF NORMANDY



Upper Normandy (Haute-Normandie) consists of the French départements of Seine-Maritime and Eure, and Lower Normandy (Basse-Normandie) of the départements of Orne, Calvados, and Manche. The former province Normandy comprised present-day Upper and Lower Normandy, as well as small areas now part of the départements of Eure-et-Loir, Mayenne, and Sarthe.

The name of Normandy is derived from the settlement and conquest of the territory by Vikings ("Northmen") from the 9th century, and confirmed by treaty in the 10th century. For a century and a half following the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, Normandy and England were linked by Norman rulers, but following 1204 the continental territory was ultimately held by France.

The population of Normandy is around 3.45 million people. The continental population of 3.26 million accounts for 5.5% of the population of France (in 2005).

Basse-Normandie is predominantly agricultural in character, with cattle breeding the most important sector (although in decline from the peak levels of the 1970s and 1980s). The bocage is a patchwork of small fields with high hedges, typical of western areas. Haute-Normandie contains a higher concentration of industry. Normandy is a significant cider-producing region, and and also produces calvados, a distilled cider or apple brandy. Other activities of economic importance are dairy produce, flax (60% of production in France), horse breeding (including two French national stud farms), fishing, seafood, and tourism. The region contains three French nuclear power stations.

History
In 27 BC, Emperor Augustus reorganized the Gallic territories by adding Calètes and Véliocasses to the province of Gallia Lugdunensis, which had its capital at Lyon. The Romanization of Normandy was achieved by the usual methods: Roman roads and a policy of urbanization.

The fiefdom of Normandy was created for the Viking leader Rollo (also known as Robert of Normandy). Rollo had besieged Paris but in 911 entered vassalage to the king of the West Franks Charles the Simple through the Treaty of Saint Clair-sur-Epte. In exchange for his homage and fealty, Rollo legally gained the territory he and his Viking allies had previously conquered. The name "Normandy" reflects Rollo's Viking (i.e. "Northman") origins.

The descendants of Rollo and his followers adopted the local Gallo-Romantic language and intermarried with the area’s previous inhabitants and became the Normans – a Norman French-speaking mixture of Scandinavians, Hiberno-Norse, Orcadians, Anglo-Danish, and indigenous Franks and Gauls.
Roman theatre in Lillebonne
Roman theatre in Lillebonne

Rollo's descendant William, Duke of Normandy became king of England in 1066 in the Norman Conquest culminating at the Battle of Hastings while retaining the fiefdom of Normandy for himself and his descendants.

Norman expansion
Besides the Norman conquest of England and the subsequent conquests of Wales and Ireland, the Normans expanded into other areas.

Tancred's sons William Iron Arm, Drogo of Hauteville, Humphrey of Hauteville, Robert Guiscard and Roger the Great Count conquered the Emirate of Sicily and additional territories in Southern Italy and carved out a place for themselves and their descendants in the Crusader States of Asia Minor and the Holy Land.

15th century Norman explorer Jean de Béthencourt established a kingdom on the Canary Islands. Béthencourt received the title King of the Canary Islands but recognized Henry III of Castile, who had provided aid during the conquest, as his overlord.

Norman families, such as that of Tancred of Hauteville played important parts in the Crusades.

Division of Normandy
In 1204, during the reign of King John, mainland Normandy was taken from England by France under Philip II while insular Normandy (the Channel Islands) remained under English control. In 1259, Henry III of England recognized the legality of French possession of mainland Normandy under the Treaty of Paris . His successors, however, often fought to regain control of mainland French Normandy.



The Charte aux Normands granted by Louis X of France in 1315 (and later re-confirmed in 1339), like the analogous Magna Carta granted in England in the aftermath of 1204, guaranteed the liberties and privileges of the province of Normandy.

French Normandy was occupied by English forces during the Hundred Years' War in 1346-1360 and again in 1415-1450. Afterwards, prosperity returned to Normandy until the Wars of Religion when many Norman towns (Alençon, Rouen, Caen, Coutances, Bayeux) joined the Reformation and battles ensued throughout the province. In the Channel Islands, a period of Calvinism following the Reformation was suppressed when Anglicanism was imposed following the English Civil War.

During the French Revolution, Normandy generally supported the idea of a Federal republic against the highly centralized conception championed by the Jacobins in Paris.

World War II


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During World War II, following the armistice of 22 June 1940 continental Normandy was part of the German occupied zone of France. The Channel Islands were occupied by German forces between 30 June and 4 July.

The town of Dieppe was the site of the ill-fated Dieppe Raid by Canadian and British armed forces.

During the Second World War, the D Day landings on the Normandy beaches under the code name Operation Overlord were a massive invasion of German-occupied France by Allied troops. Caen, Cherbourg, Carentan, Falaise and other Norman towns endured many casualties in the Battle of Normandy, which continued until the closing of the so-called Falaise gap between Chambois and Montormel, then liberation of Le Havre.

This led to the restoration of the French Republic, and a significant turning point in the war. The remainder of Normandy was only liberated on 9 May 1945 at the end of the war, when the Occupation of the Channel Islands ended.

Geography

The historical Duchy of Normandy was a formerly independent duchy occupying the lower Seine area, the Pays de Caux and the region to the west through the Pays d'Auge as far as the Cotentin Peninsula.

The region is bordered along the northern coasts by the English Channel. There are granite cliffs in the west and limestone cliffs in the east. There are also long stretches of beach in the center of the region. The bocage typical of the western areas caused problems for the invading forces in the Battle of Normandy. There are meanders of the Seine as it approaches its estuary which form a notable feature of the landscape.



The highest point is the Signal d'Écouves (427m) in the Suisse Normande.

Normandy is sparsely forested[2]: 12.8% of the territory is wooded, compared to a French average of 23.6%, although the proportion varies between the departments. Eure has most cover (21%) while Manche has least (4%), a characteristic shared with the Islands.

Regions
* The Suisse normande (Norman Switzerland), in the south, presents hillier terrain.
* The Pays d'Auge, central Normandy, is characterized by excellent agricultural land.
* The Roumois
* The Lieuvin
* The Cotentin Peninsula
o La Hague
* The Pays de Caux
* The Bessin
* The Pays d'Ouche
* The Norman Vexin
* The Pays de Bray

Channel Islands
The Channel Islands, although British crown dependencies, are considered culturally and historically a part of Normandy.

Although the British surrendered claims to mainland Normandy and other French possessions in 1801, the monarch of the United Kingdom retains the title Duke of Normandy in respect to the Channel Islands. The Channel Islands (except for Chausey) remain Crown dependencies of the British Crown in the present era. Thus the Loyal Toast in the Channel Islands is La Reine, notre Duc ("The Queen, our Duke"). The British monarch is understood to not be the Duke of Normandy in regards of the French region of Normandy described herein, by virtue of the Treaty of Paris of 1259, the surrender of French possessions in 1801, and the belief that the rights of succession to that title are subject to Salic Law which excludes inheritance through female heirs.



Rivers in Normandy include:
* the Seine
* the Orne
* the Vire
* the Eure
* the Risle
* the Robec
* the Touques
* the Couesnon, which traditionally marks the boundary between the Duchy of Brittany and the Duchy of Normandy.

The principal cities (population at the 1999 census) are Rouen (518,316 inhabitants in the metropolitan area), the capital of Upper Normandy and formerly of the whole province; Caen (370,851 inhabitants in the metropolitan area), the capital of Lower Normandy; Le Havre (296,773 inhabitants in the metropolitan area); and Cherbourg (117,855 inhabitants in the metropolitan area).

Culture
The traditional provincial flag of Normandy, gules, two leopards passant or, is used in both modern regions.

The historic three-leopard version (known in the Norman language as les treis cats, "the three cats") is used by some associations and individuals, especially those who support reunification of the regions and cultural links with the Channel Islands and England. Jersey and Guernsey use three leopards in their national symbols. The three leopards represents the strength and courage Normandy has towards the neighbouring provinces.

The unofficial anthem of the region is the song "Ma Normandie".



Literature
See also: Anglo-Norman literature and Gesta Normannorum Ducum

The Dukes of Normandy commissioned and inspired epic literature to record and legitimise their rule. Wace, Orderic Vitalis and Étienne of Rouen were among those who wrote in the service of the Dukes.

After the division of 1204, French literature provided the model for the development of literature in Normandy. Olivier Basselin wrote of the Vaux de Vire, the origin of literary vaudeville.

The Corneille brothers, Pierre and Thomas, born in Rouen, were great figures of French classical literature, while David Ferrand (1591-1660) in his Muse Normande established a landmark of Norman language literature.

Painting
Romanticism drew painters to the Channel coasts of Normandy. Richard Parkes Bonington and J. M. W. Turner crossed the Channel from Great Britain, attracted by the light and landscapes. Théodore Géricault, a native of Rouen, was a notable figure in the Romantic movement. The competing Realist tendency was represented by Jean-François Millet, a native of La Hague.

From the 1860s, plein-air painters, who worked outside the studio, were attracted to Normandy by the ease of railway access from Paris and the development of a market among the growing number of affluent tourists visiting the coasts of Calvados. Eugène Boudin's paintings of fashionable seaside scenes are typical of this period.

Claude Monet's waterlily garden at Giverny is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the region, and his series of views of Rouen Cathedral are major works of Impressionism. It was Impression, Sunrise, a painting by Monet of Le Havre, that led to the movement being dubbed "Impressionism".



The Société normande de peinture moderne was founded in 1909. Among members were Raoul Dufy, a native of Le Havre, Albert Marquet, Francis Picabia and Maurice Utrillo. Also in this movement were the Duchamp brothers, Jacques Villon and Marcel Duchamp.

Architecture
Architecturally, Norman cathedrals, abbeys (such as the Abbey of Bec) and castles characterise the former Duchy in a way that mirrors the similar pattern of Norman architecture in England following the Norman Conquest of 1066.

Domestic architecture in upper Normandy is typified by half-timbered buildings that also recall vernacular English architecture, although the farm enclosures of the more harshly landscaped Pays de Caux are a more idiosyncratic response to socio-economic and climatic imperatives. Much urban architectural heritage was destroyed during the Battle of Normandy in 1944 - post-war urban reconstruction, such as in Le Havre and Saint-Lô, could be said to demonstrate both the virtues and vices of modernist and brutalist trends of the 1950s and 1960s. Le Havre, the city rebuilt by Auguste Perret, was added to Unesco’s World Heritage List in 2005.

Vernacular architecture in lower Normandy takes its form from granite, the predominant local building material. The Channel Islands also share this influence - Chausey was for many years a source of quarried granite, including that used for the construction of Mont Saint-Michel.

Région Bretagne



The south part of Bagnoles-de-l'Orne is filled with bourgeois villas in Belle Époque style with polychrome façades, bow windows and unique roofing. This area, built between 1886 and 1914, has an authentic “Bagnolese” style and is typical of high-society country vacation of the time.

Religion
The Chapel of Saint Germanus (Chapelle Saint-Germain) at Querqueville with its trefoil floorplan incorporates elements of one of the earliest surviving places of Christian worship in the Cotentin - perhaps second only to the Gallo-Roman baptistry at Port-Bail.

Christian missionaries implanted monastic communities in the territory in the 5th and 6th centuries. Some of these missionaries came from across the Channel. The influence of Celtic Christianity can still be found in the Cotentin.

By the terms of the treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte, Rollo, a Viking pagan, accepted Christianity and was baptised. The Duchy of Normandy was therefore formally a Christian state from its foundation.

The cathedrals of Normandy have exerted influence down the centuries in matters of both faith and politics. Henry II, King of England, did penance at the cathedral of Avranches on 21 May 1172 and was absolved from the censures incurred by the assassination of Thomas Becket. Mont Saint-Michel is a historic pilgrimage site.



Normandy does not have one generally-agreed patron saint, although this title has been ascribed to Saint Michael, and to Saint Ouen.

Prominent Protestants ministers include Pierre Allix, Jacques Basnages, and Samuel Bochart.

Saints
Many saints have been revered in Normandy down the centuries, including:
* Aubert who is remembered as the founder of Mont Saint-Michel
* Marcouf and Laud who are important saints in Lower Normandy
* Helier and Samson of Dol who are evangelizers of the Channel Islands
* Thomas Becket, an Anglo-Norman whose parents were from Rouen, who was the object of a considerable cult in mainland Normandy following his martyrdom
* Joan of Arc who was martyred in Rouen, and who is especially remembered in that city
* Thérèse de Lisieux whose former home in Lisieux is a focus for religious devotion

Population
In January 2006 the population of Normandy (including the part of Perche which lies inside the Orne département but excluding the Channel Islands) was estimated at 3,260,000 with an average population density of 109 inhabitants per km², just under the French national average, but rising to 147 for Upper Normandy.