Vernon → Pontorson

01 Monument

Fondation Monet in Giverny

Fondation Claude-Monet

Claude Monet lived here from 1883 until his death in 1926, dressing the pink-rendered house with green shutters and a dazzling yellow dining room. Cross the water garden to the Japanese bridge, rebuilt exactly as it was beneath the wisteria the painter planted. Rescued from neglect, the house and gardens opened to the public in 1980.

02 Castle

Château-Gaillard

Richard the Lionheart raised this fortress on a limestone cliff to close the Seine valley to Philip Augustus. Its fall in 1204, after a long siege, opened the conquest of Normandy to the King of France. Climb to the ruins of the keep to gaze over the great bend of the river and the rooftops of Les Andelys.

03 Church

Rouen Cathedral

Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Rouen

You will recognise the asymmetrical façade that Claude Monet painted in thirty canvases, at every hour and under every sky. Above the crossing, a cast-iron spire rises to 151 metres, the tallest of any cathedral in France. It also holds the tomb of the Viking chief Rollo and that of the heart of Richard the Lionheart.

04 Monument

Gros-Horloge

Spanning the street, a Renaissance arch carries a dial on which a golden sun with twenty-four rays shines against a starry blue background. Follow its single hand, tipped with a lamb, then the small sphere that marks the phases of the moon. The clock's movement, made in 1389, is among the oldest still in place.

05 Abbey

Jumièges Abbey

Abbaye Royale Saint-Pierre de Jumièges

Founded around 654 in a loop of the Seine by Saint Philibert, the abbey was one of the great centres of Norman monasticism. What remains is the abbey church consecrated in 1067 in William's presence, whose two façade towers still stand. Wander through these open-air ruins, where light pours in from every side.

06 Castle

Palais Bénédictine

Commissioned by Alexandre-Prosper Le Grand, creator of the Bénédictine liqueur, this palace has blended Neo-Gothic and Neo-Renaissance since its rebuilding after the fire of 1892. It combines a distillery, cellars and a museum of medieval art stocked with pieces from the abbey, with a room of some six hundred counterfeits of the liqueur. Scan the ridges and ironwork of its façade.

07 Village

Étretat

Look at the white chalk cliffs of Étretat, pierced by three arches, among them the Manneporte and the Porte d'Aval and Porte d'Amont, above a pebble beach. Near the Porte d'Aval, the Needle stands alone in the sea, the imagined lair of Arsène Lupin. Monet, Courbet and Boudin painted these cliffs that rain and frost are wearing away.

08 Monument

Pont de Normandie

On this bridge, you cross the Seine estuary between Le Havre and Honfleur, more than fifty metres above the water. Designed by Michel Virlogeux, it held the world record span for cable-stayed bridges, at 856 metres. Its two inverted-Y pylons rise more than 214 metres.

09 Church

Église Sainte-Catherine

Église Sainte-Catherine de Honfleur

Near the Vieux Bassin, this 15th-century church is built almost entirely of wood, the work of ship's carpenters at the end of the Hundred Years' War. Look up at the vault of the first nave, which evokes an upturned ship's hull. Facing the church, the separate bell tower wears a coat of chestnut shingles.

10 Village

Beuvron-en-Auge

Stroll around the central square of Beuvron-en-Auge, lined with half-timbered houses. The village was the fief of the Harcourts, whose last lord was made Duke of Beuvron by Louis XVI. Of their château only ruins and a mound remain, amid the meadows that cover the commune.

11 Museum

Mémorial de Caen

Musée Mémorial de Caen

Built on the former command post of General Richter, this museum opened on 6 June 1988 in the presence of François Mitterrand. Go down into the bunker, then travel through the century from 1919 to 1989, up to the fall of the Berlin Wall. An uncut Norwegian stone, covered in moss, symbolises respect for life.

12 Abbey

Abbey of Saint-Étienne, Caen

Abbaye Royale aux Hommes

West of old Caen stands the abbey church of Saint-Étienne, founded by William the Conqueror, who was buried here in 1087. Its two-towered Romanesque façade shaped the art of building in Normandy and England alike. The 18th-century monastic buildings have housed Caen's town hall since the 1960s.

13 Church

Bayeux Cathedral

Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Bayeux

Consecrated in 1077 in the presence of William the Conqueror, Bayeux Cathedral long kept the tapestry that tells of his conquest of England. Beneath the Gothic choir lies the Romanesque crypt with its groin vaults and 15th-century frescoes. In the nave, notice the Romanesque arcades covered with geometric patterns and fantastical masks.

14 Archaeology

Mulberry harbours

Port Winston

From the beach at Arromanches, look out at the concrete caissons still lying offshore, remains of a harbour prefabricated in England. Assembled after the landings, it remained the only one in operation when a storm in June 1944 destroyed its twin off Omaha Beach. Pounded by the waves since 1944, their massive silhouettes still trace the arc of the former basin.

15 Monument

Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial

Cimetière américain de Colleville-sur-Mer

Above Omaha Beach, white marble headstones, crosses and stars, stand in rows across 70 hectares. From the memorial's colonnade, see Donald De Lue's seven-metre bronze statue turn its gaze towards these rows. Behind, a long curved wall bears the names of the 1,557 missing whom the war never gave back.

16 Beach  · Family

Omaha Beach

You are walking on eight kilometres of sand where, on 6 June 1944, the Americans suffered the heaviest losses of the D-Day landings. In a rough sea, facing almost intact defences, the first wave remained pinned down on the shore. Above the beach, the banks and grassy slopes then held the German positions.

17 Coast

Pointe du Hoc

On 6 June 1944, James Earl Rudder's American Rangers climbed a cliff 25 to 30 metres high here by rope. The guns they had come to silence had been moved inland and replaced by decoys. Walk among the bomb craters that still pockmark the plateau, out to the rocky spur jutting into the sea.

18 Abbey

Mont-Saint-Michel Abbey

Abbaye du Mont-Saint-Michel

At the top of the islet, the abbey church and the Gothic Merveille rise in tiers above the sands. A ninth-century account credits the founding of the sanctuary to Bishop Aubert of Avranches, warned in a dream by the archangel, and a monastic community still prays here. Let your eye travel up the spire to the gilded statue of Saint Michael, which overlooks the bay.