5 days at the heart of Normandy's heritage

Our trip to Normandy began with a stop at the Hôtel de la Mère Poulard in Mont-Saint-Michel. Finally, the visit can begin, and we start by passing through the various gates: the Porte de l'Avancée, the Porte du Boulevard, the Porte du Roi and finally the drawbridge. We then discover the unique Grande Rue, steep and narrow. Overflowing with small shops and souvenir boutiques, this street was already used for this purpose 1,000 years ago. Of course, back then, trinkets weren't made in China. The main street is lined with magnificent granite and half-timbered houses dating back to the 15th century.

The activities within the monument can be summed up simply as a series of visits. Before starting all that, we return to the hotel for a bite to eat and the famous Mère Poulard omelette, famous the world over for being both light and thick, thanks to its unique foamy texture. Once our bellies were full, we set off on the famous visits, with a wide choice of museums, ramparts and abbey. The museums are rather old and rather expensive for what they are, so we don't recommend them unless they are about a subject you are really passionate about. There are four: the Musée de la Mer et de l'Écologie, L'archéoscope (a show retracing the history of the site), the Musée Historique and the Maison Du Guesclin (a period house).

We prefer to head for the ramparts and the Abbey. The former offer a marvellous view of the bay and the Tombelaine rock, as well as the ancient rooftops. The Abbey, on the other hand, is a must-see for its historical interest, the 'marvel' it houses and the view from the top. After touring the monument, we left Mont-Saint-Michel for Caen, 120 km away.

Practical information

👛 Museum rates: €9 or €18 for the 4 visits

👛 Abbey tour: €11 with €3 audioguide supplement

👉 To avoid queuing, book your ticket online, on GetYourGuide for example, cancellation is free.

👉 Get to the venue early in the morning if you can, it's the only way to avoid the crowds

⏰ Opening times: The Abbey's opening times vary according to the season; low season: 9.30am to 6pm from 1 September to 30 April; high season: 9am to 7pm from 2 May to 31 August.

Once we arrived in Caen, we settled into the charming Clos Saint Martin, a guest house, before spending the evening in the Rue Ecuyère. Rue Ecuyère is the liveliest street in the city in the evening, and the one with the most bars. For a bite to eat, you'll want to head for the Vaugueux district, the port or Place Saint-Sauveur.

Waking up in Caen, we couldn't avoid one of Normandy's other must-sees: the Caen Memorial, one of France's most famous museums. The theme of this day is the D-Day landings and the history of the Second World War. Once we arrived at the museum, built on a former German bunker, we paid the entrance fee of €19.80. From the quotation on the wall outside the building to the atmosphere inside and the rather gloomy artefacts: extracts from the walls of gas showers, bullet-riddled clothing, videos of eyewitness accounts, etc., everything about this place is terribly poignant. You should allow an average of 2 to 3 hours for the visit.

To continue in the footsteps of the D-Day, we head for Ouistreham, where a guided tour of the D-Day beaches awaits us. It's advisable to take this tour after the Caen memorial, so that the places and the history are still fresh in your mind and it's much easier to recognise the places and the associated anecdotes. There are lots of different guides offering different tours. Some packages even include entry to the memorial, lunch at the "Les Pommiers" restaurant within the museum and a guided tour of the beaches in the afternoon, all for €54 per person. The sites visited are La Pointe du Hoc, Omaha Beach and the American military cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer, before finishing with a screening of the film "The 100 Days of the Battle of Normandy" at the Arromanches 360 circular cinema.

As the sun rises over Normandy, we leave Ouistreham for the nearby beaches of Cabourg. To kick off this beautiful summer's day on the rare Normandy sand, we set off on a horseback ride along the wide expanses of the seafront. A very utopian way to start a day dedicated, this time, to the region's coastline. The activity allows you to familiarise yourself with the coastline as well as the local marshes. It costs between €39 and €55 on average, depending on the riding centre, and lasts between 1 and 1? hours.

Airy from the sea spray, all we could think of was a good place to have lunch. It was in this frame of mind that we headed for Deauville, in search of a good address before spending the rest of the day there. There was no shortage of inspiration, and the town was full of restaurants that just beckoned to our stomachs. Once we've made our choice and settled down, it's time to hit the beaches of the famous city so dear to Parisians. There's no escaping it, Deauville is often prey to sea breezes. So, to make the most of this iodised breeze, we embark on an activity endemic to the beaches of northern France: sand yachting. Supervised by a guide, we glide along the sand and watch the famous beach huts speed by. To cover the wet sand at this speed, you'll need to spend between €40 and €50 for a two-hour session.

So it was with a clear head that we headed for our accommodation for the night, the Hôtel Barrière. We then headed into town to enjoy Deauville in the evening. Less impressive, but also much cheaper, is the Amirauté Hôtel Golf, a 5-minute drive away, which offers similar services.

We left the Hôtel Barrière early in the morning to head for the small village of Pont-L'évêque, typical of Normandy. It was here that the square cheese of the same name was created. But this morning it was for another Norman speciality that we visited the site. A guide will take us on a tour of the Père Magloire Calvados distillery, a great name in this particular spirit (a typical liqueur distilled from cider). Everything is done to help you learn how to taste this speciality: sound, visual, sensory and olfactory effects teach you how to taste in three stages. First the eye, then the nose, then the palate. The tour alternates between animation and tasting, making it all the more fun. Prices are €14. 50 for adults and €6 for children. There is a reduced family rate of €35 for 2 adults and 2 children. The tour of the distillery takes around 1 hour 15 minutes.

For lunch, we set off for Honfleur and its pretty harbour, barely 20 minutes away. There are plenty of places to eat near the harbour, facing the lull in the action on the water where many boats sit just as still, a relaxing backdrop to break up the day. Once we've eaten our fill, all that's left to do is start our stroll around Honfleur, between narrow cobbled streets littered with old buildings and a stroll along the harbour. There's a lot to see, starting with the many art galleries that adorn the town and also the shops selling Norman specialities and souvenirs that invaded the town a few years ago. Special mention should be made of the charming little shops that have survived despite this, such as "Aux Joyaux de la Nature", a small shop selling fossils, precious stones and other natural curiosities run by enthusiasts and specialists in their field. It is located at 4 rue du Puits.

Honfleur also boasts a number of monuments, including Sainte-Catherine Church, a 15th-century wooden church. Its frame is slightly reminiscent of an overturned ship's hull and can be viewed from several angles. The church of Notre Dame de Grâce is not bad either, offering a panoramic view of the entire Seine estuary from its summit. Its bells ring out every 15 minutes to a different melody.

With the city tour over after 2-3 hours, we continued our Norman journey towards our next stop: Rouen. 1 hour's drive later, we finally arrived at the most beautiful hotel of our adventure, theHotel Bourgtheroulde, right in the heart of the city. All we had to do was walk a little to get to the Place de la Pucelle, where, according to legend, Joan of Arc was burnt, but above all where most of the restaurants are located.

So it's in the Athens of Gothic, Rouen, that we wake up. Having wandered the streets and seen some of the city's dozens of bell towers illuminated the day before, today we'll be content to expand our knowledge of the city with two of Rouen's must-see sights: the Historial Jeanne of Arc and the Gros Horloge. We began our visit at the end of the story, eating around the stake on the fourth day and learning more about the life of La Pucelle on the fifth. The Historial is no ordinary museum, as it offers a show trail with innovative technologies: 3D projections and mapping. As for the Gros Horloge, it is a more sober visit, with a guide taking us up to the heart of the monument and telling us more about the history of the enormous clock.

Practical information

👛 Admission to the Historial Jeanne d'Arc: €11 for adults and €8 for concessions, free for under-6s

👛 Gros Horloge tour: €7.50 for adults and €3.80 for concessions, free for under-6s

We leave the city of a hundred steeples and Sainte Jeanne in the early afternoon to head for Giverny, the promised land of Impressionism. Obviously, it's the gardens that we're aiming for this afternoon. Both the Clos Normand and the jardin d'eau take 1h30 to 2 hours to visit, and cost €13 for adults and €8.50 to €7.50 for the various reduced rates. These gardens have real organisms, and Monet made sure that they were not as aseptic as those of large châteaux or estates. However, they are not unorganised: Monet classified the flowers and plants by colour and gave them free rein to grow without constraining them in any way. So it's this harmony of colour that we've come to admire. Rare plants abound, and every nook and cranny is an opportunity to discover a new variety. The famous bridge that the artist painted 45 times is unfortunately no longer the original, in too poor a state to be restored. Nevertheless, it is faithful to the original and it is easy to see the colourful paintings through the eyes of this bridge.