Normandy

Normandy Travel Guide

Normandy is a land of fashionable resorts and austere abbeys, warriors and prolific painters, saints and sinners. At Bayeux, the town's famous tapestry provides a scene-by-scene look at the Norman invasion of England in 1066 and stars William the Conqueror. Not far away, Mont-St-Michel may be the sublimest sight in France, perching dramatically atop its rocky shoreline roost. In Rouen, famed for its cathedral immortalized by Monet in paint, medieval rue du Gros-Horloge leads to the spot where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in 1431. German bombs and Allied raids ruined much of the historic center, but enough half-timbered houses remain (along with kitschy cafés, souvenir shops, and miniature sightseeing trains).