Visit Normandy
Destination
Falaise, birthplace of William the Conqueror
Few houses of character combine the calm of a large estate, the beauty of private grounds and immediate access to a lively historic town. William the Conqueror’s medieval castle, one of the best preserved in Normandy, stands a 5-minute walk from the estate.
The centre of Falaise can be explored on foot from the house: local markets, shops, restaurants and historic sites are all close at hand. Falaise is also home to the Civilians in War Memorial, next to the castle: an approachable and moving visit.
The estate at the heart of it all
|
Falaise Castle |
5 min on foot |
|
Château de Vendeuvre |
15 min |
|
Caen & the Memorial |
30 min |
|
Suisse Normande |
30 min |
|
Pays d’Auge |
30 min |
|
Ouistreham (beach) |
35 min |
|
Cabourg |
45 min |
|
Bayeux Tapestry |
45 min |
|
D-Day beaches |
1 hr |
|
Honfleur |
1 hr |
|
Deauville · Trouville |
1 hr – 1 hr 10 |
|
Mont-Saint-Michel |
1 hr 30 |
|
Étretat cliffs |
1 hr 30 |
|
Paris (by train via Caen) |
2 hrs 30 |
Shape your stay
History & heritage
The region is an open-air history book: Falaise Castle, the Caen Memorial, the D-Day beaches (Omaha Beach, Utah Beach, Arromanches), now on the UNESCO World Heritage List, the American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer and the Montormel Memorial together make a memorable itinerary.
Nature & outdoor activities
The Suisse Normande, 30 minutes from the estate, offers spectacular scenery for hiking, kayaking and climbing. The Pays d’Auge cycling loops wind through hedgerows and orchards; the beaches of Cabourg, Deauville and Trouville are ideal for a day by the sea.
Gastronomy & local produce
PDO cheeses (Camembert, Livarot, Pont-l’Évêque), cider, calvados and pommeau from the Pays d’Auge, fish and seafood from the Normandy ports. Local markets in Falaise, buying direct from producers, and outstanding restaurants in Honfleur and Deauville.
Excursions & a change of scene
Mont-Saint-Michel, 1 hr 30 from the estate, is one of the finest excursions in France. Honfleur and its half-timbered houses, Bayeux and its famous Tapestry, and the cliffs of Étretat (1 hr 30) round off an exceptional programme of discovery.
Shopping on foot
Falaise is a town to enjoy on foot from the house, basket on your arm. On Saturday mornings the market sets up in and around the covered market hall, with nearly eighty stallholders. The patisserie and chocolatier Chapuis, recognised by Gault & Millau, supplies the morning croissants and the evening desserts. The wine shop Terroir Dit Vin showcases artisan wines, ciders and calvados, and holds tastings. The butchers Ruffier and du Terroir, the Osmose cheese shop and the antiques dealer in the town centre round off this list of places we go to ourselves.
A typical family week, based at the house
A week is the ideal length: not too short for the region, not too long for the programme. Here is the one we recommend, to be rearranged according to the weather and your mood, with the pool as the common thread at the end of each day.
Monday
Falaise on foot: William the Conqueror's castle, the Civilians in War Memorial and the shops in the town centre. The Saint-Pierre-en-Auge farmers' market.
Tuesday
The D-Day beaches: Arromanches, Omaha Beach and the American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer.
Wednesday
Mont-Saint-Michel, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, an hour and a half’s drive away.
Thursday
The Suisse Normande: hiking, kayaking or via ferrata, thirty minutes away.
Friday
The gourmet Pays d’Auge: the Château de Vendeuvre and its gardens, plus cider, calvados and cheese straight from the producers.
Saturday
The sea: Ouistreham 35 minutes away, Deauville and Trouville an hour away, or the cliffs of Étretat an hour and a half away, with a stop at the Falaise market to pick up a picnic.
A whole town to explore on foot
The castle, and what remains of William’s town
William the Conqueror’s castle is 400 metres from the house: a Romanesque keep, the Talbot Tower, ramparts, and a guided tour with augmented-reality tablets that refurnishes the empty rooms and keeps children spellbound for a full hour. All around, the medieval town still shows through: the Porte des Cordeliers, the equestrian statue on the square, the Église de la Trinité with its porch shaped like a ship’s prow, and Arlette’s Fountain with its wash house below, where the Conqueror’s mother did her laundry.
Three museums, three moods
The Civilians in War Memorial, next door to the castle, tells the story of the Second World War from the point of view of those who endured it without choosing it: short, suitable for children, and among the most powerful in the region. At the other end of the spectrum, Automates Avenue displays more than three hundred animated automata in a recreated Parisian street, the ones that filled the Christmas windows of the Galeries Lafayette and La Samaritaine between 1920 and 1960. The Espace André Lemaître completes the trio with canvases by the painter from Falaise and a Micro-Folie, a digital museum of hundreds of masterpieces.
Saturday mornings at the covered market
This is the highlight of the week: nearly eighty stallholders set up in and around the covered market hall, a ten-minute walk away. You do the market shopping for the house, then fill in the rest from the artisans in the town centre: Chapuis patisserie for croissants and desserts, the Ruffier and du Terroir butchers, the Osmose cheese shop, and the Terroir Dit Vin wine shop for a farm cider or calvados. For the rest of the week, the shops and restaurants in the centre are more than enough to keep the car parked.
Walks around the town
Falaise, French for “cliff”, lives up to its name: the Ante valley opens out at the foot of the castle and the paths climb quickly. The Trois Châteaux loop, which starts from the Parc de la Fresnaye, follows the river and then climbs to the Mont Myrrha promontory, from where the whole fortress comes into view. Allow two hours and 280 metres of ascent. For a shorter outing, the grounds of the Château de la Fresnaye and its fitness trail can be enjoyed as a family, just a few streets from the house.
And in the evening, you walk home
That’s the beauty of staying in the town centre: dinner at a restaurant, a film or a show from the cultural season, then home on foot, with no parking to find and no driving. The pool stays open until bedtime, and the top-floor cinema room takes over on rainy evenings.
