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Normandy Region

Departments: Calvados, Eure, Orne, Manche, Seine-Maritime.

Population: 3.34 million

Prefecture: Rouen

Regional Council headquarters: Caen

Surface area: 29,906 km2

Specialities: Saveurs de Normandie label. Cheeses: Camembert, Livarot, Pont-L'Évêque, Carré d'Auge, Neufchâtel, etc. Apples. Cider, calvados, pommeau, perry. Norman galettes and shortbread. Isigny caramels. Mirlitons. Salt meadow lamb from Mont Saint-Michel. Isigny butter and cream. Tripes à la mode de Caen.

Sports clubs: Stade Malherbe de Caen, FC Rouen 1899, Le Havre AC, US Quevilly Rouen Métropole (football). Caen Basket Calvados, Rouen Métropole Basket.

Competitions: CIC Normandy Channel Race. Transat Café l'Or. Polynormande, Tour of Normandy (stop in 2025). Marathon de la Liberté in Caen.

Economy: 9thnational economic region (4.4% of GDP). 7 competitiveness clusters, 16 industries and 19 areas of excellence. Leading French region for energy and the equestrian sector. Normandy is France's leading producer of cow's milk cheese and cream, fibre flax, cider apples and cider products. The world's leading centre for luxury bottles, with 75% of global production.

Festivals: Caen Millennium. Cathedral of Light in Rouen. D Day Festival. Les Extraverties. Papillons de nuit Festival in Saint-Laurent-de-Cuves. Deauville American Film Festival. Cabourg Romantic Film Festival. Cabourg Mon Amour Festival. Bayeux Medieval Festival. Dieppe Kite Festival.

Tourist attractions: Mont Saint-Michel, the seaside towns of Deauville, Trouville, Granville, Honfleur, Étretat (cliffs), Cabourg. Channel Islands. Bayeux (tapestry). Alençon. Falaise Castle. Giverny and the Impressionists. Caen Memorial. Cathedrals of Rouen and Évreux. Basilica of Lisieux. Saint-Pierre church in Caen.

Websites and social networks: www.normandie.fr / www.normandie-tourisme.fr / www.normandiesites.com

Caen Memorial

Opening: 1988.

History: the idea for a Peace Memorial came from the Mayor of Caen, Jean-Marie Girault, in 1964. On 10 September 1986, the first stones of the building were laid on the site of the command post of General Wilhelm Richter, commander of the 716th German Infantry Division during D-Day and the Battle of Normandy. The building was inaugurated on 6 June 1988 by French President François Mitterrand in the presence of the heads of state or government of eleven other countries.

Features: this "museum for peace", originally designed by the architect Jacques Millet with the help of the museum designer Yves Devraine, brings together a collection of over 8,000 objects and over 100,000 documents, mainly relating to the Second World War, mainly in Europe. The permanent exhibits are organised chronologically and thematically, with the Shoah taking centre stage. The forecourt at the entrance to the museum is flanked on one side by flagpoles bearing the flags of the main countries involved in the Battle of Normandy, and on the other side by a display case showing the twelve "foundation stones" of the building, extracted from the ground by each of the twelve nations concerned, and adorned with a lapidary inscription in each of their languages. The Norwegian stone differs from the others in that it has not been cut and was offered still covered in moss, as a symbol of absolute respect for life.

Listed as: Musée de France.

Villons-les-Buissons (Pop: 830)

This farming village on the outskirts of Caen gradually became a residential area. In June 1944, the village was liberated by Canadian and Norwegian soldiers, who set up a B16 airfield here. Both contingents have a memorial in the village. The Norwegian monument is a 6-metre-high column, surrounded by the French and Norwegian flags. It was unveiled on 7 June 1984 by King Olav V, in the presence of Louis Mexandeau, Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, and Raymond Triboulet, Chairman of the D-Day Committee. The Canadian monument evokes Hell's Corner, where the fighting took place.

Château de Villons-les-Buissons

Construction: 18th and 20th centuries.

Style: Regency.

History: this 18th-century property was extensively rebuilt in the 20th century. The main building was built by Charles Gervaise in the 1730's. The estate has been owned by the Le Marinier family since 1912. Major modernisation and decoration work was carried out in the early 20th century. From 1939 to 1944, the estate was requisitioned. After the Liberation, the Highland Light Infantry of Canada set up its headquarters here. The 1811 land register bears witness to the scale of the destruction. Part of the estate was rebuilt using war damage.

Characteristics: this is a pleasure residence surrounded by agricultural plots and enclosed by walls. The manor house is at the centre of a bailey with outbuildings and parkland accessible via a tree-lined driveway. The château, built shortly before Vendeuvre, comprises a 3-storey building flanked by two wings, built of Creully stone. The facades are characterised by their Regency-style layout and modelling. The château is distinguished by its window frames and ironwork.

Listed as: Historical Monument in 2022.

Colomby-Anguerny (Pop: 1,360)

This commune was created by the merger of Colomby-sur-Thaon and Anguerny in 2016. Cartoonist Francisque Poublot, famous for his drawings of Parisian kids ("poulbots"), owned a house in Colomby. Colomby Manor houses a 16th-century fireplace that originated in the Château de Rubercy and has been listed as a historic monument since 1942. In 2018, the town paid tribute to its Canadian liberators of June 1944 by erecting an inukshuk (totem pole) and naming a street Bill Ross, after one of the soldiers who took part in its liberation.

Saint-Martin d'Anguerny church

Built: 11th century.

Style: Romanesque.

Characteristics: dating from the 11th and 14th centuries, it comprises a Romanesque nave and an ogival choir. The bell tower is one of the oldest in Calvados. Its originality lies in the marked recess on each floor, the top floor having been used as a lookout. The high altar is in Vieux marble (17th and 1760s).

Listed as: bell tower was listed as a Historical Monument in 1910.

Le Fresne-Camilly (Pop: 850)

The commune, along with the fiefdom in the neighbouring commune of Thaon, has belonged to the Blouet de Camilly family since the 17th century. It was divided into several fiefs (de Camilly, du Fresne and du Cainet), which were divided between the members of the de Camilly family, who built castles in each fief. Camilly castle was listed as a Historic Monument in 1973.

Church of Notre-Dame du Fresne-Camilly

Construction: 11th century.

Style: Romanesque.

History: only the lower sections are Romanesque. The pyramidal top of the tower, commissioned by Mgr de Camilly, archbishop of Tours, dates from 1731. Over and above the original Romanesque parts, the rest of the building appears to date from the 13th and 18th centuries. 

Characteristics: the building is built on a Latin cross plan consisting of a nave with three bays, followed by a false transept and then the two-bay choir, flanked on the first bay to the south by a small annex. To the south, adjoining the nave, is the square bell tower. The entrance façade has three levels corresponding to the portal, arcades and an oculus. The bell tower has two levels. The bell tower has a triangular spire and four gargoyles.

Listed as: Historical Monument in 1840.

Rosel (Pop: 640)

The medieval manor house of Gruchy, listed as a historical monument in 1927, was completely destroyed in 1944. The bell tower of Saint-Martin church has been listed since 1910.

Saint-Martin church

Construction: 13th to 15th centuries.

Style: Gothic.

History and characteristics: the church of Saint-Martin de Rosel was built in the 12th century, with modifications in the 14th and 15th centuries, on an elongated plan with a flat chevet. The belltower is built above the south gutter wall, with four openings. The nave has four bays and the choir has three. The eastern façade is supported by three buttresses. The building has a gable roof and the bell tower has a pavilion roof. In 2014, a fire and the appearance of merula forced the restoration work, which was completed in 2025.

Listed as: the bell tower was listed as a Historic Monument in 1910.

Saint-Germain-la-Blanche-Herbe (Pop: 2,500)

Razed in 1944, like its church of Saint-Germain, this commune has since developed as a residential suburb of Caen. It was originally built around Ardenne Abbey, which is now home to the Institut Mémoires de l'édition contemporaine (IMEC) (Memories of Contemporary Publishing Institute).  

Ardenne Abbey

Construction: 12th century.

Style: Romanesque.

History: legend has it that in 1121, a middle-class man from Caen named Aiulf du Marché and his wife Asseline had a vision of the Virgin Mary ordering them to build a chapel here. They established a priory on the spot. In 1138, a Romanesque church was consecrated by the Bishop of Bayeux, Richard III of Kent. Ardenne Abbey grew rapidly and its heritage became very important. In the 15th century, the abbey was subjected to the sieges of Caen, and in the 16th century it fell victim to the Wars of Religion. In the 17th century, the abbey was revived by Prior Jean de la Croix and became the most powerful abbey in Normandy. Sold as national property in 1792, the abbey was broken up. During the Second World War, it was used as a hideout by resistance fighters and then as an observation post by the Germans. It was seriously damaged during the fighting in 1944.

Characteristics: what remains of the church dates from the early 13th century, although its construction spans several periods up to the 17th century. The vaulting is unusual, made of wood in the Gothic style. Another peculiarity is that the high windows are wider than the others. Other irregularities in level show discontinuities in the restorations. The capitals are decorated with elegant hooks and foliage, in the style favoured in Normandy in the 13th century.  Outside, two octagonal turrets, once topped by spires, frame a Gothic façade. The portal features a tympanum that has been rebuilt without restoring the decorations that were lost in the battle of 1944 and the collapse of 1947. The oldest building in the abbey is the Bayeux Gate (13th century), in the Norman Romanesque style.

Current purpose: since 1996, the restoration of the abbey, financed by the region with the participation of the State, has been motivated by a regional decentralisation project: the move of the Institut mémoires de l'édition contemporaine (IMEC) (Memories of Contemporary Publishing Institute) within its walls. The abbey church was converted into a library and the tithe barn into a hall for conferences, exhibitions and concerts.

Listed as: historical monument in 1918 and 1947. Listed site in 2003.