Traveling Normandy by car - practical information. Travel Normandy Normandy itineraries for 3 days

Traveling by car on my own through Normandy and Brittany allowed me to get to Rennes, see how good the former capital of the Dukes of Brittany was, appreciate the sights of Rennes and find out where you can eat inexpensively in Rennes; to learn more, read the report about Brittany

The outgoing day of traveling by car in Normandy and Brittany turned out to be quite eventful: after looking around Saint-Malo and looking at the beaches of Dinard, we then waved about a hundred kilometers along the highway in order to get to the hotel in Rennes before its reception closes. I already had experience with the Appart 'City network, and I knew that if you showed up after hours, you would then have to call the central control room, negotiate about the code for the key safe, and so on. So I pressed the gas pedal as much as I could and got nervous. Fortunately, we made it just in time, arriving in the hotel lobby a quarter of an hour before the porter left.

Reviews of the Appart "City Rennes Saint -Gregoire" mentioned its unfortunate location in a remote suburb, however, as I found out, there is a bus route nearby and since the stop is almost opposite the hotel, in my opinion, getting to the center of Rennes is not difficult But what I didn’t like was the neighborhood of immigrants: the buildings standing nearby are overflowing with families of blacks and Arabs... The parking lot for hotel guests, fenced with a fence, also led to different thoughts ... But since there were no excesses with us during our stay, suspicions remained suspicions...

A plus, I would call, in addition to free parking and quite tolerable living conditions, the presence of a grocery supermarket nearby. Grocery prices in France vary greatly depending on the chain of stores, and Lidl is often the champion. It's also open late, so I stocked up nicely there right after we unpacked. From now on, we had a hearty dinner and a solid breakfast, and the costs amounted to only a dozen and a half euros ...

The next morning, having had a good night's sleep, having rested and having eaten, we plunged into the car and went to see the sights of Rennes.

The town, in general, is not well known in tourist circles, and if it is mentioned by those who have written travel reports in Brittany, it is usually in connection with a trip to Mont Saint-Michel, because tourists arriving from Paris by train change to a local bus are made in Rennes. But this corner of France has a surprisingly old and very interesting history. The city was founded around the 1st century BC by the Celts, and the Romans, who knew a lot about organizing affairs, appreciated the convenient location of the settlement. Through the former possessions of the Redon tribe, trade routes stretched from the depths of Gaul to the coast and further to England, thanks to which Redonum began to flourish. When the Roman Empire collapsed, the region found itself between two fires: on the one hand, the Franks pressed, on the other, the Britons showed interest in it. As a result, Nantes, Rennes and Vannes were united under the scepter of the Dukes of Brittany. The city most stubbornly resisted everyone who wanted to conquer it, and continued to fight even when almost the entire duchy went to the French. In 1491, the Bretons lost their independence completely, but they did not forget about the old days.

The appearance of Rennes at that time was determined by the presence of dense forests around: Paris and other cities of France gradually lost the opportunity to build wooden houses and switched to more expensive materials, and the capital of Brittany actively used wood until the beginning of the 17th century. The end of this tradition was put by a fire that broke out on December 23, 1720 and destroyed about nine hundred buildings. However, only the northern part of the city was affected, and many half-timbered buildings remained in the center, giving the area near the Saint-Pierre Cathedral an extraordinary picturesqueness.

The development plan for the ashes was developed by Jean Gabriel, the future court architect of King Louis XV. Through his labors, city blocks formed a more or less ordered grid, the construction of buildings was carried out exclusively from stone. Since that time, Rennes has received that cunning look that tourists admire: one part of the city serves as a reminder of the Middle Ages, the second is equipped in a new way.

We were convinced of how different Rennes looks like when we left the hospitable hotel and swept through the center of the former capital of an independent state from north to south. From the car window, the city looks quite modern, at least if you drive through those neighborhoods where cars are allowed. In the station area, it generally looks like a Parisian Defense on a reduced scale. But if you cross, as we did, through the railway tracks and move a little more to the south, the surrounding buildings will change dramatically; the area reminded me of the suburbs of London with their low houses and front gardens. Only there we found a place where you can park your car for free in Rennes: the central streets were filled with either prohibition signs or parking machines. And here we happened to park quite close to the center, and for nothing ...

First of all, we headed to the Rennes station, hoping to get hold of a map of the area there - the diagram taken at the hotel was a primitive photocopy, and badly done. Unfortunately, there was no tourist office inside the terminal, but with the exception of this shortcoming, everything is arranged there as it should. There are cafes, and shops, and escalators, and clearly visible information boards. On one I spotted a bus that can get from Rennes to Mont Saint-Michel: its departure is timed to coincide with the arrival of the next train from Paris. The badge clearly indicated that it would be necessary to go by bus, and not by the TER train, and that the departure would take place from the bus station of local lines, which is located right there. In general, if you want to know exactly where the buses to Mont Saint-Michel depart from in Rennes, you need to keep in mind the right side of the station square; the hotel "Ibis Styles Rennes" will become a landmark.

Turofis we found much later, when we delved into the historical quarters. It is located on Quai Lamennais. It seems like a square, but in fact it is a shaped embankment, despite the fact that the riverbed is hidden by asphalt. It's nice to walk along this impromptu boulevard, but it's much more interesting to poke your nose into the old quarters of Rennes - that's where the beauty is!

In fact, as soon as we turned off the so-called "embankment", we were met by crooked streets, half-timbered houses, moss-covered walls and other attributes of antiquity. All we did was admire the landscapes and take beautiful shots ... I especially remember the houses on Rue du Champ Jacquet: three of them were skewed so much that the middle of the window on the third floor is vertically in the same place as the edge of the window on the first. I think if it weren’t for the close proximity of other buildings, reinforced by a sealant poured into the cracks, this company of imitators of the Leaning Tower of Pisa could have already collapsed ...

It was damn nice to walk around the area, but at some point I had to pull myself together in order to systematically explore the main sights of Rennes. The first sign was the Saint-Pierre Cathedral, towering over the district. The huge Gothic temple was built around the 12th century, but since its tower and western facade collapsed in 1490, the building acquired its modern look much later. First, in the 1540s, part of the cathedral was restored, in the middle of the next century the second stage of reconstruction began, and the towers managed to reach the mark of 48 meters only by the beginning of the eighteenth century. It would seem that one can calm down on this, but it wasn’t there: in 1754, the old structure began to naturally crumble. Then the local authorities decided to demolish most of the cathedral in order to rebuild it. They coped with the demolition successfully, but the implementation of the second part of the plan had to be postponed due to the outbreak of the French Revolution. The work started only in 1816 and was completed in half forty years later. Then the most notable landmark of Rennes was given a neoclassical look, replacing the original Gothic.

There are two notable churches within walking distance of the cathedral. We first go to the northwest, where E glise Saint- E tienne stands. The temple is considered the oldest in Rennes; it was first mentioned in documents from the 12th century. The building was rebuilt four hundred years later, and in the 1740s an impressive bell tower was added to it. This finally formed the appearance of the church, furnishing in size all other religious buildings with the exception of the cathedral.

It is worth walking to another attraction of Rennes: the Saint-Sauveur Basilica is very good. It was built at the end of the 18th century for the Augustinian monastery on the site of a small medieval chapel. When she began to crumble from old age, the monks were very happy about the opportunity to acquire a more spacious church. Their places came true, and from 1700 the city center was decorated with a very pleasant building.

Now we need to move a couple of blocks to the north to appreciate how gorgeous the majestic Saint-Aubin temple looks, whose walls are covered with ivy. It seems that the basilica was built many centuries ago, but this is a pure lie, because the old parish church was demolished at the beginning of the 20th century and the beauty that now pleases the eye was built in its place.

You won’t have to walk long to the next attraction of Rennes either: the Palace of the Parliament of Brittany is located about four hundred meters southeast of the Saint-Aubin Basilica. In fact, it is better to approach this huge ensemble from the south in order to immediately fall under its charm - the building does not stand on its own, it closes the prospect of a spacious square and very imposing houses stand next to it. We jumped out from the side and therefore first appreciated the decor, and only then the dimensions. The palace, whose construction took more than 40 years, opened its doors to deputies in 1655. Its project was developed by the architect Germain Gauthier, who chose the style of French Mannerism. It turned out very impressive and it is not for nothing that any guide to Brittany calls the Palace of Parliament a pearl of local architecture.

But actually, I liked the other building much more, the Saint-Georges Palace, located a hundred meters to the east. The building, built in the 1670s, looks unusually great, especially when contemplated from the south, where a carpet of grass and flowers is spread out in front of the front facade with its nineteen arches. Previously, the buildings of the Benedictine monastery, founded in 1032, were located on the site of the palace. The new version turned out to be much more pleasing to the eye, but the nuns did not manage to enjoy their stay for a long time, because the outbreak of the revolution expelled them from their native monastery. Now the premises of the most interesting sight of Rennes are occupied by the administrative services of the local government.

In addition to the listed objects, the tour of Rennes should include the Church of Saint-Germain. This piece of Gothic architecture took an agonizingly long time to build, starting in 1470 and only finishing 220 years later. But the temple has retained its historical appearance and, in addition, the stained-glass windows created at that time survived the revolution, wars, bombings and other cataclysms.

An informative walk through the historical center of the former capital of the Breton dukes could be continued, but since the whole previous day my half did not have the opportunity to scour the shops, her urgent request to do shopping in Rennes had to be respected. However, along the way, it quickly became clear that the shops in the historical center can not please anything. As a result, the Les 3 Soleils shopping complex, which, among other things, has a C & A section, received our close attention. In my opinion, in order to make bargains in France, this brand fits perfectly, and we were able to buy light breeches for 12 euros, and my joy got hold of two pretty blouses. In a word, I recommend looking into this huge center, which occupies a place on the western side of the Place de Gaulle.

Well, before you say goodbye to the city, you need to finally say about where you can eat inexpensively in Rennes. The most optimal thing here is to search in the old quarters, if you are not satisfied with fast food outlets in shopping centers and near the station. Personally, I remember those establishments that set up tables in front of the facade of the Saint-Aubin Basilica. There, the surroundings are chic, and the prices are quite low, you can eat properly for 17-20 euros. I also recommend that you look at Place Saint-Michel and take an evaluating look around its surroundings. I am sure: a walk will quickly lead to a restaurant where you can eat in the center of Rennes very satisfyingly and inexpensively.

Summing up the trip by car in Normandy and Brittany, I can say that everything went like clockwork, and all my fears about renting a car turned out to be in vain. We had no problems either with the unusual rhythm of traffic on the roads of France, or with the behavior of drivers, or with equipment. Even the burning question of whether it is possible to park for free in French cities received a positive answer, and for the entire trip we did not pay a single penny for parking. As for the overall costs, they paid off with interest, because the price of renting a car in France, taking into account the cost of fuel spent, still repeatedly blocked the amount that we would have to spend on trains and buses, if we decide to go to Brittany from Paris by public transport.

In general, after that trip, I was finally convinced that traveling around Europe in a rented car is easy and convenient ...

So, in October, Max Wernick and I went fishing in Normandy. Trip of discovery. First, I visited Normandy for the first time. Secondly, for the first time we drank brandy all the way. Brandy is like cognac, only from a neighboring village. And, thirdly, for the first time in my life I went somewhere to go fishing.

01. Before fishing, we walked around Paris a little. There was not much time, so we quickly joined the beautiful. The glass pyramid of the Louvre.

02. Sculptures in the Tuileries Garden behind the Cop's fence

03. From the park you can go to the embankment of the Seine. It is now pedestrian in many places. There used to be a road here.

04. Max Wernick decided to go to a flea market and buy goods in a shop. But as it turned out, prices in Paris are higher than in Moscow...

05. Parisian junk dealer

Now let's get in the car and drive north! There, where the fish and the house on the lake.

06. On the way we pass simple French villages.

07. Beautiful

08. French cows

09. Horses

10. Sheep

11. In the French countryside, time has stopped. Most houses do not change for centuries. Only satellite dishes and cars give out that it's the 21st century.

12. Everything is very neat and clean.

13. We arrived in Fécamp, a town in Upper Normandy. It is built around a small bay that serves as a trading and fishing port. This is how the entrance to this bay looks like. It is about 50 meters wide.

14. That part of the city, which is located south of the bay, is flat, and the northern part of the city is built on a rocky hill.

15. Fécan is a city of fishermen. It became famous in the 10th century due to the fact that delicious salted and smoked herring was prepared here. And in the 16th century, they began to catch cod here. Now fishing has been limited - it is allowed to be carried out only in coastal waters.

16. But there is also the Vermont River, and if you go upstream, you will reach a series of ponds in which you can also fish. That's where we went.

17. Here is a house removed. It stands right on the water and you can fish from the bedroom) Or from the terrace. Great place.

18. The Normans themselves do not hesitate to call their land a fishing paradise. Here you can be offered sea, freshwater and foot fishing (this is when people walk along the coast and collect crabs and shellfish). For freshwater fishing, which we stopped at, a lot of rivers, canals, ponds and swamps are adapted in Normandy.

19. In the ponds you can catch carp, pike or trout. Wernick said that he would eat live fish ... But he was dissuaded in the end.

20. We got trout for dinner.

21. While dinner is being prepared, it's nice to have a glass or two.

22. The rest of the evening passed over dinner, heartfelt conversations and brandy. And the next morning it was.

23. Neighbor's house

24.

25.

26.

27. We met the Norman dawn, looked at Fécamp for the last time and set off further!

28. The next stop is another town on the coast of the English Channel, which is called Etretat.

29. It is mainly known for its rocks that form beautiful natural arches. Thanks to them, Etretat has become one of the main tourist centers of Normandy. Only one and a half thousand people live in the city, but in the summer a large number of travelers come here. If people come to Fécamp to fish, then they go to Etretat to enjoy the Norman nature.

30. City embankment. If you look to the north, you will see an arch called the "Upper Gate".

31. At one time, many famous artists lived in Etretat, for example, Claude Monet. He has several paintings in which he captured the views from here. Here is one of them with the same view.

32. And if you turn to the south, then in front of you will be the “Lower Gate”. Next to it is a pointed rock, which is called the Needle. The French writer Maurice Leblanc wrote a book about her called Hollow Needle. According to the plot, royal treasures were hidden in it.

33. Also a painting by Claude Monet with the Lower Gate.

34. In some places, the cliffs reach a height of 100 meters. A school of fish is visible in the water!

35.

36. Lighthouse "Antifer". It was built in 1894, but it was completely destroyed during World War II. Previously, it was located closer to the cliff, but during the restoration it was decided to move it away from the collapsing edge of the cliff.

37. Old bunker

38. What struck me most of all was that in the 70 years since the end of the war, no one has vandalized the bunker and has not even left a single graffiti on the walls! The concrete is crumbling, the rebar is rusty, but the walls are clean! How is this possible? Just amazing. In our country, such objects are usually covered with numerous inscriptions and marks, who, where and when.

39. In the end, I can say that there are two reasons to visit Normandy: the first is the beautiful sea coast with rocks, and the second is the amazing conditions for all kinds of fishing. This part of France is perfect for a man's holiday with friends and a good French brandy. In general, come and try for yourself. Good fishing!

The scene is the beginning of May 2017, we are in Paris and we have a week. The northern regions of France have long attracted, and therefore it was decided to spend this week on them.

Our route looked like this (map):

Day 1: Giverny - Rouen

Jumping into a rented car, we leave the unloved Paris.

On the way to the city of Rouen - the gateway to Normandy, there is at least one place worth visiting - the house-museum of Claude Monet. If you want to see with your own eyes the water lilies that inspired the master on numerous canvases and glorified him, be sure to visit Giverny (about 80 km from Paris).

The city of Rouen is infamous for the fact that it was in it that poor Joan of Arc was burned at the stake. Apart from this sad event, the city is very beautiful and definitely worth a visit.

Hotel: I can recommend Mercure Rouen Center Cathedrale (there is nowhere to be more central, there is underground parking, everything is new).

Food: Don't miss the market in the main square, and especially the fish market where the freshest seafood is cooked right in front of you.

Day 2: Etretat - Fecamp

100 km from Rouen is the town of Etretat - a place of attraction for all tourists in Normandy.

It is in this place, on both sides of the town, that the limestone cliffs that Monet loved to draw are located! The view from the rocks is truly breathtaking.. The ascent up the mountain is quite difficult, however, older people and small children also climb.

If you are lucky enough to find a decent hotel in Etretat, then you can spend the night right there to admire the white rocks in the evening illumination. There were no places for my dates in local hotels, so we "had to spend the night" in the town of Fecamp, which is 20 km from Etretat.

Fecamp is a small port town, famous for the fact that it was here that the Benedictine monks came up with the famous Benedictine tincture. They say that the recipe was lost, but in the last century a certain enterprising person "found" it and made a huge fortune in the production of the drink. Benedictine with ice is great! In the town there is a whole palace-museum dedicated to this liquor.

Note: The Channel Coast is infamous for the fighting that took place here during the Second World War. On the way there are many commemorative plaques, fortifications, forts. There is also a huge cemetery and a memorial. Everyone decides for himself whether to visit places of military glory during a trip to Normandy, or to confine himself only to historical and natural cities and sights.

Rennes is a fairly large city that didn't really impress me in any way. A good stop-over for an overnight stay, nothing more.

Day 7: Tours - Vouvray - Amboise

When planning a route through Normandy and Brittany, I had a couple of "extra" days that I decided to spend on the Loire Valley!

The Loire Valley is a famous wine region that stretches almost from the ocean to the middle of France. Vineyards are located on both sides of the river (the river itself, by the way, is not at all expressive and not pretty).

Having whistled 250 km from Rennes, we made a short stop and stretched our legs in Tours, and from Tours along the Loire River we went towards the wineries.

I can recommend (1) a tour and tasting at the Marc Bredif winery in the Vouvray region - the guide speaks good English, the tasting is not expensive, like the wine itself (there is even sparkling wine), (2) Domain Vigneau-Chevreau biodynamic winery (no tour, tasting and sales only) and (3) Caves du Pere Auguste, a family owned winery run by the founder's grandson and almost exclusively family members!

Hotel: In the Loire Valley, I really wanted to stay in an old chateau, preferably with a good restaurant. After a long search, the choice fell on Chateau de Pray, founded in 1244! Very nice interiors, small but well-groomed territory.

Food: The chateau has a restaurant with the same name with one Michelin star, reservations are required. In short - the food is delicious, but the service is just terribly slow and long! Our two courses stretched for 3.5 hours!! It is unacceptable, in my opinion, to torture guests like that!

Day 8: Chenonceau - Sancerre

The Loire Valley is famous not only for wines, but also for castles, of which there are several dozen. One of the most famous is Chenonceau Castle, built in the 16th century and owned in different years by Catherine de Medici, wives and mistresses of kings, etc. The interiors of the castle are very well preserved, including furniture, carpets, fireplaces, etc. A notable feature of the castle is the bridge-gallery built across the river Cher! During the Second World War, the opposite bank was occupied by the Nazis, and, they say, almost all the time guns were aimed at the castle, ready to destroy it at any moment, but by some lucky chance this did not happen, and the castle has survived to this day in its original sight!

The Sancerre appellation is a very famous wine region in France and the most interchangeable representative of the wines of the Loire Valley region (along with Pouilly-Fumé). The main grape variety here is Sauvignon Blanc.
Map

The town of Sancerre itself is located on a hill, and around the vineyards - the view is amazing! Having bought wine and cheese, we had a picnic right on the fortress wall =)

We did not have time to book a tour of the winery, so we just stopped by for a tasting of almost the first one that came across - Eric Louis.

After admiring Sancerre, crying over the ridiculous prices of local wines, we plunged back into the car and after some 210 km we were already in Paris.

,
Day 6 - ,
Day 7 -
Day 8 - Mont Saint Michel
Day 9 -

Arrived in Paris, rented a car at the airport. We drove north and stopped at the small town of Les Andelys, where we saw the castle of Chateau Gaillard.

In the morning we went to Deauville and Trouville, walked for 4 hours.

After lunch we returned to Honfleur, had lunch and rested. Toward evening we went to Etretat, on the way we crossed the Normandie bridge. Immediately behind it is a payment point, where you can stop and climb to the observation deck.

Walked in Etretat until sunset

Overnight in Otfleur.

Day 3 - ,

In the morning we left towards Saint-Malo, several stops were planned along the way. First we walked on Omaha Beach and visited the American Cemetery.

And then we stopped at one little-known place - a cape overlooking Mont Saint Michel.

We spent two nights in Saint-Malo.

In the morning we went to Dinant

On the way back we stopped at the city park.

During the day we walked around the city, rested on the beach and took time-lapses of the tide.

Toward evening we went to Mont Saint Michel, where we walked outside the abbey.

Day 5 - ,

In the morning we watched the sunrise from the pier in Saint Malo.

We drove in the direction of Saint Guirec, on the way we stopped at Fort-la-Latte and Cape Frehel.

We arrived at Saint Guirec beach, where we booked a hotel for one night. We walked a little around the hotel.

Day 6 - ,

It was foggy in the morning. We saw the main attraction of the region - the red boulders on Ploumanak beach.

Then we went in the direction of Nantes. Nantes is located in the Pays of the Loire region, but we wanted to visit one of the major cities in northern France and chose this one. As it turned out, they did not fail. On the way we stopped at Vannes.

We settled in Nantes and walked around the city.

We spent two nights in Nantes.

Day 7 -

In the morning we saw the sunrise on the embankment near the hotel.

And then we spent the whole day walking around the city.

Day 8- , Mont Saint Michel

In the morning we saw a mechanical elephant and rode a carousel.

In Mont Saint Michel, we booked a hotel on the grounds of the abbey. Therefore, we settled in and went for a walk around the walls until the tide began to rise.

And in the evening we looked at our main goal in northern France - the high tide at Mont Saint Michel.

When it got dark, we went to the observation deck on the dam.

Day 9 -

Normandy is well known to the average tourist. Excellent infrastructure, many hotels of different levels and excellent cuisine have long attracted the attention of potential travelers to these places in the north-east of France.

In LiveJournal, you can find a lot of reports about Normandy, but with close attention, you can see some of their uniformity. Professional top bloggers travel here for the annual cider and calvados tastings, while mere mortals usually visit only a few of the region's most hyped places. But it is enough just to delve a little into maps and guides to understand how much interesting things here remain aside from these standard routes.

Perhaps that is why, during the next promotion of low-cost airlines from Vilnius, I unexpectedly bought two tickets for myself to the French Beauvais airport. From here, most visitors go straight to Paris, which is only about a hundred kilometers away, but getting to the beaches of Normandy from Beauvais is also not at all difficult.

In planning this trip, I made a small strategic mistake. The fact is that our journey was supposed to take five days. At first I thought that the most interesting city of Amiens is not far from Beauvais, and from there it is not so far to the famous port of Calais. These cities already belong to the other French regions of Picardy and Nord-Pas-de-Calais, but visiting them was quite invested in my itinerary. The rest of the time I decided to devote exclusively to Normandy.
3.

On the day I usually plan to drive a route of 200-300 kilometers. I know from experience that such a distance is passed easily and without strain, and the constant change of impressions guarantees an unforgettable experience. Everything would have been fine if at some point in the preparation of the route I had not started reading about another French province neighboring Normandy - Brittany. This region seemed so interesting and original to me that I suddenly decided to change my principles and look here for a day.
4.

Unfortunately, I underestimated the scale of this region. Brittany for a day is just ridiculous! During that day we drove almost 600 kilometers and saw very little, but we were very tired. Do not repeat my mistakes, if you decide to go to Brittany, dedicate at least five days to this region. The rest of our trip went like clockwork.
5.

In Amiens we looked for traces of the great writer Jules Verne, and in Calais we visited the abandoned giant bunkers from the Second World War. There will be separate reports on this.
6.

From Calais we began to descend south along the coastline. Gradually, the marshy lowlands gave way to the rocks of the Alabaster Coast. These places have long been considered a resort by the French.
7.

It was a great pleasure to visit small coastal towns surrounded by white rocky cliffs. There are many of them here and not all of them are known to a wide range of tourists. Fécamp, Dieppe, Le Treport, Ault - one can write a separate story about each of these towns.
8.

We also visited more popular places, but I don’t feel much pleasure from walking by the sea with crowds of vacationers and long searches for a parking spot on streets clogged with cars, so we tried to slip through places like Etretat or Honfleur as quickly as possible.
9.

Of course, one of the main goals of my trip to Normandy was to visit the Allied landing sites during the Second World War. The legendary D-Day happened exactly 70 years ago, so this topic is now being raised very actively throughout the region.
10.

There are many memorials, museums and monuments open along the coast. Many hotels and restaurants hang American and English flags on their facades, either as a sign of memory, or to lure potential customers.
11.

Of the huge number of places that are open to the public this year, I have chosen only a few. Frankly, I could devote my entire trip to this topic, but do not forget about your other half. Of course, the end of July is a great time for a beach holiday in Normandy.
12.

Some of the longest sea tides have created unique giant beaches here. Coupled with the summer sun, these are the perfect places to relax and sunbathe!
13.

With swimming in the sea, everything is not so simple here. By the way, the locals do not like water procedures at all. The sea is said to be cold here! They were not with us in the Baltic!
14.

I would not climb out of the water on Normandy beaches, only here we ran into another problem. Here you can try to enter the sea water for a long time, but even at a decent distance from the coast, in many places the depth will still be knee-deep at most.
15.

Finding an acceptable beach with the opportunity to swim here was not so easy. We accidentally happened only on the third day of the trip. But this place seemed perfect to us. Fine sand next to a picturesque rock with a lighthouse on top, the almost complete absence of people and the proximity of the parking lot - here we felt almost like in paradise. I will not give out the coordinates of this beach just like that.
16.

For all my dislike of popular sights, sometimes I still can’t avoid them.
17.

At the risk of being banal, I still stopped by the famous island city of Mont Saint-Michel. Apparently, after Paris, this is the most visited place in France by tourists. Trying not to subject our psyche to additional tests, we visited it in the evening, at sunset. My impressions of that walk were a little chaotic and I will share them later.
18.

Despite the difficulties described above, in Brittany we still saw not so little. The ancient pirate port of Saint-Malo, the medieval town of Dinant and the mysterious complex of megaliths in Karnak became our goals on the penultimate day of our journey through France. There is something to remember and something to tell.
19.

The last day in France we were waiting for the return to Beauvais. On the way, we stopped at the capital of Normandy, the city of Rouen, and also swam on the ferry along the famous Seine.
20.

We saw this river, familiar to most of us from Paris, in an unusual frame of high chalk cliffs. These places, despite the high degree of population, have retained their original beauty and wildness.
21.

On this, our somewhat non-standard trip to Normandy ended. We never drank a drop of the local cider, nor did we try the vaunted Calvados.
22.

But sobriety and purity of mind allowed us to see this region in all its beauty and versatility. In addition, our pocket was not materially damaged either.
23.

It is worth saying a few words about the weather. In many souvenir shops here I saw magnets with the image of heavy rain drops and the inscription Normandy. The weather favored us and it was gloomy only on the first day. Then we fully managed to enjoy the bright sun and summer heat. So we did not buy those magnets in view of their fallacy in our particular case.
24.

For lovers of financial details, I will describe our expenses. Flights for two cost us 110 Euros. Rented car for five days - 200 euros, and for gasoline an additional 150 euros.
25.

We lived exclusively in small family hotels, where a separate room with all amenities for two with homemade breakfast cost us 50-60 Euros.
26.

Do not forget that now is the peak season here. In total, all the overnight stays cost us 270 Euros. I will write about these very unusual hotels for us separately. They are here - a separate attraction of Normandy!
27.

The rest of the expenses, with the exception of a few trips to local restaurants, were not great and amounted to only about 200 Euros.
28.

In total, the amount of 900 Euros for five days of vacation for two in France cannot be called large. This means that you can and should travel here. Knowledgeable people can compare this cost with the price level in Paris.
29.

Something tells me that a trip to Normandy can not only be a worthy alternative to the famous capital of France, but also significantly save money. The potential of the entire region as a whole is very high.
30.

I'll stop there for now. Those who are interested in Normandy and its surrounding regions, expect more detailed reports in the near future.
31.