The ship docks, the cars file off the linkspan — now what? Resist the motorway: Normandy starts here, not three hours down the road. Thirty-five minutes of country lanes and you’re at the château, bags down, engine off for good. Travelling with children? Set them loose in the park: after a day on a ship, acres of lawns, moats and bocage air work miracles — they will sleep like logs.
For dinner — the château doesn’t serve one, which is your cue to start Normandy at the table: La Table d’Henry, our neighbour at Pont Cochon, for honest country cooking — or, if the evening is mild and you docked early, head to Goéland Plage in Réville for oysters with your feet in the sand, facing Tatihou. Book from mid-July to late August; off season, check opening days — and say the Château de Flottemanville sent you.
Next morning, after the breakfast our reviews rave about, History awaits twenty minutes away: Sainte-Mère-Église and its parachutist church tower, then the Utah Beach Museum along the marsh road. You have officially arrived in Normandy — and you haven’t seen half of what the peninsula hides: our Explore pages take it from here.