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Less than 15 minutes from the château — and only 30 km from Cherbourg — stands one of the most extraordinary buildings in Normandy: a vast concrete airship hangar built for the French Navy during the First World War. Today it is both a listed historic monument and the home of something truly unlike anything…

La Hague is the wild, dramatic headland at the very tip of the Cotentin Peninsula — a landscape of towering cliffs, ancient moorland, hidden coves and windswept beaches that feels genuinely untouched. About 45 minutes from the château, it makes a perfect day out and one of the most memorable coastal walks in all of…

Of all the beaches stormed on 6 June 1944, Omaha was the most fiercely contested. Stretching eight kilometres between Vierville-sur-Mer and Colleville-sur-Mer, it was assigned to the US 1st and 29th Infantry Divisions — and the resistance they met was devastating. Rough seas scattered landing craft, amphibious tanks sank before reaching shore, and the men…

Pointe du Hoc is one of the most dramatic and haunting sites along the entire Normandy coast. A sheer promontory of jagged rock rising 30 metres above the Channel, it was targeted in the early hours of 6 June 1944 by the US 2nd Ranger Battalion — 225 men tasked with scaling the cliffs under…

On the morning of 6 June 1944, 25,000 British and Commonwealth troops landed on Gold Beach, the central of the five Allied landing beaches. Among them were soldiers from the East Yorkshire Regiment, the Green Howards and the Devonshire Regiment, supported by specialised armour of the 79th Armoured Division. By nightfall, the British had pushed…

Pegasus Bridge holds a unique place in the story of D-Day: it was the very first objective liberated in the liberation of Western Europe. At 00:16 on 6 June 1944 — more than six hours before the first soldier set foot on the beaches — six Horsa gliders carrying 181 men of the British 6th…

Listed among the Most Beautiful Villages of France, Barfleur lines its grey granite houses around a fishing port that never stopped working — the boats still land the famous Barfleur “blonde” mussels. It is a place for wandering the quays, eating seafood and watching the tide reshape the harbour twice a day. In the Middle…

Barneville-Carteret is the seaside resort of the Cotentin’s west coast: a harbour tucked into the estuary, long sandy beaches and the feel of a small town that lives all year round — market stalls, bathing huts, sailing boats and good restaurants. The Cap de Carteret is the walk not to miss: from the lighthouse, the…

Portbail is the kind of haven-side village the Cotentin has few of left: a long thirteen-arch bridge spans the lagoon, boats lie on their sides at low tide, and the light is extraordinary at both ends of the day. The heritage is astonishing for such a small place: the church of Notre-Dame, almost a thousand…

Hidden in the bocage near Barneville-Carteret lies the most famous garden of the Cotentin: La Maubrairie, the work of Stéphane Marie, the face of the beloved French gardening show “Silence, ça pousse!”. Here, on his native soil, he has spent some thirty years cultivating a dialogue between garden and landscape, nourished by his past as…

Between the Cap de Carteret and the Rozel headland stretches one of the largest dune massifs of the west coast: the dunes of Hatainville. Protected by the Conservatoire du littoral, this shifting landscape of sand and marram grass rises into perched dunes overlooking the sea — scenery you would not expect to find in Normandy.…

They call it the oasis of the Cotentin, and the change of scenery is real: around a 17th-century manor, a few hundred metres from the sea, thrive palms, giant gunneras, bamboos and hundreds of southern-hemisphere species. The secret? The exceptionally mild microclimate of this coast, sheltered by the hills of La Hague. Listed as a…

It was at the end of the world, in Omonville-la-Petite, that Jacques Prévert chose to settle: the poet of “Autumn Leaves” and screenwriter of “Les Enfants du Paradis” spent his final years here, until his death in 1977. His house, now a museum, is visited the way you enter a friend’s home: workshops, collages, photographs…

The Nez de Jobourg is the great thrill of La Hague: a promontory of cliffs among the highest in continental Europe, battered by the currents of the Raz Blanchard, with Alderney and Sark on the horizon. The coastal path (GR 223) unrolls some of the most beautiful kilometres of shoreline in Normandy here. At the…

On the Jonville headland, facing the island of Tatihou, Le Goéland Plage (formerly “Le Goéland 1951”) occupies a former wartime bunker right on the beach — surely the most surprising terrace in the Val de Saire, with your feet in the sand and the open sea ahead. Come for tapas, oysters and sharing plates, fish…

Just 20 minutes from the château, on the north-eastern tip of the Cotentin Peninsula, Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue is one of the most beguiling small towns in Normandy. In 2019 it was voted France’s favourite village — and once you’ve strolled its granite quayside, eaten an oyster straight from the water and crossed to the wild little island…

Le Mont-Saint-Michel is a 1:40 drive from Chateau de Flottemanville. It is the second most visited site in France after Paris and one of the most famous in Europe. The site is a World Heritage Site since 1979. → View on Google Maps

Christian Dior was born in Granville off the Normandy coast and his childhood home is preserved and visited boasting a wide collection of his creation with permanent as well as temporary exhibitions. The villa “Rhumbs” of Belle Epoque style, is perched on a ridge overlooking the sea cliff. This unique “Museum of France” dedicated to fashion,…

The Caen Memorial located 50 minutes drive from the castle Flottemanville, it tells the story of the second world war and the battle for Caen : Omaha Beach, Utah Beach, Sword Beach, Gold Beach, Judo Beach and the entire Battle of Normandy. It also has several permanant and temporary exhibitions including explainations about the Cold…

The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial of Colleville-sur-mer overlooks one of the Normandy landing beaches, Omaha Beach, on 172 acres. This cemetery was inaugurated in 1956 and keeps aproximatly 10,000 US soldier tombs. It is the largest, best known and most moving cemeteries of the American landing with white crosses lined up and facing west,…

La cité de la Mer is a scientific and playful place dedicated to the submarine exploration, inaugurated on April 29th, 2002 to Cherbourg-Octeville. La cité de la mer is situated in the Transatlantic Maritime former station, the prestigious one art deco building. In 2012 was created a new space Titanic and Emigration “. You will…

A 20 minutes drive from Chateau de Flottemanville, La Maison du Biscuit offers all of Normandy’s best regional delicasies and a great place for tea or coffee. It is one of the last traditional Normand biscuit factory, continuing a family tradition since 1903. You can enjoy specialties such as le “Financier” and sponge cake and…

Located in the Regional Natural Park of Cotentin and Bessin, la Madeleine beach in Sainte Marie du Mont made it into our history books one Tuesday in June 1944 and became Utah Beach.. 70 years lader the Utah Beach Museum invites you to understand the journey our liberators took on that day. The Museum of…

Saint Mère Église is one of first one city released in the morning from June 6th, 1944 by the American units of the US 82nd Airborder and 101st divide. It played an important role in Second World war because this village was in the middle of the road N13. The Germans would have probably use…