The undiscovered Normandy

Advantages: Relatively unknown to English tourists
Disadvantages: I can't think of any

...All the reviews I have read have been on 'Basse Normandie'. Whilst this area certainly has its attractions (you can't argue with the Bayeux Tapestry or the Landing Beaches) so many English people are missing out on the secret attractions of 'Haute Normandie', long known to the French. Parisians have certainly discovered the pleasures of owning a second home in this peaceful and beautiful area 'entre Seine et mer'. The best way to visit the Seine Maritime is probably via Transmanche Ferries from Newhaven to Dieppe although the Speedferries terminal at Boulogne is only an hour and a half's drive on empty motorways and offers the cheapest ferry route to France. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately for those who have discovered this area, most British tourists land at Dieppe and head straight for the main road out of town. Dieppe...

onverra 24.01.2008 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Normandy (France)

Seeing the sights in Normandy

Advantages: Small and lightweight; lots of photos
Disadvantages: Information on individual places is brief

...Top 10 Normandy is a Dorling Kindersley Eye Witness Travel guide book that gives information on what it considers to be the ten best in a wide variety of categories in this region of France, famous for the Bayeux tapestry, the Impressionist painter Claude Monet, the D-Day landings, or even for camembert cheese and calvados. The ten highlights of Normandy range from towns such as Caen, Honfleur or Deauville to individual buildings or sites like Rouen Cathedral, Mont-St-Michel or the Fondation Claude Monet at Giverny. Pays d'Auge is also there for its orchards, villages, and hills, as well as its famous cider and cheese. The ten highlights are focused on in the first section of the book, but there follow just over thirty pages that look at other aspects of Normandy, such as museums and galleries, gourmet restaurants, activities...

denella 28.08.2008 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of Top 10: Normandy - Fiona Duncan

Normandy

Advantages: Easy Access from UK
Disadvantages: None that I can think of

...I have been to Normandy four times now and have never tired of it. I'm planning to visit again in August next year. Normandy is on of the most historic of the French 'departments'. With the obvious connections of William the Conquerer, to the almost modern day history of the D-Day Landing Beaches. In Normandy you will never be stuck for something to do. We usually choose to stay at Deauville, a resort on the coast. Deauville is easily accessible from all of the major ports in Normandy, 30 mins drive from Caen and Le Harve and about 2 1/2 hours from Cherbourg and Dieppe. Tourist attractions include the Bayeux Tapestry, Bayeux being about 2 hours drive from Deauville. The D-Day Landing Beaches, scattered along the Norman coast, with museums and other related attractions such as Mulberry Harbour and Pegasus Bridge. Caen...

wingbat 30.10.2001 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Normandy (France)

don't go back to Normandy

Advantages: none
Disadvantages: slow, disjointed, boring

... Back to Normandy film When this review disk came in the post I thought it was going to be about World War II, revisiting some of the beaches with people that actually fought there all those years ago; combined with a good few then and now pictures to pull us into the documentary. However whilst it is a documentary about revisiting a place, it certainly has nothing to do with World War 2. Nicolas Philibert is a French director, however back in 1976 Philibert was an assistant director working on Rene Allio?s film I, Pierre Riviere? That film was about a murderer called (Strangely enough) Pierre Riviere and he murdered three members of his family back in 1835. Allio?s film cast local farmers as some of the main characters in the film; Philibert?s documentary however was to track down these farmers 30 years later to see what...

sjp1966 01.05.2009 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Back To Normandy (DVD)

Beurre De Normandie Oui je t'aime

Advantages: Tastes absolutely delicious
Disadvantages: not a good idea for those on a diet

...Well apart from hopping on a cross channel ferry and nipping over to Normandy yourself, Sainsbury's have done the journey for you, by importing this very fine butter and relabaelling it themselves with their own brand label. If you are on a diet then you really shouldn't read any further, because Sainsbury's Unsalted Normandy Butter has 743 Calories per 100g/ml and 55.0 grams of Saturated Fat per 100g/ml, so not the healthiest of butters to eat, however I believe that Normany butter is probably the best in the World, for absolute simplicity take one very fresh French Stick and see how long 250 grammes of Normandy butter lasts, it makes particularly fine garlic butter when used in traditional french cooking such as in the preparation of L'escargot. It is impossible to talk about Sainsbury's Normany butter without considering its...

Dalesman 07.05.2002 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Sainsbury's Normandy Butter

A taste of the Normandy terroir.

Advantages: Excellent quality butter.
Disadvantages: Almost too good and too tempting.

...of cows that graze in the lush pastures of Normandy.? My test of a butter is to try it alone on a good bread and see how it shapes up. So I put it on some fresh baguette, and it was great. This is about as good as butter gets; rich and creamy, it has as much taste as many cheeses. Everything a good butter should be, and better than any other Norman butter available in Britain that I am aware of. It is excellent alone on bread, oatcakes and crispbreads. The taste reminds me of the best croissants. There?s loads of fat in it -82g per 100g ? but then, it is butter! The danger with this is that it is so good that it would be easy to overdo it, and for that reason I would not buy it that often. It would be just too tempting if one used it as an every day butter, or at least it would be for me. It would be excellent for cakes, sweets...

Pihuan 27.05.2004 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Sainsbury's Normandy Butter

CAEN - Capital of Lower Normandy

Advantages: Near to UK, Peaceful, nice people, tasty gastronomy, a prefect reason to learn french
Disadvantages: Small, not many people speak french

...Caen is capital of Lower Normandy (Basse-Normandie in french). Located in north-west of France in the département of Calvados. This small city is full of tranquility, mostly people are nice, this region is aslo famous for its dairy products such as tasty cheese & camembert and turing the disadvantage into advantage and learn french. You may make this as your main point and visit all of the normandy attractions from this place. This city of William the conqueror's tourist attractions include "The castle (Château de Caen), Abbaye aux Hommes (Men's Abbey), Abbaye aux Dames (Women's Abbey), Town Hall". All these attractions could be done as a guided tour, the good thing is that there is no admission fees for any of the tourist attraction (with exceptions of some days / Time). The Sunday market which is held every Sunday morning from 9...

nomi_a 06.08.2006 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Normandy (France)

A little village in normandy

Advantages: quite, close to ferry terminal and Normandy coast
Disadvantages: too quite for nightlife's people

...Let me present you a little village in Normandy : Orbec. Orbec is a medieval village of 2600 inhabitants. The economy is essentially based on farming and tourism (it's situated at 50kms away from the very well known Deauville and Trouville). You'll find in Orbec an atmosphere from the past and some very welcoming people. Most of houses are wooden built and the "Orbecois" would be glad to give you some advises concerning places to visit (should I say that you'll have to remember some of your French lessons because few people speak English... he! you can't get everything... ;-) ). If you like the cider straight from farm and traditional food, this is a place to go and every Wednesday at the village's market you'll be able to meet the farmers. So go and test. It's a really good place as well for fishing, forest tracking and pigeon clay...

laurent 14.07.2001 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Normandy (France)

Normandy Full of apples

Advantages: cheap wine
Disadvantages: Climate same as Britain

...We went to Normandy in February The weather was 10c overcast much likeBritain maybe a little bit Warmer. The was Lots of Orchards. The food was good especially the fish dishes which many featured applr in ther recipes which is very pleasant. The supermarkets local ones contain wonderful selections of wines . these supermarkets sell wine cheaper than the ones in Calais and you are better off going to these. the Trains in France are better and Cheaper than in Britain. they are a good way to get arround. the people in Rural normandy dont actually on the whole speak English But it was Good to Drag from your memory the french you learnt at school. the people seem very helpful and friendly....

Tracy57 12.07.2000 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Normandy (France)

A sip of Calvados

Advantages: Green and pleasant, interesting, accessible
Disadvantages: Overdeveloped coast, not particularly welcoming

...In 1793 the revolutionary government, in a typical excess of zeal, abolished the ancient provinces of France. This was done both because they represented the heritage of feudalism, and because they were too varied in size for the uniform, "rational" administration for which the revolutionaries craved. Old local loyalties were to be swept away and the départements that replaced the provinces were mostly named after impersonal geographic features: rivers and mountain ranges. Only in a few cases were traditional names allowed to prevail. Among these few, I have always had a particularly soft spot for the département of Calvados in Normandy, believing it to be named after the local liquor. Alas, research shows this to be untrue. Locality and liquor alike owe their names to a corruption of the word Salvador, after a Spanish galleon of that...

torr 04.09.2004 (18.11.2008) · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of Normandy (France)