I had great plans to travel over the holiday season in 2021 but the emergence of the omicron variant quickly changed my plans. In the end a Winter weekend in Normandy was an excellent compromise. It meant less driving and an opportunity to revisit some classic sites and see some new places. I would recommend Mortain as a base for a Winter weekend in Normandy as it’s no more than an hour drive from numerous sites.
Honfleur
The beautiful, but busy, port of Honfleur was our first stop. It’s a wonderful town and I recommend the all day parking at Gallien (links open in new tabs). While talking of recommendations I am not a big fan of the, often industrial, food found in tourist sites. So we had lunch at the SaQuaNa saison 3 restaurant. The set menu is excellent value. However the main purpose of visiting Honfleur is the historic town and the port.
If you are interested in large bridges and a view of the Seine estuary then head to the Pont de Normandie, it is worth a closer look .
Mont Saint-Michel
The absolutely unmissable monument is very popular with French and international tourists alike. No real weekend in Normandy would be complete without a visit. It’s on the frontier with Brittany too. Mandatory parking has been implemented and shuttles run to and from the car parks to the island. At low tide there is a huge area of sand to explore. The key part of the visit is the Abbey, a UNESCO world heritage site. Check the visiting times on their web site. You can pre-book tickets here too, It’ll take an hour to get from the car park to the Abbey entrance.
As I said about restaurants in Honfleur, Mont Saint-Michel is not the best place to sample high quality French food and you will quickly notice that restaurant to restaurant the choices and prices are almost identical.
Domfront
Moving away from the 2 must-sees, there are many other places to visit. I mentioned Mortain, but first on my weekend in Normandy was the Medieval city of Domfront. The city itself is compact and pretty and is adjacent to the ruins of the castle. Over 1000 years ago the castle was built of wood around 1010. It was rebuilt in stone it was the castle of Henri 1er, the son of William the Conqueror and King of England and Duke of Normandy.
Mortain
There is a 2 hour sign posted walk around the town that you should do if you can. It’s not too difficult but when you get to Mortain you won’t be surprised to hear that it has some steepish climbs and uneven stones to overcome. It takes you around all the important sites of the town. In particular the Abbey which has the potential to be something extraordinary if the projects come to fruition and the the small and large waterfalls. The big waterfall is the tallest in Northern France, with a 25m drop. I’ll leave you to discover that in person.
You can see some of my landscape photos here. There are also more waterfalls here.
Some of these photos are available for purchase on my Adobe Stock store. Or from the menu above, or even buy your art directly below.
You may also like:
