Where History LivesNormandy.

The most painted cliffs in France — three natural chalk arches (the Falaise d'Aval with the Needle rock, the Falaise d'Amont, and the Manneporte) rising from the Channel like white cathedrals, painted by Monet in 1883–1886, by Courbet in 80 canvases, by Eugène Boudin and dozens of others. The beach is white pebble; the town is a cluster of Norman timber-frame houses behind the seafront. Walk up to the top of the Falaise d'Aval for the view of the Needle from above — 90 minutes' walk return, the finest coastal view in Normandy. Arrive early; the car park fills quickly in summer.

The harbour town that gave birth to French Impressionism — a small port on the south bank of the Seine estuary whose specific quality of reflected light on the water attracted Boudin, Monet (who came here as a young man to paint with Boudin), Courbet, Jongkind and Sisley. The Vieux Bassin (old harbour) is framed by the slate-fronted 6–7 storey houses of the 17th century, their heights dictated by the space available on the original quay. The wooden Église Sainte-Catherine (15th century, built by ship's carpenters using boat-building techniques — the roof is an inverted hull) is the largest wooden church in France. Samuel de Champlain sailed from Honfleur to found Quebec in 1608.

The most important embroidered narrative in the world — 70 metres of linen embroidered with woollen thread in eight colours, depicting the Norman Conquest of England from Duke William's claim on the English crown to the Battle of Hastings (14 October 1066). It is not a tapestry (woven) but an embroidery (stitched); it was probably made in England within a decade of the conquest, possibly at the workshop of Archbishop Odo of Bayeux (William's half-brother). The work is a primary historical source for events on both sides of the Channel: the ships, the armour, the Halley's Comet of 1066 (depicted with the crowds gazing up at it in terror), Harold's death with the arrow. Allow 2 hours including the audio guide.

The finest museum of the Second World War in France and one of the finest in the world — opened 1988 on the site of the German military headquarters used during the Battle of Normandy, telling the story from the rise of fascism in the 1930s through the war to the Cold War. The D-Day sequence is the most comprehensive single account of the June 1944 landings available in a museum context, with original vehicles, weapons, photographs, film, maps, and personal testimonies. The film programmes (shown throughout the day) include rare footage of the landings. The Peace Garden outside is planted with trees from countries involved in the conflict. Allow at minimum 3 hours; a full day is not wasted.

The most physically confronting D-Day site — a 30-metre chalk promontory between Utah and Omaha beaches where 225 US Army Rangers scaled the cliff using grappling hooks under German fire on the morning of 6 June 1944, to destroy the artillery battery positioned to cover both beaches. The guns had been moved before the assault; the Rangers held the position against counterattacks for two days. Of the 225 Rangers who climbed, 90 were still standing at the relief. The landscape is still cratered from the pre-landing bombardment — the bomb craters are the most vivid physical evidence of the intensity of the D-Day bombardment available anywhere on the coast. The German bunkers and gun emplacements are intact.

The 8-kilometre beach where the US 1st and 29th Infantry Divisions landed on 6 June 1944 — the most costly of the five D-Day beaches, with approximately 2,000 American casualties on the first day. The German defences on the bluffs above were intact (the pre-landing aerial bombardment had missed in the low cloud and dust); the beach was exposed and shallow; the men had to wade 200 metres under fire. Walk the beach from the waterline to the base of the bluffs: the distance the men had to cross. Stand at the water's edge and look at the slope of the ground. The physical reality of the landscape explains the casualty rate more clearly than any statistic. The beach is still a working beach today.

9,387 white marble crosses and Stars of David in perfect rows on the bluff above Omaha Beach — the American dead of the Normandy campaign, on a 70-hectare site that is American soil administered by the American Battle Monuments Commission. The view from the cemetery over the beach where the men died to the Atlantic beyond is the most powerful single view in Normandy. 307 of the graves are marked "Here Rests in Honored Glory A Comrade in Arms Known But to God." The visitor centre beneath the cemetery uses letters, photographs and personal stories to give individual faces to the rows of identical crosses above. Allow at least an hour; many visitors stay much longer.

A granite island rising 92 metres from the tidal flats of the Bay of Mont-Saint-Michel — at high tide surrounded by sea, at low tide surrounded by 15 kilometres of sand and quicksand. A Benedictine abbey founded in 966 (built on a 708 oratory of St Aubert) occupies the summit; the medieval village of 44 permanent residents clings to the lower slopes; the ramparts ring the island. The tidal range of the bay is the largest in France (up to 14 metres), producing one of the fastest-rising tides in Europe. The silhouette of the Mont with the archangel Michael at its summit is the most recognisable image of France. Three million visitors per year make it the third most visited site in France after the Eiffel Tower and Versailles.