Places to Visit in Normandy

Eight places worth putting on a Normandy itinerary, in the order you would reach them coming west from Paris. Some are on the D-Day coast and some are not, and the ones that are not are the reason people extend a two-day trip to four. Normandy ticket prices are set out per site on the tour pages.

Giverny

Seventy-five kilometres from Paris in the Seine valley. Monet bought the house in 1890, built the water garden, and painted it until he died in 1926. The Fondation opens 1 April to 1 November 2026 at €13, and two departures here go there from Paris. Allow two hours, and go in the morning.

Rouen

The regional capital, on the Seine, with a cathedral Monet painted more than thirty times in different light and a medieval centre that survived the war better than the coast did. Joan of Arc was tried and burned here in 1431. It is a city rather than a stop, and it needs a day of its own.

Honfleur

A harbour of tall, narrow slate-fronted houses at the mouth of the Seine, about twenty-five kilometres from Le Havre. Boudin and the pre-Impressionists painted here before Monet went to Giverny. It is the obvious half day for a cruise passenger who does not want a battlefield, and it is busy in August for good reason.

Étretat

Chalk cliffs and a natural arch on the Alabaster Coast north of Le Havre, and another place Monet worked repeatedly. The cliff walk from the town takes an hour up and back and is the whole point of coming. It is about a hundred kilometres east of the landing beaches, so it belongs to a different day.

Caen

William the Conqueror’s city, and the one most damaged in 1944. His Abbaye aux Hommes still stands and is a ten-minute walk from the centre. The Mémorial de Caen is the largest museum on the subject anywhere, with admission from €20.80. One private departure here starts from the city.

Bayeux

The practical base for the whole coast: twenty minutes from Omaha, and the first town liberated after D-Day, which is why it survived intact. Most guided days meet at the Place du Québec. The tapestry museum is closed until autumn 2027; the Memorial Museum of the Battle of Normandy is open at €8.50.

Arromanches

A seaside town with a war still visible in its bay. The Mulberry caissons sit offshore and the cliff road above gives you the whole arc of Gold sector. The Musée du Débarquement is on the seafront at €12.90 and closes for three weeks in January.

How they compare, and what each costs you

Two of these eight are on the D-Day coast, three are within an hour of it, and three belong to a different day entirely. That is the thing to work out before you book anything, because a Normandy itinerary lives or dies on how far apart its stops are.

You will notice the pattern: the free ones are on the coast and the ticketed ones are inland. That is not a coincidence. The memorials are maintained by governments and the museums by towns, and it is why a day on this coast costs you a fare rather than an admission.

Sainte-Mère-Église

An inland village forty-five minutes from Bayeux, among the first places liberated in the early hours of 6 June. A parachute and figure hang from the church tower in memory of a paratrooper who caught there during the drop. The square, the church and the airborne museum sit together and take about an hour.

If you have three days rather than two, the sensible shape is one on the American sector, one at the bay, and one spent inland — Caen, the cider country and a town you pick from the table above. Things to do sets out what each one actually involves, getting there has the journey times, and Normandy Excursions lists the guided departures that reach them for you.