53 Best Sights in Normandy, France

Constructed behind the town church in 1964 in the form of an open parachute, this fascinating museum houses documents, maps, mementos, and one of the Waco CG4A gliders used to drop troops.

Housed in the Bishop's Palace beneath the cathedral, the Musée Baron-Gérard (also known as the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire de Baron Gérard or MAHB) displays a fine collection of Bayeux porcelain and lace, plus ceramics from Rouen, vintage pharmaceutical jars, 16th- to 19th-century furniture, and paintings by local artists. Note the magnificent plane tree out front—dubbed the Tree of Liberty, it was planted in 1797.

Exhibits at the Musée de la Bataille de Normandie trace the story of the struggle from June 6 to August 29, 1944. Located near the moving British War Cemetery, it contains some impressive war paraphernalia.

A superb array of local pottery and European porcelain can be admired at this museum, housed in an elegant mansion near the Musée des Beaux-Arts.

This museum explores the science of the Mont's tidal bay and has a vast collection of model ships.

Set in a mansion built for the castle governor, this museum is dedicated to regional arts such as ceramics and sculpture, as well as local archaeological finds.

Gallo-Roman glassware and mosaics, medieval tapestries and enamels, and Moorish ceramics vie for attention inside this extensive antiquities museum. Occupying a former 17th-century monastery, it also has a display devoted to natural history, which includes some skeletons dating to prehistoric times.

One of Rouen's cultural mainstays, this museum is famed for its stellar collection of paintings and sculptures from the 16th to the 20th century, including works by native son Géricault as well as by David, Rubens, Caravaggio, Velázquez, Poussin, Delacroix, Degas, and Modigliani. Most popular of all, however, is the impressive Impressionist gallery, with Monet, Renoir, and Sisley, plus the Postimpressionist School of Rouen headed by Albert Lebourg and Gustave Loiseau.

Within the castle's walls, the Musée des Beaux-Arts is a heavyweight among France's provincial fine arts museums. Its collection includes works by Monet, Poussin, Rubens, Brueghel, Tintoretto, and Veronese; there's also a wide range of 20th-century art on view.

St-Lô has the perfect French provincial art museum. Its halls are airy, seldom busy, and not too big, yet full of varied exhibits—including an unexpected masterpiece: Gombault et Macée, a set of nine silk-and-wool tapestries woven in Bruges around 1600 relating a tale about a shepherd couple, exquisitely showcased in a special circular room. Other highlights include brash modern tapestries by Jean Lurçat; paintings by Corot, Boudin, and Géricault; and court miniatures by Daniel Saint. Photographs, models, and documents evoke St-Lô's wartime devastation, as does a Fernand Léger watercolor, given to the museum by his wife in memory of his work on the town's postwar reconstruction.

Little remains to mark the furious fighting waged hereabouts after D-Day. In the bay off Arromanches, however, some elements of the floating harbor are still visible. As you contemplate the seemingly insignificant hunks of concrete that form a broken offshore semicircle, try to imagine the extraordinary feat involved in towing them across the Channel from England. General Eisenhower said that victory would have been impossible without this prefabricated harbor, which was nicknamed "Winston." The Musée du Débarquement, on the seafront, has models, mock-ups, and photographs depicting the creation of this technical marvel.

In La Madeleine, inspect the sleek Musee du Débarquement Utah Beach (Utah Beach D-Day Museum)—a stunning facility, located right on the beachhead, where exhibits include vintage aircraft and a W5 Utah scale model detailing the German defenses. Continue north to the Dunes de Varreville, where you'll find a monument to French hero General Leclerc, who landed here. Offshore you can see the fortified Iles St-Marcouf. Carry on to Quinéville, at the far end of Utah Beach, to visit the World War II Museum at 18 avenue de la Plage ( 02–33–95–95–95  www.worldwar2-museum.com); open daily from April to October, this small museum evokes life during the German Occupation (€9).

This excellent small museum, dedicated to the work of Honfleur-born Eugène Boudin, traces a career crucial to the development of Impressionism. His friendship with, and influence on, Claude Monet is visible in his masterful depiction of the region's skies and seaways.

Inside a former prison, the Musée Historique traces the 1,000-year history of the Mont.

Not far from the Musée des Beaux-Arts, this museum claims to have the world's finest collection of wrought iron, with exhibits spanning the 4th through 19th centuries. The displays, imaginatively housed in a converted medieval church, include the professional instruments of surgeons, barbers, carpenters, clockmakers, and gardeners.

Fécamp is also the home of Bénédictine liqueur. The Palais de la Bénédictine, across from the tourist office, is a florid building dating to 1892 that mixes neo-Gothic and Renaissance styles. Watery pastiche or taste-tingling architectural cocktail? Whether you're shaken or stirred, this remains one of Normandy's most popular attractions. Fans will want to take advantage of mixology workshops, special meals, or guided tours. There's also a shop selling Bénédictine products and souvenirs.

Early on June 6, 1944, the British 6th Airborne Division landed by glider and captured this bridge, which local residents later named for the division's emblem of Bellerophon astride his winged horse. This proved to be the first step toward liberating France from Nazi occupation, and the bridge itself became a symbol of the Allied invasion. To see it, take D514 north from Caen for 13 km (8 miles) and turn right at Bénouville. The original bridge—erected in 1935—has been replaced by a similar, slightly wider one, but the older span can be seen at the adjacent Mémorial Pegasus visitor center. Café Gondrée, by the bridge—the first building recaptured on French soil—is still standing and still serving rather expensive food and drinks; it also displays wartime memorabilia. A full-size replica Horsa glider is currently on view in the museum's park, with a fully refurbished cockpit.

The most spectacular scenery along the coast is at the Pointe du Hoc, 13 km (8 miles) west of St-Laurent. Wildly undulating grassland leads past ruined blockhouses to a cliff-top observatory and a German machine-gun post whose intimidating mass of reinforced concrete merits chilly exploration. Despite Spielberg's cinematic genius, it remains hard to imagine just how Colonel Rudder and his 225 Rangers—only 90 survived—managed to scale the jagged cliffs with rope ladders and capture the German defenses in one of the most heroic and dramatic episodes of the war. A granite memorial pillar now stands on top of a concrete bunker, but the site otherwise remains as the Rangers left it—look down through the barbed wire at the jutting cliffs the troops ascended and see the huge craters left by exploded shells. The American Battle Monuments Commission, which maintains the site, provides a self-guided tour that passes ammunition bunkers, a hospital bunker, antiaircraft positions, and other sites.

At 2:30 am on June 6, 1944, the 82nd Airborne Division was dropped over Ste-Mère, heralding the start of D-Day operations. After securing their position, U.S. forces pushed north, then west, cutting off the Cotentin Peninsula on June 18 and taking Cherbourg on June 26. German defenses proved fiercer farther south, and St-Lô was not liberated until July 19.

Soak up the seafaring atmosphere by strolling around the old harbor and paying a visit to the ravishing wooden church of Ste-Catherine, which dominates a tumbling square. The sanctuary and ramshackle belfry across the way—note the many touches of marine engineering in their architecture—were built by townspeople to show their gratitude for the departure of the English at the end of the Hundred Years' War, in 1453.

Bertrand Duguesclin built this home for his wife Tiphaine in 1365. The former was a general fierce in his allegiance to the cause of French independence; the latter was a famed astrologer. Now a museum, the logis traces the couple's marital life through rooms filled with period furnishings and interesting artifacts—including a medieval chastity belt, armor, and astrological tools.

Head east on D67 from Ste-Mère to Utah Beach, which, being sheltered from the Atlantic winds by the Cotentin Peninsula and surveyed by lowly sand dunes rather than rocky cliffs, proved easier to attack than Omaha. Allied troops stormed the beach at dawn, and just a few hours later had managed to conquer the German defenses, heading inland to join up with the airborne troops.