Have you ever been to Normandy? It’s a wonderful idea for a road trip for those who don’t want to take planes.. or simply because they want to embark on a beautiful journey to discover some of the most iconic places in France!
This was our journey and our itinerary 🙂
???? STAGE 1: Alsace, France – Riquewihr and Colmar
After a 7-hour drive from Florence, the first stop is the countries of fairy tales and Christmas: they are in France, but not far from the German border.
???? COLMAR has a medieval historic center which is made of colored houses overlooking cobbled alleyways and small canals, here German culture blends with French culture and can be seen in every detail, from food to language. Colmar is beautiful in the summer with its flowers and colours, but at Christmas it becomes the capital of Christmas with nothing short of incredible Christmas decorations.
???? The open market has a lot of restaurants and streetfood (vegetable too!)!
???? RIQUEWIHR is the country that inspired Disney illustrators to draw Belle’s village from Beauty and the Beast: actually the colorful houses, the fountain, the wells, the shops, yes, you can really find everything! And it’s really wonderful to be able to immerse yourself in this fairytale atmosphere, even more so during the Christmas period thanks to the fabulous decorations while the famous vineyards of Alsace extend all around ???? The town, being very small and among the most famous in France, in this period is really super super full of people, surely in another period of the year it becomes even more enjoyable: not to be missed!
???? the Féerie de Noël shop, is a village dedicated to Christmas all year round with lots of wonderful home decorations!
Next stop, even further north, towards Paris (although we will not stop in the city but in….)
???? STAGE 2: Versailles
Is it worth the cost of the ticket? ????????
Well, it’s the third most visited place in France (After the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower) as well as the most opulent and richest Palace ever built (UNESCO Heritage Site) ????
And if you are fascinated by the figure of Marie Antoinette and the Sun King or if you grew up on bread and Lady Oscar (Or you have seen the Iron Mask a thousand times!) this is the place for you! ????
And you, would you like to go?????
Many of you have asked me this question
“Is it worth the cost of the ticket? Is it worth it?” ????
In the Reel I’ll show you through my eyes what I saw and in the final my opinion about it with all the prices ????
Who knows if you agree with me if you’ve been there! ????
???? Here is some useful and practical information:
-The Palace of Versailles is made up of three buildings: Versailles, the Grande Trianon and the Petit Trianon, as well as other small buildings located in the city of the same name. There are multiple tickets to see more or less buildings.
– buy the ticket online and book your visit in advance: you will save a lot of time and queuing (which you will do anyway but in a reduced way)
– If there are no more tickets on the official website, check availability on official channels (such as Parigi.it which gave us the entrance ticket!)
???? Some curiosities:
– It has 700 rooms, 2513 windows, 352 fireplaces, 67 staircases and 483 mirrors. It has 372 statues: you need a whole day to admire them all.
-The gallery of mirrors was made by Venetian craftsmen who were all ☠️ : Venice had the secret formula for making mirrors, so the Venetian workers were sentenced to death for having exported it to France!
* supplied by #parigipuntoit
Ingresso Versailles: 19,50 €
Audio guide: 6 euros €
Golf Car from: €38
Return transport from Paris starting from: €7.10
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???? THIRD STAGE: Abbey of Jumièges (Abbaye de Jumièges)
After a night spent in Ruen, which we visited by night, we headed north again. First stop about 20 minutes by car from Ruen, the Jumièges Abbey (Abbaye de Jumièges) Founded in the 1600s with its Norman Romanesque architecture and destroyed over time to acquire materials for other constructions, it is one of the most famous ruins in France ! Worth a visit for a nice stop! All photos were taken here 😉
???? Paid entrance: 6,50 euros
Also quickly look at the little village it’s in because it’s too picturesque!
???? Chapel Oak
Second stop, about 20 minutes from the previous one, the Chene Chapelle, one of the most incredible places I’ve ever seen! In Normandy there is the oldest oak tree in France (600 years ????): the absurd thing is that INSIDE they built a, um, chapel. I swear. It seems to be inside the world of Harry Potter ???? It’s the one you see in the video!
???? Free entry
Next stop? We’re heading to the Ocean????
???? FOURTH STAGE: ETRETAT
After some intermediate stages that I will tell you about, we arrived in Etretat, a bit what is considered the “symbol” of Normandy, its high white coasts eroded by the weather that have created an incredible succession of arches, them of the Alabaster Coast. They have been the subject of many impressionist works by Jongkind, Monet, Boudin and many others as well as… the Lupine set (the TV series) because this is where Leblanc wrote the majority 19 novels, 39 short stories and 5 plays all about Arsenio Lupine ????
???? USEFUL INFO:
- In stories I’ll put you the map to make this path, take a screenshot, I’ll put it in the final video too!
- the path has a maximum duration of 2 hours round trip but you can modulate it as you wish
- There is an incredible wind, cover yourself well and be very careful!
- You will find a lot of mud, bring boots!
Until the next stage which will be very intense! ????
Fifth stage of our road trip to Normandy: the places of the war.
During D-Day, starting from 6 June 1944, men from all over the world (British, Canadian, Belgian, Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, Polish, Australian, French…) landed on these beaches (???? PHOTO 3 – beach of OMAHA beach, landing beach) to fight Nazism and free Western Europe, starting from France, from occupation.
The operation was called Overload, and it was very complex: the famous “landing in Normandy” by the allies via ships, were preceded in the preceding hours by the landing of paratroopers and the arrival of 200 rangers (those who climbed the high coasts to prepare land at landing).
12,000 warships, 4,200 landing craft and 12,000 aircraft participated in the operation.
Hitler had built the Atlantic Wall, a system of fortifications, along the entire French coast to defend the territory from a possible attack (???? PHOTO 2 – batteries of Longues-sur-Mer with casemates and bunkers with cannons still intact)
Today, many are still visible along the coasts bunkers and casemates from the war that have been left intact as a historical memory (a must visit!). They are something incredible: I warn you it gives the creeps!
Da non perdere Battery of Longues-sur-Mer and Battery of Azeville
On the landing beaches you will find evidence of wrecks and defensive structures.
There are numerous museums that tell the story of the war and the landing with numerous testimonies including those inside the American cemetery (???? PHOTO 4) which is extremely touching.
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Sixth stage: Mont Saint Michel!
I was warned that Mont Saint-Michel, my place on my wish list since forever, could disappoint me because often, what you see in photography or on social media is different from reality, this being such a particular place that it must be understood ✨
As we know, one of the characteristics of Mont-Saint-Michel is that it is a rocky islet surrounded by a very large bay: here there are the largest tides in continental Europe and, because of those, it can be surrounded by the sea or by a large expanse of sand.
We must grasp the beauty in both situations!
???? Consult the times and days of the tides online: when the tide coefficient exceeds 110, the Mont becomes an island again within a few hours. It doesn’t happen often, actually! There are times like ours where everything is very “dry”
⚠️ For safety reasons it is strictly forbidden to venture alone into the bay: you can do it with a guide or by asking for precise information at the information center at the departure of the shuttles. There is quicksand and when the tide comes in, well, you can be reached by water in no time!
I hope that these indications of stages have been useful to you! Have a good trip and see you next adventure 🙂
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