Caen attracts two kinds of visitors: those who are there specifically for the D-Day Landing Beaches and all things World War II…and those who land here after the Channel crossing…and leave immediately to drive furiously to whatever destination they’re making for. Here’s a guide to Caen to persuade you to make this a short break.

Having written extensively on D-Day both here (see my list/links at the end bottom of the article) and been the co-author of the Bradt D-Day Landing Guide, I well understand the former.

But those who just see Caen as a jumping off port are missing out on this delightful, lively city where visitors who defy the usual practice and make it a destination stop are well rewarded.

A Little History of Caen

William and Mathilda

2027 is an important year for Normandy – and Europe. It sees the international celebration of William the Conqueror and Caen is the perfect place to start their colourful story.

Two of the main buildings in Caen are associated with William the Conqueror (c. 1028-1087) and Mathilda of Flanders (c. 1031-1083), so please excuse this very short history (or scroll past).

William was known as William the Bastard, being the illegitimate son of unmarried Duke Robert I of Normandy and his mistress Herleva. William’s chosen wife was the aristocratic Mathilda – granddaughter of King Robert II of France. Her reply to his declaration was pretty curt – she would not marry a bastard. The story then goes into Mills and Boon territory. William either rode to Bruges, forced himself into her bedroom and beat her. Or he dragged her from her horse and presumably declared his undying resolve in the mud.

Apparently fascinated by such a manly response, Mathilda consented. Historians, naturally, dispute this version, but let’s not get in the way of a good story.

William and Mathilda were married  in 1051-2 (probably in Rouen Cathedral), despite Pope Leo IX banning the union on the grounds of consanguinity – the couple were third cousins once removed. Four or five children later, Pope Nicholas II granted a dispensation after the couple agreed to found two churches as penance, the Abbaye aux Hommes and the Abbaye aux Dames.

Top Sights in Caen

Château de Caen

Begun by William the Conqueror in 1060 and fortified by his son Henry Beauclerk in 1123, it retains enough of the old buildings to show its size and importance. A walk over the moat into the citadel shows you how difficult the castle would be to attack. The greatest damage was done when Caen was bombed in 1944. Since then restoration work has brought the castle back to life.

A walk up to the ramparts reveals the city below, the church of St-Pierre and in the distance the Abbaye aux Hommes.

I’d advise you to start, if possible, with a visit to the Exchequer, a handsome stone building from the late 11^th century. Inside it’s empty but wait for the immersive show. The doors close behind you; the lights dim to blackness and the great salon is filled with the sounds and sights of A Journey through the 1000-year history of Caen based on the 2025 commemorative year.  It brings to life the history of the ancient city, taking you back into the lives of long distant ancestors, through the industrial era, on to World War II and beyond.

There’s plenty to see in the extensive grounds: the Musée de Normandie takes you at a gallop through the story of the region; the Fine Arts Museum takes you on a whistle stop tour of art through the ages and you can visit the sinister tower of Queen Mathilda.

If you can allow at least half a day.

Abbaye aux Hommes

The magnificent building, with glorious flowering gardens in front, is impressive. To one side stands the Church of Saint-Etienne, one of Normandy’s greatest Romanesque buildings. Don’t miss this out; it’s imposing and atmospheric. The west front is a wonderful mix of Romanesque; with three tiers in different styles flanked by two ornate towers.

The vast interior is plain, with an 18^th-century organ standing proud at the west end. At the east end you’ll find the tomb of William the Conqueror, though after the church was sacked by the Hugenots in the 16^th century, his remains were scattered. All that remains of him is a femur, which is buried beneath the stone.

The main building in the complex, designed in the 18^th century, is a wonderful example of the neo-classical style. Today it’s the town hall, but it also has a good exhibition space and cloisters which in their feeling of serenity and privacy take you away from the stresses of everyday life. Don’t miss the Chapter Hall where the monks originally gathered daily to listen to one (just one) of the 73 chapters of the life of St Benedict. Today it’s the wedding room of the city hall.

Abbaye aux Dames

Founded in 1062 by Queen Matilda and consecrated in June 1066, it stands about 1 mile away from the Abbaye aux Hommes. Step inside the Eglise de la Trinité, mostly built in the 11^th century in Romanesque style. Queen Matilda is buried here which I find rather sad; William and Matilda were a devoted couple. The building is a smaller version of the Abbaye aux Hommes; the grand façade looking more welcoming, the cloister smaller and more intimate. It was occupied by Benedictine nuns until the French Revolution then followed the usual path of such buildings. It first became a barracks, then housed beggars and the homeless, became a hospital in 1823, then a hospice in 1908 and today houses the Regional Normandy Council.

Take a guided tour to see the whole building, including the crypt. It’s surrounded by a large park with lovely views over Caen.

Walk the City

Caen is an easy city to walk around and the tourist office (in the Hotel d’Esceville), conveniently located south of the castle, is a good place to start from.

Walk down rue St Pierre, now mainly a shopping street with bland modern buildings…except for two half-timbered buildings at 52 and 54, stand out, rather incongruously.

If you’re feeling energetic and have time, take a left down rue Paul-Doumer to the Place de la Republique, laid out as a public garden. Then walk past the 17^th-Century Notre Dame de la Gloriette to Place Malherbe and into Place St Sauveur.

Stop for a coffee in Place Saint Sauveur and sit and look at the 18^th-century houses that march down the sides. Or shop at the market on Friday mornings for local Normandy cheeses, breads, meats and more. It’s all presided over by a statue of Louis XIV depicted as a Roman emperor rather than the Sun King. When I was there he was encased in a wooden box, decorated with some dubious Bacchanalian figures. You could see the regal figure but you could also see the back wooden wall as well. Hopefully it was temporary and he has now been restored to his real glory.

Then you are at the Abbaye aux Hommes.

Jardin des Plantes et Jardin Botanique

The collection was started in 1689 from the private garden of Jean-Baptiste Callard de la Ducquerle. Today there’s an impressive main building and acres of plant-filled gardens. You can grab something to eat here. While it’s popular with locals for its advice, lessons and information on plants generally, it’s also a delightful place for visitors o wander through. Check opening times and ticket prices here.

Where to Stay in Caen

We stayed at The People Caen, which is an upmarket hostel. Being of a slightly greater age than your normal hostel person, we were a little nervous. But it’s a fabulous place for people of any age and filled with families with the odd grandparent in tow.

Bedrooms are comfortable, light and airy though not large; bathrooms are good. There’s a rooftop bar with great views, good pizzas to order in the evening and the odd market inside selling all sorts of colourful, sometimes over-the-top kind of fashion that only suits somebody under 21.

Added to this, there’s a garage next door (though beware of using foreign credit cards; we spent a couple of hours with the very helpful receptionist trying to pay before succeeding). Once your car is safely stowed away, tram T2 starts its route here at Presqu’Île. There’s also a free shuttle bus taking you around Caen. The one from here goes through the centre of town ending up at the Palais des Sports.

There are plenty of hotels in Caen, from budget accommodation to luxury.

Where to Eat in Caen

Vaugueux is the district to make for. It’s an area of small streets just east of the Chateau with a whole pedestrianised street of excellent restaurants and bars. We walked there from the hostel, about a 20 minute pleasant stroll. Our destination? Horace.

Horace is a delightful restaurant located in one of the old houses that fill the district. We ate on the outside terrace, a people-watching magnet. The menu is traditional using local ingredients. An excellent €24 and €28 menu takes in crispy camembert with apple and Normandy sausage, mains such as confit of duck, salmon and pasta for vegetarians. Desserts might included warm chocolate cake with passion-fruit sorbet and almond cake with lemon and vervain. The €42 menu includes the likes of oysters, sea bream ceviche and duck foie gras for starters, scallops, sirloin steak and more.

Horace
15 rue du Vaugueux 
14000 Caen
Tel: +33 (0) 2 31 93 50 7
Open Thursday to Monday 12noon-1.30pm & 7-9.30pm

Le Carlotta
Located on the Bassin Saint Pierre quay, Le Carlotta is a delightful Art Deco brasserie, complete with all the glorious over-the-top decorated glass, mirrors and plush red seating you expect to see in a traditional brasserie. Take advantage of the seaside location and order seafood – from oysters to a groaning fruits de mer plateau (€49 or €70). Those after turf rather than surf might go for duck confit parmentier (with a potato topping), or a generous steak. It’s not the cheapest restaurant in Caen but it’s gracious, well positioned and serves excellent meals.

Le Carlotta
16 quai Vendeuvre
14000 Caen
Tel: +33 (0)2 31 86 68 99
Open Monday to Friday noon-2.30pm & 7-11pm

How to Get to Caen

By Sea

Like most Brits we went on Brittany Ferries from Portsmouth, one of the best ferry companies. The Guillaume de Normandie, the second of their Hybrid-LNG ships, takes ferry crossings up another level. If you go overnight take a comfortable cabin with a good bathroom. And eat if you can, in the Bella Riva restaurant rather than the casual café to keep the cruise feeling. There are allergy free and pet friendly cabins as well. Public spaces are roomy and it’s remarkably quiet compared to the diesel engine ferries.  

Top Tip:
We travelled by day, landing at Caen around 10pm. We got through fairly fast (if you can take the right-hand lane exiting the ferry which gives you two control points. But with the new 2026 restrictions it might take longer to get out of the French port. With our late arrival we booked at the Hotel du Phare. It’s a basic 2-star hotel, with a charming staff. We arrived too late to have a drink in the bar, but the manager brought us glasses and biscuits as we opened the bottle of Calvados we had bought on board. Rooms are fine for a quick overnight stay; there’s a good breakfast and you can park right outside the hotel. If you take a front view room you can see the port and the ferry, a 2-minute drive away.

Hotel du Phare
10 Place du Général de Gaulle
Ouistreham 14150
Tel: +33 (0)2 31 97 13 13
Normandy Tourism Website information on Le Phare
Rooms from  €75 a night

Caen and World War II

Caen was the great objective of the D-Day Landings in June 1944. But it took far longer for the Allies to take than originally planned. On June 7, on their way from the Normandy landing beaches, the British and Canadian Divisions ran into the formidable German 12^th SS Panzer Division, the infamous Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth). Fighting in the villages all around Caen took an extremely heavy toll and there are memorials in all these areas. You’ll find Commonwealth War Graves Commissions graveyards, places kept beautifully where the ages of those killed make you weep. There are memorials like the one dedicated to the Typhoon pilots, a dramatic black marble monument shaped as two arrows meeting, commemorating the 151 Typhoon pilots killed in Normandy between May and August 1944. And the emotive Abbaye d’Ardenne, where the Canadian Massacre memorial in a small peaceful garden is witness to the 15 Canadian prisoners of war murdered on June 7.

If you want to see these, and a whole lot more, then (excuse the blatant advert), please buy a copy of the book I wrote with Alastair McKenzie, D-Day Landings, A Travel Guide to Normandy’s Beaches and Battlegrounds. It‘s published by Bradt Travel Guides and you can get it in bookshops or through Bradt Travel Guides website, or Amazon.  

Mémorial de Caen 

If you have just one museum to visit outside the centre, make it the Mémorial de Caen. It covers both world wars in detail, but is particularly strong on World War II. Superb themes, artefacts, videos and more will really bring history to life. But be warned, some of the story is very uncomfortable. The museum moves from One War to Another, through France in the dark years of the 30s, from European to World War and more to finish with, through Genocide, and propaganda to the end of the war…and what impact it had. There’s an excellent section on the D-Day Landings which I recommend you see before setting off around the sites around Caen. It ends with a 19-minute film.

The museum then continues to the Cold War and more. Don’t miss General Richter’s Underground Bunker which is a separate building.

Le Mémorial de Caen
Esplanade Général Eisenhower
CS 55026
14050 Caen Cedex 4
Tel : +33 (0) 2 31 06 06 45
Website
Opening times vary during the year so check the website. But mainly the museum is open daily 9am-6pm.
Tickets: Adult €20.80; child and seniors €18.50; Family €53. Other rates valuable.
Combined tickets with other attractions also available.

More about Normandy

Normandy Impressionist Festival 2026
Normandy and Impressionism – A general overall look at the great Impressionist art movement and what to see in Normandy
Guide to the Impressionist Painters
Normandy Travel Guide – What to see and Do in Normandy
Getting to Normandy

World War II in Normandy

D-Day Landing Beaches from Utah to Sword

Caen Tourism Website

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The wide-ranging Normandy Impressionist Festival (Normandie Impressionisme) runs from May 29 to September 27, 2026. It’s a great year for Impressionism, marking the centenary of Claude Monet’s death in Giverny. The artist spent the last 43 years of his life here, making and painting his garden, marking Monet’s painting into a more abstract mode. The theme of this year’s Impressionist Festival is one of questions and ideas around Un Possible Jardin – The Gardens of Possibilities – a Contemporary Homage to Claude Monet. It’s directly inspired by Monet’s Giverny garden and the idea of gardens that are personal and intimate or public, openness or closure, nature controlled or allowed to rampage free and more.

It’s a very French and philosophical approach, but if you want to, just enjoy the huge number of different exhibitions for the art alone, leaving the philosophy to others.

The contemporary trail takes the idea of Monet’s Giverny garden with a series of exhibitions in places like Honfleur, Rouen, Vernon, Le Havre and more.

The festival concentrates on important contemporary works. Some of the most famous international artists have contributed: Ai Weiwei, Fujiko Nakaya, Noemie Goudal and others.

The Birth of Impressionism

It’s the evening of April 15, 1874, and a group of 30 young, unknown and struggling  painters gather in the studio of the photographer Félix Nadar at 35 boulevard des Capucines for an exhibition of their work. The Cooperative and Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors and Printmakers included Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Berthe Morisot, Claude Monet, Camille Pissaro, Alfred Sisley and Paul Cézanne. They were showing works that had been rejected by the Académie des Beaux-Arts Salon. 

The exhibition was not a success; it was too revolutionary for the time. The name ‘Impressionism’ was coined as an insult by a Parisian journalist called Louis Leroy. He was writing about Monet’s Impressionism, Soleil Levant, a painting of the sun rising over the port at Le Havre and he referred to it as ‘unfinished’. He wrote sarcastically in the journal Charivari on April 25, 1874: “What does this painting represent? Impression! Impression, I was sure of it. I also said to myself, since I am impressed, there must be some impression in it.”

Impressionism was born in that studio, and greeted with universal initial horror; the style was such a complete change from the stuffy classicism of the past 100 years. It took decades before Impressionism was appreciated and the artists struggled for many years.

2026 Normandy Impressionist Festival

The exhibitions centre around Normandy and Paris, the two places most associated with the Impressionists. It was on the beaches of the Normandy coastline and along the bustling boulevards of Paris where the artists set up their easels to record life and paint in the open air, something made possible by the invention of oil paints in tubes.

Major Exhibitions of Normandy Impressionist Festival 2026

Museums in Normandy

Giverny

Musée des Impressionnismes: Monet in Giverny: Before the Water Lilies, 1883-1890 takes Monet’s early years here, from 1883 to 1890 when he bought the house and began designing the garden. 30 paintings depict poplars, meadows, the banks of the Epte and the Seine in different weather patterns: rain and sunlight, mist and clouds.
March 27 to July 5, 2026

Honfleur

Musée Eugène Boudin: In this exceptionally pretty little port town, the museum is featuring Monet’s early days as an artist. Boudin encouraged the young painter to go outdoors to paint en plein air.

Rouen

Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen has the largest collection of works by Monet outside Paris. Particularly worth seeing are his paintings of Rouen Cathedral. In summer you can see the facades of Rouen Cathedral lit up nightly, usually from June to September. The theme for this year is still to be announced.

Studio DRIFT shows the installation Meadow, with water lily lights opening under the visitors’ heads. It’s in the city centre heritage space: the 10^th century Sainte-Croix-des-Pelletiers church.

Le Havre

The maritime city is not appreciated enough for its museums and galleries. But this year it pushes the boat out with Monet in Le Havre at the Museum of Modern Art (MuMa).

Monet lived in Le Havre as a child and a young man, from 1845 when Monet was five years old to 1874, a seminal year for Monet and Impressionism. It was a formative time: he painted his first canvas, View Taken at Rouelles as well as major works like The Pointe de la Hève at Sainte-Adresse (National Gallery, London) and Seascape:, Night Effect (1864, National Gallery, Scotland). At the mouth of the Seine Estuary, nearby Pointe de la Hève at Sainte-Adresse was seen as the ‘end of the world’.

His family and local collectors were immensely supportive, and his painter friends Eugene Boudin and Gustave Courbet introduced him to new patrons. The exhibition has documents not seen before about his life, paintings, drawings and sketchbooks as well as photographs.
June 5-September 27, 2026

Caen

Celeste Boursier-Mougenot created a sound installation inspired by Monet’s water lilies – Clinamen which is outdoors in Caen at the Colline aux Oiseaux Park. FRAC Normandie has a crysstal garden and a circle of 12 ‘sound swings’  (which you can play on) topped with church bells.

Paris

Musée de l’Orangerie: Monet – au fil de l’eau (Monet – In Real Time). The theme of Monet  painting time focuses on how Monet’s style clanged from the 1870s to the 1890s. Almost 40 paintings are displayed at the museum that was called a true ‘Sistine Chapel of Impressionism (Andre Masson in 1952), with particular focus on the famous Nymphéas (Water Lilies).
September 30, 2026 to January 25, 2027.

Musée Marmottan Monet: Houses the world’s largest collection of Monet paintings (including Impression, Sunrise). The museum will host Histoires du Paysage de Monet a Hockney (1890-1925). Focusing on landscape art it starts with Monet and then goes on to show works by major 20^th and 21^st century artists, ending with David Hockney’s famous Normandy pieces. 

La Maison Impressioniste Argenteuil

West of Paris on the banks of the Seine, Claude Monet lived in Argenteuil from 1871 to 1878. He painted over 256 works here, with 156 depicting Argenteuil. His studio and living rooms have been reconstructed in the Museum. Along with the documents here you get an idea of Monet’s life and work.

Monet’s House in Vétheuil

Claude Monet lived in a rented house in Vétheuil, about 15 minutes from Giverny, from 1878 to 1881. It was an unhappy time for the artist; his first wife Camille, died here and his paintings were not selling. But the paintings of his small, steep garden are lush and happy. You can visit the house this year at specific times. Check the website for openings.
Apr 1-Oct 31, 2026.

Where to see Clade Monet’s paintings in Paris

Musée d’Orsay has the greatest collection of Impressionist paintings in the world. 

Houses and Studios of the Impressionists

Walking around an artist’s house and studio gives a wonderfully realistic feel of the painter, their life and work. The most visited, and well-known, is the house of Claude Monet in Giverny (see above).

Visit any of these other houses during the Normandy Impressionist Festival 2026; all are well worth a detour.

Jean-François Millet was born in 1841 in Gréville-Hague, northeast Normandy. The modest house is now a museum, recalling his childhood in the mid 19th century.
In 1849 he moved to Barbizon on the edge of the Forest of Fontainebleau and lived there until 1875. Here he painted the local rural life, in particular L’Angélus and Les Glaneuses, two canvases that have been exhibited around the world. The Millet Museum has his paintings as well as other Impressionist painters, engravings and prints.

Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894) lived in Yerres from 1860 to 1880. The large Caillebotte Museum south of Paris occupies his house. A visit takes you back to the late 19th-century and gives you the chance to see many of his works.

Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) spent his final days at the Auberge Ravoux in Auvers-sur-Oise. He lived in the atmospheric room under the eaves of the house in a Paris suburb. Today it’s a restaurant; have lunch or dinner then see the room.
More about Vincent van Gogh in Paris.

More Impressionist Delights to Savour

There are plenty of events put on at the Impressionist Normandy festival.
Take a cycle tour around Giverny with a guide who knows the village well and makes sure you see all the major sites linked to Claude Monet.

Try your hand at painting like an Impressionist. The Alabaster Coast provides the inspiration; you provide (hopefully) the artistic expertise, with an art teacher to guide you.

If you want to experience how the Impressionist painters spent their leisure hours, try the Founaise restaurant at Chatou. It’s a restaurant but the outside terrace recalls the guinguettes, open-air cafés often located beside a river where the atmosphere was casual and the food and drink offering a cheap and cheerful option.

Look at both these official websites for all the information on the wide-ranging exhibitions and events:

Impressionist Adventures
Normandy Impressionist Festival 2026 – Normandy Tourist Office

Normandy and Impressionism – A general overall look at the great Impressionist art movement and what to see in Normandy
Guide to the Impressionist Painters

Normandy Travel Guide – What to see and Do in Normandy
Getting to Normandy

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Here’s some great budget accommodation in Antibes and Juan-les-Pins on the Mediterranean coast. Both these places, located on either side of the Cap d’Antibes but a short distance apart, are particularly popular holiday destinations, so hotels tend to be relatively expensive. But there’s some good budget accommodation that I’ve discovered on my trips there.

Rates

Book as far in advance as you can to get the best rates. They will vary according to which season you choose. Generally the high season runs July and August and mostly into September. Some places give specific dates; others are vague. Remember that all prices these days are fluid, except for bed and breakfasts which have fixed prices throughout the year.

The prices shown here are for double rooms for 2 people per night; breakfast is per person. Most of the hotels, and some of the bed and breakfasts, will have triple and family rooms as well. So pick the accommodation you like the most and go from there.

I have included two hotels which are more expensive (Hôtel Juan Beach and Hôtel Mademoiselle, both in Juan-les-Pins). But they are excellent value out of season, and very enjoyable hotels at any time of the year so I’ve got these in this list as well.

Bed and Breakfast in Antibes and Juan-les-Pins

If you prefer something a little less hotel like, try a bed and breakfast. They provide good budget accommodation in Antibes/Juan-les-Pins

L’Air du Temps

There are 3 bedrooms and one small apartment in this pretty Provençal house with its sand coloured exterior and tiled floors. It was built by the present owners, the Scassus, and its delightful rooms have individual character. Mitsouko has a chandelier and a pink/red colour scheme; Vent vert’s green walls are echoed in the garden you step into from French doors. There’s a terrace to laze on, a garden to look at and a pool to swim in or take breakfast beside. Rates include breakfast.

Villa Plein Sol

This bed and breakfast has just three spacious, ground-floor rooms, elegantly decorated with antiques. Just five minutes on foot to the beaches of Juan-les-Pins, the stone-built house is restful and welcoming and has a terraced garden. Take a lazy breakfast outside, and if it rains there’s a communal room with books and games. Rates include breakfast.

Hotels in Antibes

La Jabotte

Tucked down a lane leading to the Salis beach, La Jabotte is a rare and unexpected one-off. It has just 9 rooms, 7 of them on a private terrace looking onto a shared patio, and 2 of them on the first floor of the main hotel. No TVs in the rooms around the terrace for peace and quiet, an attraction that is fiercely protected by the owner. Rooms are prettily decorated in rustic style; bathrooms are very good. There’s a delightful breakfast room which doubles as the reception area, full of odd objects on the walls. The musical can try the keyboard or take down one of the guitars hanging on the walls and don their inner folk star. They have a 24h/24h bar and snacks on site.

There’s a sauna (and also wellness massages), and private parking, plus free bicycle and kayak rental (subject to availability). They provide everything you need for the beach from parasols to towels. There’s a very cheap laundry service which is great if you’re staying some time.

Take their delightful little tuk tuk ride through Antibes. And for a late check-out, like the Hotel Cecil, there is a shower guests can use before setting off.

Hôtel La Place

Centrally located near the old town, but just enough off the main streets to be peaceful, this hotel is delightful. It’s owned by Bernadette Walberer who will probably be there to greet you. 14 rooms on three floors, each with its own fresh and muted colour scheme, are well sized and recently refurbished. Bathrooms are equally good. Book the corner bedroom with its balcony overlooking the street. Take breakfast in the downstairs restaurant or outside on the terrace. The restaurant also acts as a bar and has good plates of cheeses and charcuterie during the day. There is no lift in the hotel.

Modern Hôtel

Right in the heart of Antibes this is the place for a budget stay if you like being in the centre of the action. A few minutes from the outdoor market, the old town and the beaches, it’s near most of the small restaurants. 19 bedrooms are small, plain and functional, but pleasant; atmosphere is friendly and casual. There’s also a small bedroom with kitchenette and small bathroom on the top floor with its own entrance. It’s now run by the grandchildren of the original owners, so you’ll be greeted by Laurence, Jean-Marie or Vincent Fecheno.

Hotels in Juan-les-Pins

Beau Site

Near the small Garoupe beach on the Cap, the 29 rooms are simply but prettily decorated with old wooden furniture in a style dating back to the 18^th century. Views from the windows and balconies look to the sea or the mountains or onto the tree-filled garden. There’s a bar, a decent sized swimming pool and a shady terrace and bicycles to rent. There’s also a suite, plus a studio let by the week.

Eden Hôtel – La Baigneuse

A hop, skip and a jump from the beaches of Juan-les-Pins, the three-star Eden Hotel offers good value for money. The 1930s building looks just like a proper seaside hotel and has 17 refurbished, simply decorated bedrooms, with the ones at the front offering views down the street to the sea. You can take breakfast on the terrace. A major plus of the hotel is the warm welcome from the family who own it.

Hôtel Alexandra

Built at the end of the 19^th century, this 3-star family run hotel has high ceilings and a definite belle epoque feel. 20 good sized rooms are simply furnished in pretty colours. Some have garden views; others overlook the street. You can take breakfast in the pretty garden.

Hôtel Cecil

This is a real find and is my favourite of the small 3-star hotels in Juan-les-Pins. Bought by a Parisian couple five years ago, the hotel has been completely refurbished, re-opening as a boutique hotel a year ago. You’re welcomed by the owner, Delphine Boffy, whose expertise in décor is obvious as soon as you walk into the spacious breakfast room with its modern and quirky items. This is where you take a very good breakfast sourced from bio ingredients. Corridors are bright and airy with each room distinguished by specially commissioned wallpaper, which is echoed inside the room. Beds are a good size, there’s enough cupboard space and bathrooms are well done. One has a free-standing bath (all the rest have showers). There’s a little garden and a small terrace, and unusually for a small hotel here, an elevator.

Finally, there’s a small touch that other hotels should copy. A former single room is now a shower/WC with an iron and ironing board. Guests can use this if they arrive early when rooms are not ready or leave late after check-out. It’s free for guests and means you can have a last-minute swim, take a shower and leave for the airport on your final day. Genius!

Hôtel Des Mimosas

This pretty, three-storey hotel built in the early 1900s is surrounded by a delightful garden full of palm trees and flowering plants. The 34 bedrooms have been refurbished and are a good size and some have balconies overlooking the greenery. There’s an outdoor pool, bar and TV room. Free parking. Book for a minimum of 2 nights only.

Hôtel La Marjolaine

This modest two-star hotel has small rooms in a rather quirky building. It’s in a moderately quiet street and has a terrace-cum-garden in the front. The 16 rooms are old fashioned but delightful. There’s a small lounge and it has private parking.

Hôtel Mademoiselle

This small 3-star boutique hotel of 14 rooms is distinctive and quirky. It’s more expensive than the other hotels in this list, but worth it. Each room is different; some with bold colours; others with eccentric decorations like plaster rhino heads on the walls, or lamps that look like small clouds. It’s all done with style. There’s a small pool, an honesty bar and better than average in-room items like a Nespresso machine in each room. They can also provide meals as part of their room service, and special gluten free breakfasts.

Hôtel Juan Beach

White and blue, just like a seaside hotel should be, and close to the Juan-les-Pins beaches, this 3-star Art Deco 24-room hotel is bright, welcoming and just out of the main frenzy of the resort. Set back slightly from a quiet road, choose a room with a balcony overlooking the small heated swimming pool at the front. There’s no elevator but ground floor rooms. Take breakfast on the terrace in front of the pool or in the charming bar opposite where there’s an open log fire for chilly days. Again, it’s more expensive than most of the hotels here, and particularly during the big events like the Cannes Film Festival when it’s very popular and fully booked way in advance.

La Bastide du Bosquet

La Bastide du Bosquet is an 18^th-century, pink-washed house beautifully restored and now an elegant house to rent out for 4 to 7 nights. Pretty rooms overlook the garden of palm trees and laurels where you can take breakfast, and there’s a good library of books and family games making this a home from home, Provençale style. Guy de Maupassant wrote short stories and his novel Mont Orio while staying here in 1886.

And for a bit of sightseeing…

…You can’t come to this part of France without visiting the Queen of the Mediterranean. Here’s a short guide to what to do and see in Nice.

Check out the local Provence markets in Antibes and nearby

Guide to Provence

The French Riviera has always attracted the famous, literary, the outlandish and writers like F. Scott Fitzgerald. Read Lisa Gerard Sharp’s take on the Riviera – Great Gatsby Style and walk in their footsteps.

More on Hotels in France

Here is information on the best cheap and good value hotel chains in France.

And if you are in Normandy visiting the D-Day Landing beaches, these are the hotels to book.

The post Budget Accommodation in Antibes and Juan-les-Pins appeared first on Mary Anne's France.

Plan a trip taking in the Christmas châteaux in the Loire Valley around Orléans that have special Christmas openings and events. They are located to the south west of Orléans, with a couple further away.

I have listed them geographically down the Loire Valley from Orléans, starting with Meung-sur-Loire. The last two châteaux listed here are a little out of the way.  

Château de Meung sur Loire

The small medieval town of Meung-sur-Loire itself is well worth a visit. Combine it with the Christmas château and it makes a great short break. This year over 20 of the rooms are themed specially for Christmas. Lucie Lux, a very special character, takes you on a new 20-minute adventure with le Krizo theatre group, daily at 2.15, 3, 3.45 and 4.30. You can draw or write on the walls of one room;  Santa is waiting to greet you (up to Dec 23), meet Walter the magical speaking robot and let off steam on the bouncy castle.

Château de Meung sur Loire
16 Place du Martroi
45130 Meung-sur-Loire
Tel: +33 (0)2 38 44 36 47
Website
Open: Nov 29-30, Dec 13-14, 20-23, 26-30. 2-6pm
Admission: Adult €12,50, reduced price €11, child 4-15 years €9, under 4 years and over 80 years free.

Chambord Château

Chambord is one of the great châteaux of the Loire Valley. And it is huge with over 400 rooms…and 282 fireplaces. At Christmas it pulls out all the stops (though it doesn’t light all the fires). Decorations are inspired by fairy tales, particularly Hans Christian Andersen commemorating the 150^th anniversary of his death. There’s a brand new grand magic show by Gaël the magician, a festive Christmas village near the château, as well as activities every weekend in December from traditional games to Renaissance dances. Don’t miss the chocolate painting. This is one of the Christmas châteaux in the Loire Valley around Orleans that you should see.

The château and gardens are decorated with Christmas trees, beautifully illuminated. If you can, get a look at the chateau from the canal side to see the yews lit up.

Chambord Château
Chambord
41250 Loir-et-Cher
Tel: +33 (0)2 54 50 40 00
Website
Open: Dec 21 to Jan 4: 9am-6pm
Check the website as the château will be closed on certain Mondays.
Admission: Adult €19.50; reduced price €16.50.

Château de Blois

Blois has one of the best son et lumière shows in France during the summer; at Christmas the mood changes. In 2025, from 28 November, stars will appear as if by magic.
In the paved courtyard of the château, a moon and stars shine on each façade; in the gardens, Under the Cloud offers more coloured lights.

Inside, garlands of lights magically bring the chapel back to life. Finally the highlight of the show: two huge stars, 5 metres high, shine in the immense Salle des États Généraux, illuminating its vaulted blue-midnight ceiling. And there are candlelit concerts, poetic performances and more.

Château de Blois
6 place du Château
Blois
41000 Loire-et-Cher
Tel: +33 (0)2 54 90 33 33
Website
Open: Nov 28-Dec 19: 10am-5pm (closes at 6 p.m. on Fri, Sat, and Sun.
Dec 20-Jan 3, 2026: 10am-7pm (closes at 5pm on Dec 24 & 31)
Closed Dec 25 and Jan 1, 2026
Admission: Adult €14.50; reduced rate €11; child 6-17 years €7.50; under 6 free.

Château de Cheverny

With lavish furniture and décor, Cheverny is a delight, particularly when it’s sumptuously decorated with Christmas decorations. This year the theme is Christmas treats with giant sweets.
Dec 7: Santa Claus arrives…but how remains to be seen. There’s the giving of gifts then a chance for photographs with Santa Claus, Mrs. Claus and their elves. Warm up with mulled wine and the famous Cheverny homemade hot chocolate.

Château de Cheverny
Avenue du Château
Cheverny
41700 Loire-et-Cher
Tel: +33 (0)2 54 79 96 29
Website
Special Christmas Events: Nov 29, 2025 to Jan 18, 2026
Open daily: Oct 1-Dec 31: 10am-5.30pm
Admission: Adult €15; reduced rate €11; under 7 years old free.

Domaine of Chaumont-sur-Loire

The gracious château looking down onto the Loire River is mainly known for its annual garden festival (a bit like Chelsea Flower Show but it lasts much longer). Visit in winter and discover how the family prepared for Christmas Eve in the late 19^th century. Marie-Charlotte-Constance Say, heir to the Say sugar refineries, was the last private owner of the château from 1875 to 1938 and she spent money lavishly. From the stables to the chateau’s rooms, decorations transform the castle, particularly in the salon with its decorated Christmas trees. The feast is being prepared in the kitchens.
Take a guided tour to get a glimpse of some of the smaller, different rooms from the servants’ quarters to the children’s bedroom.  

Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire
Chaumont-sur-Loire
41150 Loire-et-Cher
Tel: +33 (0)2 54 20 99 22
Website
Open: Nov 29-Jan 11, 2026. Daily except Dec 25 and Jan 1: 10am-5.30pm
Admission: Winter Low Season Adult: €16; reduced rate €9; 6 to 11 years old €4.

Château de la Ferté Saint Aubin

Privately owned and lived in continuously for over 350 years, the Château de la Ferté Saint Aubin goes all elvie at Christmas. The first elf, Barnabé, will introduce you to the adventure of exploring the castle. The stables are full of miniature animals; a musician elf practices in Santa’s private apartments; there’s a toy attic, a DIY workshop and kitchens where the gourmet elf will offer you his famous honey madeleines and a hot chocolate. And you end by meeting Santa.

Château de la Ferté Saint Aubin
2-4 rue Général Leclerc
La Ferté-Saint-Aubin
45240 Loiret
Tel: +33 (0)2 38 76 52 72
Website
Open: Dec 6-7, 13-14, 20-23 & 26-30 2pm-6pm
Admission: Adult €16; reduced rate (12-20 years old); €14 Child (4-11 years old) €1; under 3 years free

Château de la Bussière

Christmas fairy tales transform every room with decorations on the theme of the best stories of our childhood. Walk through enchanted villages, forests made out of paper and rooms fit for a princess. Taking place from Dec 6, 2025 to Jan 3, 2026, there are special days with interactive events called Spectacle de magie de Noël (Dec 6, 7, 13, 14, 23, 26 & 30), and from Dec 27 to 29, actors take over as they bring to life the story of Cosette (episode 4) in Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables.

Château de la Bussière
35 Rue du Château
La Bussière
45230 Loiret
Tel +33 (0)9 50 55 63 68
Website
Open: Dec 6-7, 13-14, 20-23 & 26-30, Jan 2-3, 2026: 2pm-6pm
Admission: Adult €10, reduced rate €7.50, 4-15 years €5
Château and spectacle: Adult €13, reduced rate €10.50, 4-15 years €9

Discover the Château de la Bussière on the drive down the Loire Valley between Nevers and Orleans.

Château de Maintenon

The château de Maintenon was the glorious home of Madame de Maintenon, the secret wife of France’s Sun King, Louis XIV. For Christmas the château takes you back to the past, but a past rather more recent…the 19^th century. The year is 1843 and the glorious celebration is…A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Expect Victorian decorations, songs, a workshop and a lot more.
Their programme takes in talks about the story, carols, a workshop making Christmas crowns, Christmas cards and more. It starts with Father Christmas himself on December 7, with horse and carriage rides, a walk with singers and fireworks.

Château de Maintenon
2 Place Aristide Briand
Maintenon
28130 Eure-et-Loir
Tel: +33 (0)2 37 23 00 09
Website:
Open: Dec 6-Jan 4, 2026 : Tues-Fri 2-6.30pm; Sat-Sun 10.30am-6.30pm
Admission: Adult €8.50; reduced rate €4.50, 7 to 18 years €4.

More about Christmas in France

Christmas in Touraine in the Loire Valley Chateaux

Christmas in France

December Events in France
Best Christmas Markets in France
Best Christmas Markets in North France (plus where to stay in each town)
How the French celebrate Christmas
Festive Christmas Food in France

More about the Loire Valley

Drive the whole way along the Loire Valley from Le Puy-en-Velay in the Auvergne to St. Nazaire where the mighty river empties into the sea
The Great Rivers of France

Geography of France

Departments of France
Regions of France

The post Christmas Châteaux in the Loire Valley around Orléans appeared first on Mary Anne's France.

The Cité du Vin stands beside the Garonne River in the Bacalan district. The tall building has been described in so many different ways. To some it looks like a sailing vessel; to others a lookout post, or a lighthouse. Or how about the coiled growth of a vine, or wine poured into a decanter?

Whatever you may think of the building, there’s no doubt about its importance. Not only is it an inspiring place to learn more about wine and enjoy tastings, it’s been given one of those designations that the French so delight in (and let’s face it, they do so well). It’s part of Make it Iconic. Choose France campaign, along with the Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame-de-Paris and Mont-Saint-Michel.

Cité du Vin was started in 2008 and opened in 2016. Its completion marked the beginning of a huge expansion of the Bacalan area, the formal commercial port. It’s now a vibrant and exciting part of Bordeaux.  

The Permanent Exhibition

Once you’re past the ground floor, with its shop, wine shop, conference space, The Latitude Brasserie and café, terrace, gardens, tickets and restrooms, you go up to the exhibition. It’s beautifully designed with spaces that meld into each other, separated by tall wooden columns that whisper to you of a cathedral, or a wooden wine bottle.

The Story Begins

Huge screens fill the the initial Vineyards of the World space with spectacular images. Landscapes vary from Tahiti to the slopes of Mount Fuji. You learn a lot on the way: in the Moselle Valley vines are planted on very steep slopes to get the most of the sun; in Santorini they train canes of vines into wreaths to protect the grapes from the harsh sandy winds of the island. The vines of Mendoza, at the foot of the Andes in Argentina, capture the water that runs down from the glaciers; Finland is the most northerly country producing wines.

The Winemaker

This section is for those interested in the process. Even I, not so much interested in this, lingered over the terroirs that produce different flavours and the year in the life of a winemaker, which according to the poetic captions…’means living to the rhythm of the plant’s growth…trembling before the vagaries of the weather. Will June rain destroy the flowers? Will it bring disease?…It also means pruning, pulling away the canes, pruning again, attaching, debudding…’ and so on.
You come out feeling nothing but admiration for the winemakers.

Through the Ages

The Gallery of Civilisations is where I lost myself and spent the most time. Wine has been part of humankind’s life since 6,000 B.C. but the story really begins with the ancient Greeks. The gallery covers thousands of years in a few galleries and does it with style and humour.

‘There is no moment more delightful in life than that when guests, sitting around a well-laden table, lend their ears to a minstrel while the cup-bearer, drawing wine from an amphora, fills every cup!’ And there you have it – Homer in 8 B.C.

You’re taken through the taverns of Pompeii (particularly debauched), into the world of the ‘heavenly wines of the Pharoahs’ who took wine into the afterlife, to the first wines mixed with sea water (courtesy of the Greeks), medieval wines ‘as clear as an eye’ to Pasteur whose research into the fermentation of wine and its effects made him the progenitor of modern oenology.

Stories are told in this series of delightful small rooms with pictures and quotes. As Galileo wrote: ‘Wine is the sunlight held together by water’.

The Art of Living

Here you get all sorts of fun things to do, like sniffing different smells and trying to identify them. And listening to what the great and the good, and sometimes the pompous and the mad, have said about wine with more videos and clips from films that feature wine.

‘A real connoisseur does not drink a wine but tastes its secrets.’ Salvador Dali (1904-1989).

I particularly like the quote by Nikoloz Doborjinidze, founder of Georgia’s Space Research Agency in 2019: ‘Our ancestors brought wine to Earth so we can now do the same to Mars’.

You look at maps, and realise that in France, Germany, Spain, Portugal and many international vineyards are mainly located along waterways. It’s partly because water tempers the harshest weather but mainly because of navigation. Until railways took over in the 19^th century, rivers and canals offered the best way to get your wine to market.

Guide to Bordeaux Wines

And of course there is a large, fascinating section about the wines of Bordeaux. The section takes you out of the city into the great surrounding wine-growing regions of Médoc, Graves and Sauternes, Blaye and Bourg, Saint-Emilion Pomerol and Fronsac, and Entre-Deux-Mers.

Via Sensoria

The prospect of an immersive wine tour where ‘sensory experiences and tastings meet in the heart of unique dreamlike spaces…’ filled me with dread. In typical French hyperbole, Via Sensoria promises stimulating the senses, a physical and emotional transition. And to get to the pre-booked experience, I had to give up seeing more of the permanent exhibition which I was hugely enjoying.

So I was delighted when the Via Sensoria turned out to be fascinating…and different. Our small group was taken into the space by the sommelier. We sat down, gentle lights came on and images filled the space we had been ushered into. My shoulders relaxed and I felt cautious optimism.

The sommelier takes you through four seasonal pavilions. Each one has a different seating and mood; each is decorated with glass panels depicting the season you are in. At each season, there’s a brief description from the sommelier as we do the tasting.  

Spring gives you ducklings, fresh buds, rising sap, the sun rising and… a lovely yellow Sauvignon Blanc with a whisper of fresh grass. This wine is from the Loire where the lack of water leads to the roots going deep down. There’s a touch of grapefruit in the taste.

Summer brings a wine which is served in black glasses so you have to use your nose not your eyes. It’s a Clairet from Bordeaux, half way between a deep rosé and light red. It’s light and fresh with hints of strawberry and blackcurrant.

Autumn takes you to Georgia where wine is stored in big terracotta barrels. The pavilion evokes the wind blowing, the trees stripped of their leaves, and harvest. The wine, made from the Saperavi grape variety is rich; and we also taste a cassis syrup of blackcurrant berries.

A little autumn wind has come to whisper
languid rustlings in the ear of summer
He came blowing through the trees first
September is here, he can do as he pleases.

French author and AI expert, Nami Moukheiber.

Winter and we enter the fourth and final space with winter images, Northern lights, kids in warm clothes. And we were served a honeyed Hungarian Tokay that took us straight to warm firesides and dark chocolate after a day in the snowy landscape.

It is the shortest day
Counting down
until the twilight
That comes a little too early…
It’s the hemisphere tilting
And shredding its skin…

As you can see, I was thoroughly seduced and taken over by the experience and cannot recommend it highly enough.

Food and drink at the Cité du Vin

Brasserie Latitude20, a wine and snack bar is on the ground floor; it’s ideal for lunch, drink or dinner.  It has a top wine list reasonably priced.
Lunch Mon-Fri: Starters €9-€21; mains €21-€26; desserts ; cheese €12
Wine Bar: Sun-Wed: 3pm to 7pm Thurs-Sat: 3pm-10pm
Boards of different charcuterie, or smoked salmon: €9-€28
2-course lunch €22,50, 3 courses €27.50
Open: The Snack bar: everyday from 10am to 5pm
The Brasserie: everyday from 12pm to 3pm
The Wine bar: Sunday to Wednesday from 3pm to 7pm and Thursday to Saturday from 3pm to 10pm.
Tel: +33 (0) 5 64 31 0550

Le 7 looks out from the 7th floor and offers cooking as spectacular as the view. This is a restaurant for serious dining.
A la carte: Starters from €21 to €25; mains from €31 to €37; desserts from €10 to €16.
Mon-Fri lunch menu starter and main €32; 5 course dinner menu €70; childrens menu 3 courses €16 (free on Wednesday except school holidays).
Open: Every day from 10am to 11am for breakfast (by reservation)
Lunch Mon-Sat 12pm-3pm; Sun 12pm-4pm
Sweet snacks: Mon, Tues, Sun 3pm,-4pm; Wed-Sat 3pm-7pm
Dinner Wed-Sat from 7pm-9.30pm (last orders 9.30pm)
Tel: +33 (0)5 64 31 05 40

The Belvédère. On the 8^th floor of the Cité du Vin, the Belvédère offers a 360 degree view of Bordeaux along with tasting one, or several, of the many wines stocked here. Buy a ticket here.

More Information

Cité du Vin
134 Quai de Bacalan,
33300 Bordeaux
Website
Opening hours and Ticket prices

How to get there

By Tram line B: The nearest tram stop, La Cité du Vin, is a 2-minute walkBordeaux Tourist Office

By Bus: Bus 7, 25, 27 to La Cité du Vin

By Car: There is paid parking nearby.

The Bordeaux Tourist Office can help with all your queries, from hotel bookings to guided tours.
12 cours du XXX juillet
33080 Bordeaux
+33(0) 5 56 00 66 00
Website
Open Monday to Saturday 9am to 6pm; Sunday and public holidays 10am-5pm

Guide to Glorious Bordeaux

Getting to Bordeaux

From Paris by train: The TGV is direct and takes 3 hours from Paris.
From the UK: By plane: BA, Easyjet and AirFrance fly from London and regional cities to Bordeaux.

Take the tram from the airport to city centre

Getting around Bordeaux

The city centre is very walkable with pedestrian areas throughout. The tram system runs throughout Bordeaux, using a unique ground power system so you’re not distracted by overhead wires. It runs from 5am to midnight or 1 a.m. depending on the day. There are regular buses.
Bordeaux Tourism website

More about the Bordeaux Region

The French Atlantic Coast
The Glorious Vendée Department

AND...
Great Rivers of France
Food Festivals of France

The post Cité du Vin in Bordeaux appeared first on Mary Anne's France.

Bordeaux is a glorious city. The gracious and elegant capital of the Aquitaine region is rich with classical buildings, formal squares, tucked-away quartiers where you can wander the streets and find individual shops and boulangeries, cafés and bars, and some unusual and stunning attractions. The city stands proudly on the grand Garonne river on the French Atlantic coast.

Victor Hugo was an admirer: ‘Take Versailles, add Antwerp and you have Bordeaux…Add to that, my friend, the magnificent Gironde, bustling with ships, the delightful backdrop of green hills, a fine sky and warm sun, and you will fall in love with Bordeaux, even if you only drink water.’

I recently spent three days in Bordeaux and despite a punishing schedule missed out quite a few of the city’s attractions. Next time I’ll take a week.

Start with this guide to Bordeaux to make the most of your time here.

Bordeaux – A City Devoted to Wine and the Cité du Vin

Bordeaux sits at the heart of one of the world’s great wine-producing regions. Anyone with even a passing interest in the noble grape should schedule a visit to the Cité du Vin.

“It’s going to be my Guggenheim” declared Alain Juppé, mayor of Bordeaux in 2006 when the project was born. It’s a pretty extraordinary piece of architecture: its undulating shape and its distinctive curves have been described as evoking a sailing ship…wine poured from a decanter…or swirling around a wine glass.

Make of the outside what you will; inside you’ll find a fascinating series of exhibitions telling you the story of mankind’s great drink. I’d advise at least half a day for a visit, and if you can, eat here at Le 7, restaurant that looks out over the Garonne and Bordeaux.  

Article about the Cité du Vin

Don’t Miss: The Bordeaux Wine Festival, normally takes place in June. But next year it coincides with the Tall Ships Race. The race starts in Bordeaux and runs from July 7-11, 2027, the same dates as the Bordeaux Wine Festival.

Les Bassins de Lumière

Step inside Les Bassins de Lumière in the same quartier as the Cité du Vin (and conveniently near) for extraordinary annual changing exhibitions. This is the world’s largest digital art centre, offering an experience which will entrance, sometimes frighten, and always impress.

Housed in the former World War II German submarine base in Bacalan, the sound-proofed insulated spaces, some up to 8m high, are filled with 360° images that slowly change. I stood mesmerised in the first gallery, then walked over footbridges into more galleries with different dream-like images.

There are six spaces in total, all very varied. Take in the art shows and a huge mooring bay built over the water. As you look, the gates appear to open and submarines seem to enter the base, moving towards you at a menacing speed. There’s an area where you can sit in tiered stages to watch the show from different heights, and a museum space with the history of the building. And of course, a very good shop at the end.

I was there for the 2025 exhibition (which runs to Jan 6, 2026). Egyptian Pharaohs from the Old Kingdom of Khéops to the New Kingdom of Ramsès II (c. 2589 BC to 1213 BC) taught me more about this ancient history than any book I have read. We were brought more up to date with The Orientalists exhibition which focuses on the French Orientalist painters: Ingres, Delacroix and Jean-Léon Gérôme. We were there during the week; on Sundays the place must have been full of families watching The Little Prince come to life with Saint-Exupery’s images blown up to fantastic proportions.
Les Bassins de Lumière website

Tip: If you’re here in the Bacalan district, try shopping at Les Halles de Bacalan for regional and local foods and products. It’s a great place to put together a picnic, or eat a casual lunch at one of the stalls. Open daily except Mondays.

Walk the City’s Old Quartiers

Bordeaux is a great city for walking, particularly through its small compact historic areas. If you have time, pick one and spend a minimum of a couple of hours exploring. If time is limited, take a guided tour. Bruno Coiffard, a Bordeaux guide, took us around different areas, taking great pleasure in pointing out the superiority of Bordeaux over Paris.  Bruno Coiffard (+33 6 08 28 65 26). At the end of our two tours we agreed with him (sorry Paris!).

Tip: If you’re feeling peckish as you walk around, pop into one of the Cassonade Cannelés & Spécialités cafés for a coffee and a speciality of the city, a cassonade – a delicious caramelized cake that comes in a distinctive shape.

Port de la Lune (Port of the Moon)

This romantically named quayside doesn’t denote a district as such, but is the heart of old Bordeaux. It’s a crescent-shaped bend in the river, originally the source of Bordeaux’s wealth. In the Saint-Pierre, Saint-Paul district, the Port of the Moon was the heart of the global trading center between Africa, Europe and the Americas.

From the noisy, crowded and dangerous quays, ships carried the precious commodities of coffee, cocoa, cotton, sugar and indigo from to the rest of Europe. By the 18^th century, with its dominance as a wine-exporter, Bordeaux was the second busiest port in the world after London.

The port has long disappeared but in its place stands the Place de la Bourse and in front of it the Miroir d’Eau, between the Place and the river. The largest water mirror in the world spouts water from the fountains during the day and magically reflects the illuminated, semi circular buildings at night.

If you want to see a superb example of French neoclassical architecture, this is it. The warm stone buildings facing the river in the Place de la Bourse have a wonderful symmetry, fanning out from the centre in two arcs that follow the banks of the river. The Place (Stock Exchange Square) took from 1730 to 1775 to build, replacing the medieval crowded muddle of Bordeaux which was breaking out of the old city walls. The north building was the original stock exchange (now the Chamber of Commerce); the Hôtel des Fermes to the south was built for the local customs authority. It now houses the Musée Nationale des Douanes, reopened in Spring 2025. It’s well worth a visit. We might think that customs and excise is a pretty dull subject, but avoiding taxes has always been an ingenious pastime. A wooden stool opens up to become a salt store. It was designed so the lady of the house could firmly sit on it, hiding the heavily taxed commodity under her voluminous skirts. And such handsome hats.

Find out more about the Musée Nationale des Douanes on Mechtraveller.

Les Chartrons

The Chartrons district that housed the wine merchants of the 17^th and 18^th centuries lies south of the Bacalan. Stone buildings line the streets, the front rooms housing the living quarters of the Lynches, the Bartons, the Johnstons and other English and Irish families who dominated the lucrative trade. At the back lay their large wine warehouses.

It was a bustling, noisy district, housing barrel makers, the glass bottle factory of an Irishman, Pierre Mitchell, which belched out smoke day and night, label printers and heavy carts that transported the barrels to the harbour. According to the excellent Bruno, this was where capitalism was born.

Today it’s a delightful area of antique shops, art galleries, and small boutiques, interrupted by cafés whose pavement tables and chairs are always full. Walk along Rue Notre Dame for its churches, then turn north into the Place du Marché des Chartrons which hosts events and exhibitions. Look out for pretty houses covered in ivy or flowering bushes, that occupy the streets and hidden alleys.

We came across the small but delightful Musée du Vin et du Négoce, housed in one of Bordeaux’s oldest buildings, an Irish merchant’s house of 1720. The crowded museum takes you through vaulted cellars that, with maps, images, models, artefacts, oak barrels and wine bottles, tell the story of the city’s lucrative wine trade in the 18^th and 19^th centuries, plus the role of the négociant (merchant trader).   

America’s First Consulate

Along the river you’ll come across the old American Consulate, the first such consular post in US history, established in 1778. It’s easy to spot – a plaque commemorates Joseph Fenwick, appointed in 1790. With the French Revolution just starting in the late 18th century, Bordeaux was deemed to be a far safer and more stable city than Paris.  

Fenwick’s family had Maryland and South Carolina connections – vital for the US and its trade of Carolina gold rice, sea island cotton and raw indigo dye, shipped from the port of Charleston to Europe.

The Golden Triangle

The Golden Triangle is the centre of Bordeaux, certainly for the Bordelaise, stretching between the Allées de Touray, Cours de l’Intendance and Cours Georges Clemenceau.

This is the area for shopping in the glass Galerie des Grands Hommes, and admiring the grand 18^th and 19^th century buildings.

The Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux

In the heart of the Golden Triangle, this imposing building is a real statement of power. The ‘Temple of the Arts and Light’ was commissioned by Marshal Richelieu (grand-nephew of the famous Cardinal), and designed by the architect Victor Louis, and inaugurated on April 7, 1780. Its distinctive exterior feature is the Corinthian columns running along the façade. Other such buildings have 8 columns; the Bordeaux theatre has 12. Topping the columns 12 statues look out over the city – the nine Muses plus the Roman goddesses Juno, Venus, and Minerva.

A century later the architect Charles Garnier visited Bordeaux. He was so impressed by the very grand staircase, that he copied the design for his 19th-century grand Paris Opera. You can visit the building and see the staircase. Better still is to get to a performance of the Bordeaux opera or ballet. The acoustics are superb; and for history buffs, the theatre remains one of the oldest wooden framed opera houses still active, having survived fire and rebuilding.

Francisco Goya in Bordeaux

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes left Spain for Bordeaux in 1824, 78 years old, completely deaf and at odds with the Spanish monarchy. He died in 1828; his funeral was held in the city and he was first buried in Cimetière de la Chartreuse.

A bronze plaque marks his house at 57 Cours de l’Intendance where he lived for the last years of his life. The Spanish connection continues: the building now houses the Institut Cervantes which promotes Spanish language and culture.  

In 1888 Goya’s body was exhumed and repatriated to Spain. And here begins the mystery and the stories that Bruno tells with relish. “Goya skeleton without a head,” wrote the Spanish consul in Bordeaux to his Spanish colleague. “Please instruct me.”

Goya’s headless body was taken to the San Antonio de la Florida chapel in Madrid where it now resides under the frescoes in the dome which Goya painted in 1798.  

The skull was most possibly acquired by a phrenologist who believed that the secrets of a person’s character lay in the skull. Bruno recounts that it turned up in a local bar and became an object of pilgrimage by the painter’s admirers.

Bordeaux vs Paris

There is (again according to Bruno), a healthy rivalry between these two grand cities of France. Baron Haussmann was a prefect in Bordeaux from 1851 to 1853 and it was here that he first stamped his style. He employed town planners to create grand boulevards leading to spacious squares, transforming the centre. He left Bordeaux to transform Paris.  And once the architectural similarities are pointed out, you see the evidence everywhere.

Place des Quinconces

The Place des Quinconces is one of the largest squares in France, today the location for big fairs (the brocante fair in late April/early May is one of the best in France. At one end stands the Monument aux Girondins, a giant column commemorating the victims of the Terror during the French Revolution. It’s topped with a statue of Liberty Breaking her Chains.

Also unmissable is the extraordinary fountain, with its bronze horses pulling chariots and allegorical figures that represent liberty, justice and the Dordogne and Garonne.

The Garonne River

Bordeaux is the major port on the mighty Garonne River and marks the point where the river flows into the Gironde estuary and from there into the Bay of Biscay. The city sits between the two major wine-producing areas of Entre-deux-Mers to the east and Médoc to the west.

For centuries it marked the division between the rich on the left bank and the poor opposite. Today, as the city expands, the right bank is developing fast and has become the trendy alternative place to live, work and play.

Crossing the River to the Right Bank

We took the Bat ferry , which runs along the Garonne from the Pont de Pierre to Lormont with stops at Stalingrad, Quinconces, Hangars Médoc, and Cité du Vin. It’s as good as a mini cruise (very mini; it just takes 25 to 35 minutes to travel between its endpoints along the 25-kilometer route). It costs the same as tickets used on buses and trams. 1 trip: €1.70; 2 trips: €3.00; 10 trips: €13.70.
Check the website for detailed information.

Darwin ecosystem

Darwin ecosystem, housed in a former barracks, takes up much of the right bank. It’s a large area with restaurants, bars and cafés, a skatepark and a handful of very cool shops. Veja cleans, repairs and recycles its old shoes; go to Shop Sauvages for clothes which you have to be seen in (if aspiring to be casually chic); librairie La Géolibri sells books, posters and more, and Bric à Brac Emmaüs is the place for recycled items.

There are events and street performances all year round, so keep an eye on the Darwin website for up-to-date information.

And of course there are plenty of places to eat, many of them offering organic ingredients.  We had lunch at la Belle Saison, sitting outside and looking over to the left bank. Good value, excellent service and delicious food.

Tip: Try to avoid Mondays when many shops are closed.

Bordeaux UNESCO World Heritage Site

In 2007 Bordeaux, The Port of the Moon, was given the world’s highest award for the unity of its exceptional urban heritage. Created in the 18th-century age of the Enlightenment, Bordeaux has more than 350 listed Historical Monuments. Most striking is the sheer size of the UNESCO perimeter: 1,810 hectares in total, amounting to almost half of the city’s surface area. In total Bordeaux has more protected buildings than any city after Paris.

UNESCO also recognised the history role Bordeaux has played as a city enjoying an exchange of cultural values for over 2,000 years…particularly highlighting the commercial links with Britain and the Low Lands (Holland and Belgium) from the 12th century.

Bordeaux and Britain

In 1152 Eleanor of Aquitaine married Henry Plantagenet bringing Bordeaux under English rule. For Bordeaux it was significant, heralding the start of the dominant trade of Bordeaux wine to England, helped by the special privileges that Henry offered. With 25% of the total Bordeaux output going to England, ‘claret’ (as Bordeaux red wine was called) became a staple and has remained a favorite ever since.

For more about the Plantagenets and the English connection, visit…Le Mans! It comes as a surprise (and it certainly did to me) but Le Mans has one of the largest medieval preserved quarters in France.

Where We Stayed in Bordeaux

We stayed at Villas Foch, a 5-star privately owned boutique hotel with just 12 rooms and eight suites. Housed in two adjoining 19^th-century classical stone buildings, it’s been beautifully restored and has quirky modern touches, like the spectacular chandelier that hangs in one of the grand staircases.

There’s a cosy Le Ferdinand bar, a spa and pool and a great breakfast room. Bedrooms are light and airy with impeccable bathrooms. A portrait of Foch in each room follows you around, which I found rather companionable. Villas Foch is just a few minutes from the Place des Quinconces, so it’s pretty central but feels tucked away. Rooms from €550.

Restaurants in Bordeaux

Bordeaux is one of France’s great culinary cities, up there with Paris and Lyon. You’ll find restaurants for every budget and style, but here’s a small selection of ones I have enjoyed.

Le 1925 Brasserie

Come to Le 1925 Brasserie as much for the brasserie style as the cooking which is classically based: pig’s trotter, snails, oysters and some of the best heritage tomatoes I’ve come across for starters. Mains range from prawn risotto to duck breast, beef tartare or pork confit shoulder, all served with extra favourites like French fries, home-made mash, green salad. And desserts? Chocolate mousse, sorbets or…where else can you find this these days? Crêpes Suzette flambé Grand Marnier which is prepared dramatically at your table. And the wine list is superb, selected by the owner who invariably will appear to chat to his customers.
Starters from €10 to €28; mains €25 to €35; desserts €10 to €15 (for that flaming fabulous crêpes Suzette)

Le 1925 Brasserie
4 Place des Quinconces
Tel: +33 (0)5 56 52 84 56
Website

Le 7

At the top of the Cité du Vin on the 7^th floor, the restaurant offers spectacular views over the port and beyond along with top regional cooking. Creamy burrata with sautéed artichoke, piquilio pepper sauce and basil oil was followed by slow-cooked chicken supreme then an After Eight dessert (go there to discover this one). And of course, a great wine list of 500 wines from 50 countries, with a selection of 32 wines by the glass.

Starters from €21 to €25; mains from €31 to €37; desserts from €10 to €16.
Mon-Fri lunch menu starter and main €32; 5 course dinner menu €70; childrens menu 3 courses €16 (free on Wednesday except school holidays).

Le 7
Cité du Vin
Esplanade de Pontac
Tel: +33 (0)5 64 31 05 40
Website

Le Chapon Fin

The word ‘historic’ is often over-used. But Le Chapon Fin is a restaurant that can rightly claim the description.
Le Chapon Fin opened in 1825 when much of central Bordeaux was being rebuilt in the classical style by Haussmann. In 1900 Le Chapon Fin was renovated. Perhaps renovation isn’t not the right word; an adventurous owner and equally adventurous architect brought the outside in with a rocky scene at the and a lot of plants.

The restaurant became the place to go. The Spanish King Alphonse XIII kept a private cellar here; diners included the Sultan of Morocco, the Prince of Wales (Edward VII) and artists like Sarah Bernhardt and Toulouse Lautrec as well as George Clemenceau and a host of politicians.   
Today its reputation, particularly for its wines, is in the capable hands of owner Sylvie Cazes who comes from a family of wine makers. She was very much involved in the Cité du Vin, and jointly owns the famous Château Lynch-Bages and Château Chauvin vineyards, and the company Bordeaux Saveurs which tailor makes visits to vineyards.
This is not a restaurant to go to on a casual basis; the cooking, based on the south west, includes dishes like field and garden tomatoes with various different oils, followed by chicken breast, crispy breadcrumbs and roasted broccoli. Or be more ambitious and taste a bit of history with Alphonse XIII pigeon with tobacco leaf, corn and vanilla.
Menu Marché: from 35€ to 45 €. Or make it a special occasion with the historic menu whose dishes are inspired by significant dates from 1825 to 2024.  €78 to €98 .

Le Chapon Fin
5 rue Montesquieu
Tel: +33 05 56 79 10 10
Website

Getting to Bordeaux

From Paris by train: The TGV is direct and takes 2 hours from Paris.
From the UK: By plane: BA, Easyjet and AirFrance fly from London and regional cities to Bordeaux.

Take the tram from the airport to city centre

Getting around Bordeaux

The city centre is very walkable with pedestrian areas throughout. The tram system runs throughout Bordeaux, using a unique ground power system so you’re not distracted by overhead wires. It runs from 5am to midnight or 1 a.m. depending on the day. There are regular buses.
Bordeaux Tourism website

Bordeaux Tourist Office

The Bordeaux Tourist Office can help with all your queries, from hotel bookings to guided tours.
12 cours du XXX juillet
33080 Bordeaux
+33 (0)5 56 00 66 00
Website
Open Monday to Saturday 9am to 6pm; Sunday and public holidays 10am-5pm

More about the Bordeaux Region

The French Atlantic Coast
The Glorious Vendée Department

AND...
Great Rivers of France

Food Festivals of France

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Here are some top Normandy Events in 2025 to look out for.

Caen Millennium in 2025

Caen celebrates its Millennium in great style in 2025. There are plenty of exhibitions and some wonderful events like the weekend June 27-29 when the tall ships gather at Caen port and la Presqu’île. The celebration continues into the autumn.
Read more about the Caen Millennium

Last Chance to See the Bayeux Tapestry

To Sep 1, 2025: The Bayeux Tapestry Museum is closing as a new museum is built. The extraordinary 11^th-century tapestry will be kept in a specially designed storage area. It’s a classified Historic Monument, listed on the UNESCO Memory of the World register.
The new museum is scheduled to open in 2027.

D-Day Landings

Apr 12-Sep 12, 2025: Standing with Giants. Get to the British Normandy Memorial in Ver-sur-Mer overlooking Gold Beach for a return of Standing with Giants. The extraordinary installation of 1,475 figures includes soldiers as well as radio operators, medics and a Scotsman playing the bagpipes. There are also figures representing the only two women on the Memorial. Nurses Sisters Evershed and Field died while saving 75 men from a sinking hospital ship, plus 50 French resistance fighter. The figures in the meadows of the Memorial are extraordinarily moving. This is one of the must-see events in Normandy 2025.
Normandy D-Day Landing Beaches from Utah to Sword

‘I Must Go Down to the Sea Again…’

There are some wonderful events in the sea around Normandy in 2025.

May 23–Jun 1, 2025: CIC Normandy Channel Race starts in Caen on Sunday May 25. Sailors take their Class 40s up the Canal de l’Orne into the English Channel then make a detour via the Iles Saint-Marcouf in the Utah beach section of the D-Day Landings in 1944. Then it’s up around the Isle of Wight before heading west to sail around the Tuskar Rock and Fastnet Rock to the south of Ireland. The yachts then return to Caen via Guernsey where they’ll encounter the strong currents of the Raz-Blanchard. Past the Goury Lighthouse, situated at ‘the end of the world’ off Cape Hague, and they’ve completed the 1000-mile race.

July 4-7, 2025: The 2025 Tall Ships Races begins in Le Havre. Over 40 of these magnificent boats are moored in Le Havre for four days of celebration and discovery. There’s a boat and a crew parade, concerts and fireworks before they set off for Dunkirk. From there they’ll go to Aberdeen in Scotland and Kristiansland in Norway before finishing in Esbjerg, Denmark.
The Tall Ships Races are more than great voyages; they’re designed to train the young (over half of each ship’s crew must be between 15 and 25 years old) and encourage international friendship.

Jul 26-Aug 2, 2025: Start of the 100^th Rolex Fastnet Race on July 26. Setting off from Cowes, the race celebrates 100 years both of the race itself, and the founding of the Royal Ocean Racing Club in 1925. The 695-nautical mile course is one of the world’s great offshore races around the Fastnet Rock south of Ireland. It finishes at Cherbourg-en-Cotentin. The fastest sailors take a couple of days; others can take five to eight. Cherbourg welcomes them all with a week’s celebration.
The first race in 1925 had just 7 boats, a select bunch who went on to form the Royal Ocean Racing Club. This year it’s anticipated to be over 400 boats of all ages, monohulls and multihulls and all classes.  
It’s a gruelling, demanding race with strict rules for entry, aimed at experienced sailors who have competed in a fixed number of races in the year leading up to the race.

On Two Wheels

July 8-10, 2025: On Jul 8, the Tour de France takes to the road for the 173 km ride from Amiens to Rouen. Jul 9 it’s in Caen for an individual time trial, and on Jul 10 the 210 km course goes from Bayeux to Vire-Normandie before heading for Brittany.

Other News about Normandy

UNESCO AND THE D-DAY LANDING BEACHES

The D-Day Landings on the beaches in 1944 are in line for UNESCO World Heritage Status. All five sectors are included, as, according to the Ministry of Culture, the beaches represent a “place of gathering around a universal message” and carry “the memory of a fight for freedom and peace”.

Brittany Ferries Goes Green with New Hybrid Ships

Brittany Ferries have launched two new hybrid ferries. Guillaume de Normandie runs between Portsmouth and Caen. Saint-Malo goes between Portsmouth and Saint-Malo in Brittany.

Events in Normandy 2026 & 2027

Jul 1-Aug 31, 2026: The Normandy Impressionist Festival is spectacular with exhibitions and events all over the region.

Normandy and Impressionism
Guide to the French Impressionist Artists…including three great female painters.

2027 sees a huge celebration for the Millennium of William the Conqueror. Normandy will be pulling out all the stops for this, and it will be a fabulous commemoration. One fabulous site I urge you to visit is the romantic ruined abbey of Jumièges. Founded in 654, the Benedictine monastery was rebuilt in the 10^th century and was consecrated in 1067 in the presence of William the Conqueror who had returned from England. It’s on my list of the great sacred sites of France.

June 17-27, 2027: Tall Ships Race. The largest gathering of tall ships returns to Rouen.

More Events in France

Events in France in May 2025
Events in France in June 2025
Events in France in July 2025

More about Normandy

Normandy Travel Guide
Best ways to travel to Normandy’s ports and major cities
Where to stay near the D-Day Landing Beaches
Guide to Courseulles-sur-Mer at the centre of the Landing Beaches
New Travel to and around Normandy: new flight and shuttle bus along the D-Day Landing Beaches
Normandy D-Day Festival 2025

More about Normandy on the official Normandy Tourism website

The post Great Normandy Events in 2025 appeared first on Mary Anne's France.

The D-Day Festival in Normandy runs officially from May 31 to June 15, 2025. But events start in April and you’ll also find a lot to do from May 15 to June 30 as the region celebrates the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.

Towns, villages, museums and military sites put on exhibitions, events and parades. It happens all along the coast where the D-Day Landings took place as well as inland.

From June 1 to 9 Normandy will be very busy but do try to go. It won’t be as packed as last year when Normandy celebrated the 80th anniversary of D-Day. And with the added celebration of the end of World War II, there will be a great atmosphere.

You’ll also find that many sites continue to commemorate and celebrate during the rest of the year. So even if you miss the main June extravaganza, there’s a lot to see and do.

Don’t Miss…

…The British Normandy Memorial

Standing with Giants
The British Normandy Memorial is one of the most moving memorials to D-Day and World War II. Last year, to commemorate the D-Day Landings’ 80^th anniversary, 1,475 silhouettes were brought from the UK. This year they are back again, to mark the 80^th anniversary of the end of World War II. They will stand here from mid May to September.

Standing in the wild meadow fields of the memorial, the silhouettes represent the number of fatalities under British command on June 6, 1944. Hand-made from recycled signs, they were assembled by local community groups in Stanton Harcourt, near Witney in Oxfordshire.

What to See and Do at the Normandy D-Day Festival 2025

Every Tourist Office in Normandy will have booklets of all the events. So pick one up, look at the dates you’re there and choose what to see, experience, visit and take part in.

What Caught My Eye for the Normandy D-Day Festival 2025

Find out more about Sword Beach in a novel if fairly eccentric way. The tourist office at Ouistreham rents out umbrellas fitted with headphones and GPS. Follow the 2km audio tour through Ouistreham and the neighbouring towns of Lion-sur-Mer and Colleville-Montgomery, learning all about the area’s D-Day history and, on a lighter note, admiring the grand villas along the seafront.

At Sainte-Mère-Eglise, in the field right behind the Airborne Museum, you’ll find the annual Camp Géronimo. The camp produces faithful reconstructions of the installations used by the American troops, particularly the paratroopers, during the Battle of Normandy. There are daily workshops run by enthusiasts, parades and vehicle exhibitions.

A few events to look out for

Events are being added all the time to the official Normandy website, so keep checking it out as you get nearer to your visit.

Events on Saturday May 31, 2025

Courseulles-sur-Mer, 3pm: Canadian Troops Disembarking at Courseulles in June 1944. Follow the story with two guides who take you back to the day the Canadian troops arrived. Adult 10€, child €3.

Sainte-Mère-Église, 10am: International March for Peace from Maison de la Paix.

Events on Tuesday June 3, 2025

Carentan-les-Marais, 9am: Festival Day at Place du Valnoble.

Events on Wednesday June 4, 2025

Carentan-les-Marais, 2pm: Camp Reconstruction at 8 Lieu-dit Villageg de la Haute Addeville.

Events from Thursday June 5

June 5-8: Colleville-sur-Mer. Daily from 11 am: Overlord Museum shows the great vehicles of 1944 like Sherman, Famo and other motorized vehicles. Demonstration of the vehicles at 11am and 3pm.

Events on June 6, 2025

Batterie de Crisbecq, Saint-Marcouf, from 9am: 81^st Anniversary has a reconstructed camp and live shows.

Sainte-Mère-Église from 10am: Day of D-Day Celebrations (Journée festive).

Vierville-sur-Mer: Omaha footbridges open to the public (to June 9).

Arromanches-les-Bains, noon: Somme Battlefield Pipe Band in the square in front of the Musée du Débarquement. The Somme Battlefield Pipe Band promotes the music and history of the Scottish soldiers, particularly at the Somme. The band plays traditional Scottish tunes as well as tunes from Ireland, America, Canada and Australia.

Events on June 7, 2025

Ouistreham, 10am: D-Day Parade

Bayeux, 7pm: Bal de la Liberté in Place de Gaulle with Radio Cadillac (swing pop) and Stomp (swing band). Dress the part and enjoy the dancing. Free admission; catering or bring a picnic.

Courseulles-sur-Mer, Juno Beach Centre, from 10am: Bal de Juno – Concert Dancing Day. Dance the Lindy Hop from the 1930s and 40s and learn from the dancers of Rock & Go from Caen. Free.

Colleville-sur-Mer, Overlord Museum, 5pm: M.V.C.G Liberty Convoy leaves the museum for Grandcamp-Maisy. See the displays on the port and the parade through the town.

Luc-sur-Mer, Langrune-sur-Mer, Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer, Bernières-sur-Mer and Courseulles-sur-Mer: Military vehicles parade through the different communes and there’s a bagpipe performance in each town. Details from the local tourist office.

Vierville-sur-Mer, Rue du Hamel aux Prêtres, 7pm. Concerts celebrating American music from the 1940s to the 70s, with a picnic and ending with fireworks.

Douvres-la-Delivrande, Place des Marronniers, 7pm: Liberation Ball with people in 1940s dress. Music and refreshments on site.

Carentan-les-Marais, Place du Grand Valnoble, noon: Festive Day and Grand Parade.
10am: Route de Saint-Côme, Parachute jumps from 10am.

Sainte-Mère-Église, rue Eisenhower, 10am: Festive Day and Fireworks.

Arromanches-les-Bains, 10am Somme Battlefield Pipe Band.
2pm: Orange Band of Liberation performs in the Jardin des pins behind the Landing Museum.
6pm: Rues piétonnes d’Arromanches, performance of Band of Brothers.
9pm: Esplanade du musée Place du 6 Juin, 9pm. Open air film.

Events on June 8, 2025

Bernières-sur-Mer, Salle de la Mer, 9pm: Prize-winning documentary film Look into their eyes (Dans leurs yeux) seen through the eyes of Rémy and Marguerite Cassigneul, liberated by the Canadians on June 6, 1944.

Vierville-sur-Mer, Route de Formigny, from 8am: Military Antiques Fair.  

Courselles-sur-Mer, Juno Beach Centre, Open Air screening of The Last Rifleman in the evening (check the Juno Beach Centre for times). Inspired by a true story, the film is the story of Artie Crawford, a Second World War veteran who escapes from his care home in Northern Ireland to travel to France to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day. Starring Pierce Brosnan.

Events on June 9, 2025

Arromanches-les-Bains, from 10am: Entertainment.

Events on June 14, 2025

Bernières-sur-Mer, from 9am. Whole programme of beach walks, animations, food stalls and more.

Events on July 16, 2025

Creully sur Seulles, Château de Creully, 2pm: The Coded messages of the Landings (Les messages codés du Débarquement) is a workshop for adults and children on how the codes were deciphered. It’s in the chateau occupied by the BBC during World War II. Best to reserve.

This is part of the Les Étonnants Patrimoines (Amazing Heritage) programme which highlights special events in Normandy’s long history.

Exhibitions on the 81st Anniversary of D-Day

Juno Beach Centre, Courseulles-sur-Mer: To Dec 31: Rising to the Challenge commemorates the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). From 1939 to 1945 nearly 250,000 Canadians served in the RCAF; around 18,000 of them lost their lives.

Sainte-Mère-Église. Jul 1-Aug 31, 2025: Cotentin Farm Museum exhibition: Système D-[DAY] shows how civilians coped with the war and how they took and used military materials on farms and fields in their daily lives. A gas mask case becomes a milk jug, a parachute is made into a blouse and more.   

More on D-Day and Normandy

Major article on the Normandy D-Day Landing Beaches

Practical Information

All the events are listed in the D-Day Festival Brochure you can pick up at any tourist office in Normandy. It’s online here.

Events in France in May
Events in France in June

Special Travel Pass

Explore Normandy Pass
The Explore Normandy Pass is well worth getting. You get a lot of content on the area and for just 1€, you also get discounts at over 70 D-Day sites and museums in Normandy.

More about Normandy

Great Normandy Events in 2025

How to Get to Normandy from the UK
New Travel to and around Normandy: new flight and shuttle bus along the D-Day Landing Beaches
Guide to Normandy
Guide to Courseulles-sur-Mer at the centre of the Landing Beaches
Caen celebrates its Millennium this year with a large number of events; well worth a visit.

Accommodation & Hotels

Pierre et Vacances Self-Catering Apartment in Courseulles-sur-Mer and Normandy

Hotels and Accommodation near the D-Day Landing Beaches

If you want to read more, then please consider buying the guide book D-Day Landing Beaches Guide Book by myself (Mary Anne Evans) and Alastair McKenzie and published by Bradt Guides in March 2024. It’s full of information, and details of the different sites, CWGC cemeteries (and German cemeteries), memorials, monuments and museums.

The post Normandy D-Day Festival 2025 appeared first on Mary Anne's France.

2025 is a big year for Caen as the city celebrates its Millennium in grand style. In 1025 Caen in Normandy was beginning to grow as the small port opened its trade to the world. It was still a small town but was about to become a significant player in Europe. And why? William the Conqueror of course.
Why choose 2025? Well any year might have been chosen. But 1025 marks the first written mention of Cadumus, a major settlement dating back to the Romans.

1,000 Years of History at the Caen Millennium 2025

The Caen Vigils

The Caen Millennium celebrations began a year ago with the Caen Vigils. From March 21, 2024 to March 20, 2025, local participants watch over Caen for one hour at sunrise and sunset. Each one drew or wrote about their impressions of seeing the sun rise and set over the old buildings. Their work will be available later.
Main Caen Millennium Events

Caen Château Events

The celebrations begin on March 20 with two days of discovery. It’s about more than the celebration: on March 20, Caen Château reopens after two years of renovations. There’s entertainment and a spectacular fire and fireworks event, orchestrated by La Machine company from Nantes which makes grand objects like the fire-breathing Calais Dragon.
Each evening from 19.50 to 23.00 a monumental fresco is projected onto the outer walls of the castle.
Caen Castle Inauguration

History Days

March 21-28, 2025: Les Journées de l’Histoire. Find out more about Caen’s long history with exhibitions, visits, ateliers open to the public, films, walks and more. They take place at the Château, l’Abbaye-aux-Dames and l’Université, and all are free.
In the park of l’Abbaye aux dames, a reconstructed medieval village takes you back to the days of Richard II. See how people lived in the past. And of course, there’s a diorama of the conquest of England at the Battle of Hastings.

Caen Château offers an immersive experience in the former Exchequer Office, built between 1098 and 1122, taking you through Caen’s history to today.

Caen Millennium Parade

May 9, 2025: This ambitious parade has a 5km trail that takes you through five stations, each symbolising a period of Caen’s history or key events like the city’s construction. At each one, a poetics troupe of 100 participants tell the story. It starts at 7.30pm.

Maritime Weekend

Jun 27-29, 2025: Le Week-end Maritime from Caen to the sea. Look at those great ships of the past at Caen port and la Presqu’île. For two days you can go on board to discover more about the different ships like le Belem, le Phoenix, le Milpat, la Granvillaise and la Nébuleuse. There are concerts, projections, activities and more before the major parade on June 29.
The flotilla will move to Le Havre for the Tall Ships Race July 4-7.

June 27-29, 2025: Ephemeral Objects. Constructed by the artist Olivier Grossetête and his team, four works made from strengthened cardboard astonish Caen. There’s a lighthouse, a Swedish house, a fishing lodge inspired by the château de Bénouville and a bridge floating on the canal.

Débordions

Débordions (which approximately translates as ‘overflowing’) starts on the weekend of June 27 to 29 then continues to October. Caen’s Presqu’île is transformed into a living art-science-society laboratory via a trail that, in true French fashion, invites you to discover, reflect and marvel. Here you’ll find six giant zootropes that you interact with to show images and films.

Le Tour de France

While not part of the Caen Millennium, the Tour de France visits Caen on July 11. Stage 5 is an individual time trial over 33km.

Aquanauts

September 19-21, 2025: Aquanauts promises to be something spectacular. This aquatic and aerial ballet by the Swedish company Cirkus Cirkör takes place in Saint-Pierre. 40 circus artists and swimmers blend together to take your eye, and imagination, to the skies and beyond.

More about Normandy

Normandy Travel Guide
Normandy and Impressionism

D-Day Landing Beaches from Utah to Sword

How to get to Caen

Brittany Ferries unveils the Guillaume de Normandie, one of its two new hybrid ferries that operates between Portsmouth and Caen. Starting in April, it’s an important feature of France’s eco credentials, operating on liquefied natural gas (LNG) and battery power.

How to get to Caen from the UK

The post Caen Millennium 2025 appeared first on Mary Anne's France.

Bullecourt 1917, Jean & Denise Letaille Museum, is a small museum but therein lies its charm. You have time to read and see the very well-written stories (in both French and English) of the battles of Bullecourt and, particularly, of the soldiers who played such a tragic part in World War I in this part of Pas de Calais.

The Battles of Bullecourt

On April 11 1917, the Australian 1st Anzac Corps of the British Fifth Army attacked the Hindenburg Line, the major German defensive line of defence that ran from Arras to near Soissons on the Aisne river. The offensive was part of the attack that included the Battle of Arras (9 April to 16 May 1917) further north.

The Australian and British attack on the German position was a shambles. A lack of communication and the late arrival of tanks led to 3,289 Australian casualties, including 1,166 taken prisoner by the Germans. It was the largest number captured in a single battle during the whole of the Great War. The Germans suffered 749 casualties. 

A second battle which lasted from May 3 to 17 led to more than 7,000 Australian and 8,119 British casualties.

British divisions like the 5th (London) Division and the 62nd Division (volunteers from Yorkshire), were largely inexperienced; the 7th Division was experienced; it had been fighting in the war since 1914.

It’s not a well-known story outside the immediate area, partly because it was such a badly run campaign by the generals and partly because it gets caught up in the better known story of the Battle of Arras at the Wellington Quarry.

Bullecourt 1917 Museum and Jean Letaille

You’ll find Bullecourt 1917 located in the now renovated barn and stable that originally housed the museum. The inspiration came from the former Mayor of Bullecourt, Jean Letaille and his wife Denise. He was a farmer and over the years had discovered that his fields yielded a rich selection of wartime artifacts, of rusting machinery, old guns, helmets, barbed wire, unexploded shells, scrap metal,  bits of uniform and more…relics and reminders of the battles of World War I. 
While Jean Letaille was Mayor, he created a small museum in the Town Hall before relocating them to his barn and stable in 1995.

The Bullecourt 1917 Museum Revealed

The museum is divided into two rooms.

The Battle Room

In the middle of the long room lies a display of those relics of World War I, many of them found by Jean Letaille: rusty tank remains, mortars, boxes of shells. The story is told in panels around the room and here it becomes fascinating. 

Exhibits describe – and illustrate – everyday life at the Front which was nasty and brutish and often short. Nights were particularly hard when in the dark and cold, the stench of decaying bodies and fear of attack took over the imagination. Soldiers wrote letters, made ornaments, played cards. The sight of air battles overhead broke the monotony and bets were made on the outcome. Keen souvenir hunters took extraordinary risks to take rare objects from their enemy, and later sold them to those waiting to be called forward.  Water was brought from the rear often in drums that had held petrol…imagine the peculiar taste.

There are pictures of Australian soldiers playing pitch and toss where they threw a coin as close as possible to a given target in the sunken road near Noreuil. Others heat up tea over candles in trenches. 

You see medical equipment like a shell dressing in a canvas bag. You see images from the advanced medical station where the nurses’ lips were stained brown from using their teeth to remove the corks from bottles of antiseptic iodine tincture. And who knew that camphor or caffeine injections were used as a cardio stimulant?

It’s these small details that fascinate and make this one of the World War I museums you should put on your list. I have been retelling the story of the nurses’ brown lips with great success!

Early cemeteries were created, like the Quéant Road Cemetery in Buissy. Of the 2,377 commonwealth soldiers buried there, 1,441 bodies are still unidentified. Of the 995 Australians, only 299 are named. The search, and the story, goes on. In 1995 the remains of Sergeant John (Jack) James White were found in a field nearby and identified. He died on May 3, 1917. In 1995, 77 years after his death he was buried here. Inscribed on his gravestone are the words:  Deep Peace Of The Quiet Earth So Far From The Land That Gave You Birth.

The Tribute Room – The Dead, The Missing, The Survivors

Black and white photos line the walls of the second room with the name, fate, date of death and age below of the face that stares back at you. The Australians are in their characteristic ‘digger’ hats; others in army hats; some are bare-headed; a few are in civilian clothes. Most of them sport moustaches or small beards – it was the fashion then but it also recalls the difficulties at the front of washing and shaving in precious water. Below the photos stand cases of more war items.

Again it’s the stories behind the photos that bring home the harsh reality of war. 

Private Christopher Douglas Elphick of the Honourable Artillery Company was killed on May 15, 1917. His remains were found in a field in Bullecourt in 2009 with 8 other bodies. He was identified by a ring with his initials, and was buried at Ecoust-Saint-Mein at the HAC cemetery in 2013. There’s a picture of him and a photo with his wife and child. One of the eight buried along with him is Lieutenant John Harold Pritchard, identified by his silver identity bracelet. 

Both were discovered by Didier Guerle, an elderly farmer who unearthed one of the soldiers’ gas canisters. He dug a little deeper to remove the canister and discovered the soldiers’ remains.

It took 3 years to trace the named soldiers’ relatives after they were identified.

More surprising is the story of rifleman Léon Pageot. Born in Dijon in 1891, the young French citizen moved to London to work as a jeweller. While there he designed the Royal emblem of the Postal Service, still used today on red post boxes. Married and the father of 2 children, he entered military service in 1916 and was killed at Bullecourt on  May 21, 1917. He has no known grave.

After the Battles of Bullecourt

Bullecourt was a small village, with just 396 inhabitants in 1911. At the end of the war it was classified as being in the ‘Red Zone’ (totally destroyed) along with other nearby villages. In 1920 the inhabitants returned and began rebuilding Bullecourt as a farming village. Inevitably as the land was ploughed up, discoveries were made. 

On withdrawal from the Hindenburg Line Germans left behind booby-traps. On March 25 1917, the town hall at Bapaume was destroyed by a delayed-action bomb left by the Germans. About 30 men were sleeping in the building. 5 were brought out; 25 were killed including 9 Australians and 2 French MPs.

Memorials to the British and Australian soldiers

At the village church you’ll find the Slouch Hat memorial to the British and Australian soldiers who lost their lives at Bullecourt. Next to it is a small brick memorial dedicated to the tank crews of the Heavy Branch of the Machine Gun Corps (HBMGC) who died here. The corps was the first unit in the British Army to use tanks in combat.

Just 900 metres away on the Rue des Australiens, you’ll come across the Australian Digger Memorial Garden. This was the front line, occupied by the Australians in their attack on Bullecourt. The statue in the garden is of the ‘Bullecourt Digger’, wearing the insignias of all four Australian infantry divisions who fought in Europe. 

Two hundred metres further along, a cross stands just beside the road with a collection of individual memorial stones to the soldiers who died here.

The Australian Remembrance Trail

The ART is a 200 km (124 mile)-long commemorative trail running from Ypres in Belgium, through Fromelles, Bullecourt and Pozières to Villers-Bretonneux, east of Amiens where you’ll find the Sir John Monash Australian Centre. The trail, which includes battlefields, cemeteries, memorials, and museums, commemorates the experiences of the Australian soldiers between mid 1916 and late 1918 in France and Belgium.

More about Australians on the Western Front

More about the two World Wars in Pas de Calais

The Wellington Quarry in Arras

World War II Sites in Pas de Calais

Guide to Calais (I have to admit, one of my favourite cities).

Declaration: I travelled to France courtesy of DFDS from Dover to Calais on a self-driving press trip as a guest of Pas-de-Calais Tourisme.

More Information on Ferries to France including DFDS details.

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