Normandy: The Land of Delicious

After our trip to The Fat Duck we were worried that any food we had afterwards wouldn’t be up to scratch and that we’d be forever disappointed. It was true for some of our meals as we were forced to have salads from the supermarket a few times. (If you’re in France on a Sunday, almost everything is closed so it is possible to starve). Luckily the northern region of Normandy in France has some very good food that has helped us get through the post-Fat Duck blues.

Normandy is a region famous for Camembert, seafood, cider, Pommeau (apple liqueur), Calvados (apple brandy), and plenty of other things featuring apples and pears and cheese. Which means Pedr is in food heaven. Galettes (savoury crepes) aren’t exactly from Normandy but they’re very popular here, especially when they fill them with any of the above ingredients. My favourite so far is one with goat’s cheese, ham, honey and walnuts. Plenty of time to keep trying!

I’ve also happened to stumble across a patisserie which specialises in macarons (with flavours like Roquefort, Dutch spiced cookies & foie gras) and has chocolates which won 1st place in France. It’s in the tiny little town of Pontorson with 4000 people, which means that they’re really cheap for the quality you get. Far cheaper than Paris. I made friends with the shop owner and he said that because they only use fresh, good quality ingredients then it’s healthy. Sounds good to me so I’m sticking to it!

Our first stop in Normandy was Amiens which is on the Somme River and was fiercely defended by Allied troops during World War I. So when you go there you see a lot of Aussie, Kiwi & British flags around town, as well as memorials to all the nations inside the cathedral. It’s been 100 years but the locals are still grateful for them keeping the town safe. Nowadays it’s a bit of a university town so you have a nice energetic vibe throughout the place, and some really pretty areas like the canal district which are perfect for a relaxed stroll or hanging out in a cafe or bar.

When they light up the cathedral at night they use coloured lights so that it looks like all the statues and carvings are painted. It’s very detailed and you have to get up very close before you can tell that it’s not actually painted, but done with lights.

After Amiens we spent some time in Rouen which is famous for being the town where Joan of Arc was burnt at the stake, and it also has a lot of its old medieval buildings still standing so you have some nice areas in the centre of the city to wander around. There’s also a lot of wonky old buildings too. Pedr and I disagree about them; he thinks that they’re supposed to be like that, but I (the engineer) think that they’re too wonky and the buildings are slowly collapsing.

We didn’t stay in Rouen for too long as our hotel was in the busier modern part of town and we were still(!) getting over the bug we had caught in Edinburgh. So we headed for the small town of Bayeux to chill out for a while.

Bayeux has a long history, nearly 1000 years ago William the Conqueror left from here to invade England and eventually became its king. And to celebrate this he had a massive tapestry made which shows all the events leading up to him becoming king and it still exists now and you can go see it. It’s 70m long, nearly 1000 years old and somehow it’s survived mostly intact. Even after Napoleon’s troops tried using it as a tarpaulin. Bayeux also played an important part in World War II as the D-Day landings happened along the coast near here, and once it was liberated it was the capital of France until Paris was freed. Luckily for the town it survived the massive destruction that happened to almost all the other towns and cities of Normandy and so it still has that nice old town charm to it which makes it nice for relaxed wandering.

After our extended stay we do feel like we’ve got over most of the sickness and there’s only a few very minor symptoms left. Really hoping that that’s the end of this thing!