There are few sensations more stimulating than being on a beach. Running your toes through the…read moresand, walking across broken shells, staring out at the water and dreaming about what lies on the other side of the horizon. Beaches sooth the soul, stimulate your neurons, and wash away the stresses of everyday life. Parisians are lucky to have the Normandy beaches just a 2.5hr drive from the city. And of all of the beaches that we've explored when we think of beach outing we thin of Trouville. The beach begins just behind the casino and stretches out far, far and away. On holiday weekends it's a bitter battle to find a spot anywhere close by, but who's going to give up and head home after driving 200km to be there?? There's a dead end street that runs parallel the main road with a diving school at the end. Take that street and turn around for as long as you have to to find a spot. There's an entrance there that leads right onto a part of the beach that's must more rustic and tranquil.

Come see what MONET saw and painted here (google it) and see the painting in the monet museum in…read moreparis. We rented a car and drove 4 hours east to the d day beaches to pay our respect and then drove one hour west (back toward paris) and spent the day in trouville sur mer. Its a quaint seaside french village. This body of water is the english channel. Now i understand why the germans wanted to control this area, they were only 80 miles across from england in the normandy area of france. We ate in a wonderful restaurant near the water and saw fishermen still in their gollashes bringing in the new catch and delivering it to the restaurants. The kids and I still talk about our side trip to this area of france.

This is touted as the closest beach to Paris and such a treat…read more We visited in mid June, after a Dinêr en Blanc event, on an overcast day. That made it even more special. Sand between my toes and salt water in the air and on my skin is a win ten times out of ten. The ride there can take 2-3 hours, so bring snacks and such. Along the way remember to bask in France's gorgeous countryside, including white cows, wild lavender and vibrant orange-red poppies. What an experience!

Kids and I had a couple of wonderful 2 days at this beach. One day, we got an umbrella and 2 chairs…read morefor 20 euro and one day we just plopped down by the water. The only problem with the umbrellas is that they are far away from the water, so I could't be relaxing under an umbrella while the kids were in the water. The tide goes way out in the afternoon so it feels like kids are miles away. The breakfast was ridiculously expensive but we took the baguettes left over to the beach for lunch later. I think, we were the ONLY Americans in Deauville, which was nice but the fact that I speak zero French, made it interesting. LOVED the colorful umbrellas and the people watching. Kids and i also had fun playing mini golf. There was also horseback riding, an Olympic size pool...

Utah Beach is amazing , we're WE2 ended and liberated France . This is definitely a stop that…read moreeveryone should see if they are visiting in France. There is also an amazing museum to visit as well. This is definitely a part of history that is truly amazing

I always wanted to visit the site of the greatest military invasion in the history of the world,…read moreand Utah Beach was the westernmost of the 5 landing sites of that D-Day invasion. There is a Utah Beach Landing Museum present (which I did not visit), and various monuments. There is a prominent monument dedicated to Andrew Jackson Higgins for developing the essential Higgins Boat landing craft. Also nearby, but not right at Utah Beach, is a prominent leadership monument featuring Richard D Winters, the heroic commander of the "Band of Brothers", i.e. Easy Company of the 101st Airborne Division. He paratrooped in at 1:30am on D-Day and landed nearby. I walked Utah Beach and it's flatter with no bluffs here compared to what we saw later at Omaha Beach about 10 miles to the east. I was surprised to learn the difference in the width of the beach between low and high tide is an astounding 450 yards! We saw this beach near high tide, and you'll see from the photos there's not that much beach, but there was on D-Day when they landed near low tide per the plan so that the barricades and mines and such would be visible. So much world-altering history here on the Normandy Beaches, it's all a must-see!

This French beach is where the allied troops arrived in 1944 to liberate Europe. It has been…read morerebuilt and is now a lively tourist area, but there are many reminders of the price that was paid by all the Allied Force Troops to create this much enjoyed freedom!

It was striking to set foot on Omaha Beach, and Omaha Beach was where the most horrendous American…read morelosses were suffered during the D-Day landings. The beach was quite flat and wide when we saw it at mid-tide, but at low tide when the troops landed, the width of the beach would have been an astounding 450 yards. It's no wonder the casualty rate of the first two landing waves was 90% as the GI's were sitting ducks under the heavy German machine gun fire. But a low tide landing was the plan so that the barricades and mines could be visible, so it was a tradeoff of two evils. Physically visiting this site gives you these insights and that was enlightening, but setting foot here on this once bloody beach where the course of world history hung in the balance was quite special and humbling.

The famous cliffs. Of course this will be mostly the main reason one comes to this town. And it was…read morethe reason for our visit as well. The north of France is lovely and has some great spots. This is one of these great spots. Just be prepared that you won't be the only one around when visiting. When we arrived - on a weekday during Covid-19 - it was packed. Like really really packed. No chance for a parking lot in town or even the big lot a bit outside of town. Parked it somewhere a bit uphill east of the town, just beside the street like many other french folks did (turned out well). The cliffs and rock formations are indeed impressive Choose to walk up the cliffs on the left or on the right of the town and its beach. The more interesting formations though are on the left, the western side I'd say. The stone beach is a nice place to have a quick rest and to get some really good views of the cliffs/formations. Swim, if you like and dare - because the water is cold, even in summer. There's a narrow path leading up to the cliffs and to the formations. Also to some bigger viewing platforms. It is very narrow and difficult at times. Not difficult because it's a really tough hike. Because it's not so bad, even our English Bulldog managed to walk the whole way up and down again. But it was so overflowing with visitors, that it was hard to pass by. Because some sections are so narrow that only one person fits. And now imagine folks going up AND going down...also the first section with the stairs are a bit difficult (and slippery). But it's worth it. Bring a bit of time, a bit of patience. We've seen moody and rushing visitors. Dont' be one of them. If you visit a place like this, take your time. LOOK at the place and enjoy it. But one selfie and a post on social media seems to be enough for many. Too bad, you're missing out. Once you made it to the top it gets easier. People are spreading out in the bigger and flatter area up there. Be sure to check out the different viewing spots and platforms. Careful if you're afraid of heights though and hold onto to your hats...it's windy at times. The views are very rewarding. The cliffs and the formations amazing. Worth the - even though short - walk up here. You could continue your walk on the coastline up here further east. But calculate your time well - especially if your car is still in town. All in all a great visit to Etretat. The town itself is the typical tourist fare. But the cliffs are worth several hours of drive. And: there are fascinating bunkers and war memorials around as well. Very interesting history lesson.

Spectacular views to be enjoyed. And the scope & detail continue to change depending on where you…read moreare on the beach from one end to the other as well as the height. You can choose to climb above the spirals where the views, as beautiful as they are, actually don't compare to the opposite's end on the cliff- that was my favorite view! When it's sunny, they appear as white but when the sun starts to set behind them they are dark & the detail again makes them seem to transform right before your eyes. The town too is an excellent example of Norman architecture. Very quaint. It's a resort town so it's pricier. If you are touring the region of Normandy while in France- defiantly make time for this beautiful seaside area.

Neither of the two owners have any of the wonderful charm, elegance or beauty of this incredible…read morepretty, vast camp site on the edge of Houlgate, Normandy. We found them insulting and unpleasant toward guests including us. We met the female of this grim duo on arrival when she turned us away about 9pm having arrived a day earlier than we'd booked through Yelloh for. We met the male noon the next day. They seem blissfully unaware that they are in the hospitality industry, supposedly. Yelloh boasts that it provides guests with 'open air hotels' giving great experiences. Perhaps it's a revelation for them as Yelloh ambassadors to know that it's not spelt 'hostility'. We didn't get off to a good start having arrived an evening early. Seemingly neither owner can cope well with such unplanned events, so if you've a crisis they won't be of much help to you, unless you can phone your crisis ahead for them in advance. Despite this being a really vast site, a multi million euro investment, populated with tents & mobile homes by the hundred, with many empty tents & mobile homes and two very tired customers, very happy to pay, these 'business' people in the hospitality industry couldn't help us; just a shrug of her sloping shoulders with the palms of her open hands gesturing upward. So off we drove to a wonderful Ibis budget hotel in the countryside in nearby Dives, courtesy of our Garmin sat nav, to find graceful and gracious owners who understand hospitality and we certainly paid them far less for the night than we would have paid in La Vallee. We highly recommend this Ibis at a mere £52 a night with free wifi and a beautiful Japanese garden next to a Lidl and 5 minutes drive to a supermarket and a Mc Donald's. We were told by the female owner in La Vallee to come back at 11am next morning, but we arrived at noon to find it was closed for a two hour lunch; now I've never experienced any other hotel experience open air or otherwise that effectively shuts its guests out for 2 hours at midday. Yet here we found a big business in the hospitality industry shut up tighter than a prison for two hours in the middle of the day on the premise that's it's not yet the 7 weeks out of 52 that's high season - only 9% of the year when it is open and it's completely closed for about 5 months. We fell into the other 91%. 21st century hospitality in the first world, apparently in a recession apparently an open air hotel that patently can't manage a staffed staggered lunch time as hotels do to suit sophisticated and discernible customers who make pay days. Yelloh's comparison with hotel experiences just evaporated here. The many guests arriving here having to plan round 2 owners. You couldn't make it up. This place is not a sideline in some farmer's field it's big business. We were about to leave again at about 12:15 when the female owner appeared before us only to chastise us for not arriving at 11am, telling us to come back later, this time at 2pm. Her charmless partner then joined to assist her. We had seen him loitering about near reception but we did not know who he was at first, as he had just ignored us for several minutes as he idly loitered until a few minutes after she appeared to begin grumbling. Eventually she said she would give us a key to get into the mobile and a security pass to enter through the barriers into the site by car. Truth is this could have been offered much more quickly, with grace and courtesy instead of offensive grumbling by two very unhappy people. When we'd had enough of their animated whinging we challenged their appallingly poor customer attitude. They didn't like it. There came a threat from him to send us away keyless until 3pm. Never had this with any other 'hotel experience'. So it was put to him directly, which time is it, he stared; he went quiet, she repeated 2pm so then we got the keys and they went off site briskly. We had to return for the wrist security tags to be able to open various heavy metal gates to access the pedestrian part of the site and to access pool areas. If you are weak or disabled you will have great difficulty pushing these gates and surprisingly there's no disabled hoist at the swimming pools either. As I said we had booked a 4 night stay here with Yelloh, had we booked through Canvas instead we would have met their very pleasant young and incredibly friendly representatives we met on this site. Yelloh don't seem to have their own staff on the ground here. We also booked a cottage for three nights with Yelloh on a campsite east of Paris/lle - de - France, and the differences between the two sites is stark. We got to the Paris site a day early too, about 8pm and it wasn't a crisis instead they joked with me that I drove too fast. No insults and no whinging. While they were pretty full up with many hundreds of guests and this was obvious, they cheerfully made an effort for us (la vallee owners take note and go take a holiday here to see how it should be done.

We had a wonderful stay here in July 2014. We loved the space and enjoyed the best breakfast of our…read moreentire trip. The owner was friendly and accommodating, and gave us good tips for restaurants. Make sure to check out the farmer's market; it was another highlight of the our stay. Hope to make it back for another trip soon!

If you're in Normandy, you have to stop (or stay a couple of nights) in Honfleur, a beautiful…read morelittle town on the coast near Le Havre (about an hour drive from the Normandy beaches of D-Day). It's as quaint as it gets. A little marina and tight streets with wonderful shopping. (Just look it up on Google images.) And if you're staying the night, I highly recommend La Petite Folie, a b&b near the center of town that's a wonderful place to stay. Run by an American woman and her French husband, it's as charming as they come. Our room was large (by what we were used to) and it overlooked a quaint back yard where we had fresh (and amazing) croissants each morning (backed on site). The woman who ran it was incredibly helpful. She suggested two off-the-beaten-path restaurants (including one just a few doors down) where we had amazing food and great wine (including one where the lone proprietor did everything - took our order, ran upstairs and did the cooking, brought the food, cleaned up and took our bill). It was a wonderful experience at a very reasonable price. It was my wife's and my favorite hotel during our two-week tour of France.