calvados

SO MUCH AND MORE
There exist thousand reasons to choose the department of the Calvados as a destination: its coast, its history, its soil, its headlights cities... This booklet proposes Eight ways to approach it, through the eight countries which make it up with the characters that are at the same time so curiously contrasted and so complementary. Among all these possibilities of visit, one only will be enough to touch your heart.. here, begins Calvados .Welcome!

CAEN, SUDDENLY THE SEA
Marked by the last war - whose episodes are reported with emotion with the Caen Memorial, and capital of Low Normandy, posts a beautiful vitality today. Enamelled innumerable architectural treasures, of which a castle located in its center and two abbeys of XI thcentury built by William the Conqueror, it boasts also of its tens of hectares of green spaces ' which lend themselves readily to the estival cultural events, and of a marina, whose privileged situation make the city worth to be renamed Caen on sea.

THE FLEURIE COAST, UNDER THE APPLE TREES, THE BEACH
Is it still Know today that the world of the sea bathings was launched here, in Calvados, causing the surge of the Parisian gotha of the Second-Empire? Casinos, golfs, hippodromes, thalassotherapy, beach and pleasure rythmitize always the daily iodized of the stations headlights on the Coast, without forgetting this significant grace, sometimes mysterious, which inspired from Trouville to Cabourg de Deauville to Honfleur-so many painters, writers, architects, directors... and the anonymous lovers.

THE COUNTRY Of AUGE, SOIL Of EXCEPTION
there reigns in the Country of Auge a quasi pictorial harmony, between man and the surrounding nature: residences with wood sides, rods and herds of cows seem to pose the time of the draft, in a perfect balance. For as much, idleness is not appropriate: in the second plan of this alive decoration, the man raises there the fine flower of the racehorse and produced there tasty ciders, apple-brandies and cheeses... all famous in the whole world.

BESSIN, AN OPEN BOOK
Place of memory, the ground of Bessin constitutes a permanent evocation of the past. A blessed time is guessed there with the reading of its architectural heritage, rich of castles, manors and imposing strengthened farms.
A historical episode is still read there along the beaches where disembarked one morning of June 1944 thousands of soldiers, coming to release France. Its capital, Bayeux, miraculously saved, testify to the medieval life in particular through the famous Tapestry,, reporting the Battle of Hastings.

NORMAN SWITZERLAND :MOUNTS AND WONDERS
Here, in Norman Switzerland ,culminnation of Calvados. Rock cliffs, abrupt walls, boxed gorges and rivers lend alpine paces to it which make the joy of the followers of the sports of open air. Rises and descents, this severe and wild countryside is to be discovered on foot, horseback or i VTT, according to the desire, and can reward the hiker for his successive efforts, with the liking of landscapes that are often vertiginous. Inhale air: do you feel the difference?

THE COUNTRY OF FALAISE, FATHERLAND OF GUILLAUME THE CONQUERER
Duke of Normandy and future king of England, William the Conqueror was born here in Falaise. The castle, a real fortress that has remained invulnerable for a long time, was built with its glory. Fruit of a recent restoration, it remains a remarkable example of medieval architecture and is essential to the visit. In the neighbourhoods, wooded extents of the Mounts of Eraines and the tormented site of the Brèche au Diable - in the center of the plain are offered to the pleasures of the cliff and the excursion.

NACRE, IODIZED ATMOSHERE
More reserved than its "Fleurie" counterpart, the charms of the Coast of Nacre are not less bright. From Ouistreham to Courseulles sur Mer, few tens of Kilometers of coastline, bordered of immense beaches of thin sand and picturesque small ports make, all the yearround, the paradise of the nautical activities (sailboard, sailing, speed sail, sailing chariot …)and the holidays in family and the fishing parties in boat or on foot. The hells and shellfish easily flush out themselves here and are easily tasted still.

THE HEDGED FARMLAND , NATURAL ECHO
One says the grove, country of legends and mysteries, undoubtedly, because the imaginary one invites them more easily on this tormented ground, with infinite natural contrasts. From orchards to forests, and from plains to valleys, emanates an untameable force drawn to the source of its granitic water which furrow it slowly. To test it, nothing is better than "coming into contact" with the elements: the pedestrian or equestrian excursion along its marked out paths, the descent in the canoeingof Vire will be able to wake up and guide your senses...

SEA. AN IODINE PERFUME,
Since the half of the XIX thcentury, the department of Calvados was one of the high balneal vacation resorts in France. Initially, a favorite destination of the aristocrats, the stations of the Norman coast close to Paris, were also since 1936, the "terminus" of the "paid-leaves". Each year a lot of tourists continue to appreciate the charms of these seaside resorts. All compete with attractions. It is up to you to choose... There are for all the tastes: for the lovers of stroll, for the amateurs of family stations, but also for those who prefer more the "in" -places, and swear only by the "Boards" and the crested places of the Fleurie coast...

A TYPICALLY BALNEAL ARCHITECTURE,
The balneal architecture is an architecture apart. The calvadosian coast preserved very beautiful testimonys of these neo-Norman villas, which hesitate between the balneal one and the country house, between the country cottage style and the rococo style. Prestigious achievements as the station of Deauville, the fish shop of Trouville, rebuilt in 1936, the large market of Dives, and surely the numerous casinos that resisted time also. Often disproportionate, the "villas" of the coast built at the beginning of the last century are decoratedwith bow-windows, peaks of roof, finials, balconies and cornices...