Lower Normandy is located on the north-west coast of France, just to the
south-west of neighbouring Haute-Normandie with which it is normally lumped
together and called simply Normandy.
The seaside towns and resorts of the région's coast are very popular with
day-tripping Parisians. Picturesque Honfleur - which is at one of the closest
points to the country's capital than any other seaside place - particularly
draws the crowds. In 1995 a 2km bridge, Pont de Normandie, opened across the Seine
linking Honfleur with Le Havre, making it very accessible for visitors from
the UK arriving into the uglier port town. Deauville, with its smart
casinos and turn-of-the-century villas, was once the playground of the rich
and famous, whereas Trouville is more downmarket.
Much of the north-facing coast of the Calvados department is lined with the
D-day beaches that claimed the lives of 100,000 soldiers on June 6, 1944. The
beaches are still often referred to by their wartime code names: Sword, Juno,
Gold, Omaha and Utah and many are still deeply pitted by German bunkers and
shell holes. All the coastal towns here have a war museum, although many
visitors do manage to put the coast's grim history to the backs of their minds
and enjoy it simply for the sand and seafood.
Away from the coast the region is an extremely fertile land of lush meadows,
rich pastures and orchards hiding small villages of half-timbered houses.
Around the town of St-Lô is the area known as the bocage, where
fields are criss-crossed with tight hedgerows rooted into walls of earth over
a metre high. In 1944, the Allied troops found it almost impossible to advance
through this landscape. Part of the area along the River Orne, about 25km from
Caen, is known as Swiss Normandie where, although not mountainous, there are
cliffs, crags and wooded hills at every turning. The southern part of
Basse-Normandie is a densely wooded area and is great for walkers. The Forêt
d'Ecouves, north of Alençon, is a dense mix of spruce, pine, oak and beech
and populated by deer, wild boar and wild mushrooms. In the autumn the woods
attract the deer-hunters.
The main agricultural activity in the region is cattle, dairy and apples.
Basse-Normandie is renowned for producing apples for cider and Calvados is, of
course, known for its eponymous apple-flavoured liquor. Butter, cheese and
milk production has suffered since EU milk quotas liquidated many small farms
and stringent sanitary conditions forced many small-scale traditional cheese
factories to close. Until the late 1960s, Basse-Normandie was primarily an
agricultural region but in the past twenty years it has evolved into a more
complex region, combining traditional output with many small and mid-sized
industries and services. The region benefits from high GDP growth and a young
population.
Beautiful Mont-Saint-Michel is situated, facing the Channel, at the far
Lower Normandy's western extremity.
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