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The Northwest
On our website: 13 properties
10 with private pools 7 heated 1 indoors 4 fenced-off 10 near the sea (11km to 60km) 3 with private tennis courts 1 with piano 1 with billiards 8 with bikes 2 with fitness rooms 3 with saunas 1 with putting green 1 with driving range
Along the banks of the Loire
Normandy
Normandy is famous for one army that left in 1066 and another that returned in 1944. We of course are now the true Normans, who invaded England and in the course of four centuries both changed, and were absorbed by, its culture. That probably explains why the sense of humour in Normandy is often self-deprecating and self-conscious, in fact typically British. Half-timbered houses, upholstered cows, gentle hills and ancient harbours set the scene just across the Channel. It is easy to slip in and out of a myriad of delightful small villages without noticing but if you do, it will be your loss, because each one has a country restaurant to savour. Everything is fresh: seafood, cream, sauces, cheeses, and apple-based cuisine best washed down with a glass of Normandy's fiery apple brandy, calvados. The old town of Cherbourg is full of shops specialising in gourmet food and wine. Valognes's grand houses survived the D-Day landings against all the odds. Of all the tiny ports nestling between granite cliffs, Isigny-sur-Mer is the finest, with spectacular views from its picturesque fisherman's quarter. The mild, almost Gulf Stream climate stretches the season from early May to late September, especially in the département of Calvados itself. This is cider country, overflowing with apple trees and densely wooded valleys scarcely changed since Duke William set sail. His exploits
are chronicled in the Bayeux Tapestry, a great medieval newsreel that put a spin on the Battle of Hastings as effective as modern propaganda. Look out for King Harold, probably the figure slain with an axe rather than the one with an arrow in his eye. On his way to Agincourt and immortality, another prodigious warrior, Henry V, landed at Honfleur, nowadays an exquisite harbour. Trouville and Deauville show their chic and Cabourg's refurbished promenade revives the heady image of its heyday during the Belle Epoque. Just to the south, the Orne is the home of the Percheron horse. Two hundred of them once unflinchingly carried William's knights, each wearing half a ton of armour. Usually grey or black, in remote areas, on boggy ground, they can still trounce a tractor. The horse is fêted each September in the principal town of Mortagneau-Perche.
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L'Apéritif, Deauville
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