One week in Normandy, DH & I plus DDs 6 & 8 (that's ages, not birth order) - any suggestions on activities,etc?

[snigger]

We're staying in Ernes, my Mum & Dad are coming too, DH is interested in WWII,DD1 is doing a project on it at school and we considered a tour or something.

We'd like to see the Bayeux Tapestry, and I need to make a personal pilgrimage to Pont L'Eveque (mmm...cheese...)

Other than that, I'm so time poor just now I haven't had chance to do my usual research, and would be desperately grateful for any suggestions regarding places to eat, go, or see?

When we had a week in Normandy, this is what I remember doing:

Deauville/Trouville - very atmospheric beach towns, where Parisiens go for their long weekends.

Lisieux - lovey town with a modern basilica (?)

Mont St Michel - island off the coast of Brittany

D-Day landing stuff - Pegasus Bridge, Omaha Beach, cemetaries, etc.

Bayeux

There was a village (I think Saint Pierre sur Dives, looking at Google Earth) near where we were staying that had a very traditional market - excellent (they had live chicks, etc.).

We also took the train to Paris for the day.

Is Mont St Michel the island you reach by the tidal causeway?

Also, are the beaches at Deauville/Trouville the kind of places small girls could caper about and dig around in sand without exasperating suave metropolitan types?

Thanks for the suggestions!

Honfleur is lovely, and we visited the town/castle that William the Conquerer came from - though the name of it totally escapes me......Let me check the map....

Falaise! And very near to where you will be....

Adding Falaise and a ferry-bound review of the Norman invasion to the list...

Thanks, Porto.

DH, however, appears to feel that a holiday in Calvados can only mean one thing....

It was a fab castle. Dd was in a sling at that time so I can't confirm it's attraction to small children. I have a 5 yo copy of the Rough Guide to Normandy I'm happy to stick in the post....

War Memorial Museum in Caen would be good for DH (you could take the DC to do something else).

Parking and traffic in Deauville/Trouville is nightmare-ish but depends when you are going?

On a sunny weekend or in July or August they are HEAVING (but the beach does have children's play stuff etc.

Houlgate is a better bet - huge long sandy beach and nice ice-cream shops.

No idea where Ernes is near??!

OK I see where it is so definitely nr Caen and nearer Houlgate/Cabourg (seaside towns) than Deauville etc.

Houlage v. family oriented.

Have fun (I live in the upper part of Normandy)

Dives-sur-Mer is where William the Conq sailed from - close to Houlgate. Very historic.

this is a great website for all things france + families.

We loved festyland - was not busy so you could go on rides again and again (Aug)

There is a war memorial at Thiepval which is so worthwhile visiting. Stunning Lutyens designed arches, with the names of the fallen engraved on all the faces of the stone. It's incredibly moving and peaceful but be prepared with tissues! Our DC were 8 and 13 when we were there and they too were moved seeing the ages of some of the soldiers - much more powerful in showing what war can do, than hours of news footage.

As you come away from there, there is also a tiny memorial to Australian soldiers who defended a farm there - it takes the form of an engraved stone on a piece of land that is now designated as being Australian.

There are tiny local colonial war cemeteries in villages all over Normandy, plus roadside memorials to fallen Resistance fighters at the places they were killed. You can hardly go anywhere in Normandy without a nudge about WWII.

And the big cemeteries near the D-Day beaches are impossibly moving - so many, & so so young.