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The house where Monet lived and worked for more than 40 years, and the stunning garden he created using flowers as his palette are a tribute to the great painter (see Fondation Claude Monet, Giverny).

Pay homage to Monet in his own home – now the Fondation Claude Monet – and wander in the gardens that inspired him. In the Musée d’Art Américain, you can explore the work of the American artists who followed him here (see Fondation Claude Monet, Giverny).

The glassworks in the Bresle Valley are renowned, accounting for 80 per cent of luxury perfume bottles. The Musée des Traditions Verrières in Eu displays examples of astonishing beauty, while at the 16th-century Manoir de Fontaine in Blangy-sur-Bresle, you can watch weekend glass-blowing demonstrations and buy examples of the art.

Golfers are spoilt for choice in Normandy, which has 37 courses – 23 of them with 18 holes or more. Notable ones include Golf d’Étretat, situated on the clifftop above the famous Falaise d’Aval (see Étretat), and Golf de Saint-Saëns, with beautiful views over the Forêt d’Eawy. Deauville has no less than three top courses, and there are fine 27-hole courses at Omaha Beach and Granville.

Celebrated for its association with Marcel Proust, who spent his childhood holidays here and famously described the dining room as an aquarium, this huge white edifice is still redolent of its belle époque heyday, with vast rooms and balconies. The front faces the town, while the rear opens onto the beach.

At first sight, Granville seems an unlikely setting for one of Normandy’s most popular seaside resorts, but it has two distinct faces. Ramparts enclose the upper town, which sits on a rocky spur overlooking the Baie du Mont-St-Michel. The walled town developed from fortifications built by the English in 1439 as part of their assault on the Mont. The Musée de Vieux Granville, in the town gatehouse, recounts Granville’s long-established sea-faring tradition. The chapel walls of the Église de Notre-Dame are lined with tributes from local fishermen to their patroness, Notre Dame du Cap Lihou. The lower town is the resort, with casino, promenades and public gardens. From the port, there are boat trips to the Îles Chausey, a scattering of low-lying granite islands.

With its stern granite upper town on the one hand, and its beach and seaside amusements on the other, Granville offers two quite different faces. It became fashionable as a resort in the 19th century. Among its current attractions, it boasts a thalasso-therapy centre, the Aquarium du Roc (a “shell wonderland”) and a casino.

For more than 20 years, jovial M Gribouille has sold the best of Norman gastronomic specialities, from pommeau to confiture du lait (see Gourmet Restaurants), in his lavish emporium in Vieux Honfleur.

This spruce seaside village includes the humble birthplace of Jean-François Millet, open to the public in summer. Walk to the dramatic Rocher du Castel-Vendon; Millet’s depiction of it can be seen in the Musée Thomas-Henry in Cherbourg.

Benedictine monk at Bec, who was a master architect and sculptor (1644–1715).