DK Travel : Normandy : Architecture

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Château d’Anet

Diane de Poitiers’ once-fabulous château is now but a glimmer of its former glory, yet still impresses – especially the gatehouse with its amazing clock.
Château d’Ételan

A striking example of the 15th-century Flamboyant Gothic, this château – in two parts linked by a magnificent stone staircase – has a jewel of a chapel.
Château d’Eu

Queen Victoria came to stay in Louis Philippe’s 16th-century holiday home, now the Musée Louis-Philippe, newly restored and crammed with antiques.
Château d’Orcher

This 11th-century fort (remodelled in the 18th century) has a spectacular clifftop setting and a park with avenues of ash.
Eglise Abbatiale, St-Pierre-sur-Dives

At noon, the copper strip on the floor of the nave shows the position of the sun’s rays.
Guillaume de la Tremblaye

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

Lord of the Manor Guillaume Paynel founded the abbey in 1145. Always a small community, its fortunes declined over the years, and in 1784 it was declared defunct. In the 19th century, the buildings were quarried for stone; only in the 20th were the noble ruins we see today saved from further destruction (see Abbaye de Hambye).
Joan of Arc

Teenage soldier (1412–31) whose “voices” told her to save France from the English. Captured and burnt at the stake. Canonized in 1920.
Jumièges

A centre of learning for 700 years, Jumièges became nothing more than a quarry after the Revolution. Today, its enigmatic ruins, romantically set in a loop of the Seine, live again as one of the “must-see” sights of Normandy (see Abbaye de Jumièges).
La Trappe

Founded in 1140, La Trappe was one of the Cistercian monasteries which adopted the Strict Observance – silence, prayer, abstinence, manual labour – introduced by Abbé de Rancé in the 1660s. Thereafter, they were known as Trappist monasteries; there is another at Bricquebec.