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The harbour of this enchanting small port was fortified after the French naval defeat in 1692, as was the Île de Tatihou – now the site of a garden, bird-watching post and maritime museum.

Apart from its war museum and church, made famous by the film The Longest Day , the town is known for its livestock market. Rural life in the early 1900s is illustrated at the Ferme Musée du Cotentin.

An enormously popular dessert, both at home and in restaurants, this regional speciality dates back to the days when spices, brought back to Honfleur and Dieppe by merchant ships from the East, first became popular. Local housewives discovered that a flavouring of cinnamon was the perfect partner for pudding rice baked with cream, and teurgoule was born.

PontauRail run a restored 1952 train at a leisurely pace between Pont-Audemer and Honfleur. The ACFVE train starts from Pacy-sur-Eure and winds its way down the lovely Eure Valley.

A popular country dish in Normandy, tripe from the excellent local cattle is cooked simply à la mode de Caen with onions, calf’s feet, Calvados and cider, while in Ferté-Macé it is made into little bundles en brochette (on skewers).

This famous Norman speciality – or rather indulgence – refers to a shot of chilled Calvados thrown back between courses to aid digestion. The word trou means “hole”: the shot of calva , Normans fondly believe, creates a hole for more food.

Though badly damaged in 1944, Valognes retains traces of its glory days as the “Versailles of the North” – including the splendid Hôtel de Beaumont.

Gloriously situated, its cliff-top church has windows by Ubac and Braques. Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll collaborated on the nearby Parc du Bois des Moutiers.

In its own valley, at the mouth of the shortest river in France, this pretty village clusters round its 12th-century church.

At a beautiful spot on the Seine, Villequier marks the point where river becomes estuary. Victor Hugo’s daughter Léopoldine drowned here in 1843. The Musée Victor-Hugo commemorates her life.