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Twenty-eight of Maupassant’s brilliant short stories.

Biggins’ move to France with his family took him behind the scenes of French rural life.

A lovely tribute to the author’s mother, who lived much of her life in Yvetot.

Like their founders William and Matilda, the Abbaye-aux-Hommes and Abbaye-aux-Dames (the first of the two to be built) are close cousins. The lovely convent buildings were designed by Guillaume de la Tremblaye.

Lanfranc was the first abbot of the abbey, which was founded by William the Conqueror and consecrated in his presence in 1077. Ten years later, William was buried, most unceremoniously, in the abbey’s church, St-Etienne.

Nobleman who renounced his former life and founded the Trappists in 1664.

Pasquier called Alain Chartier (c. 1390–c. 1430) – probably best known for La Belle Dame sans merci – “the Seneca of France”. Born into a distinguished Bayeux family, he wrote his earliest poem, Livre des quatre dames , after France’s defeat at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415.

Born in 1869 of a Huguenot father and Norman mother, Gide spent the early and latter parts of his life in Normandy. He saw the realities of life here, first as mayor of a commune, and later as a juror in Rouen. He won the Nobel prize four years before his death in 1951.

Each July, there is an excellent arts and crafts fair, Le Festival de Métiers d’Art de Reviers, in Reviers (Calvados). In the Forêt de Brotonne (Eure), visit the Maison des Métiers at Bourneville, and the linen and clog-makers’ workshops at Routot. Also keep an eye out for workshops in towns and villages, and arts and crafts on sale at markets and antiques fairs. The fair in Les Andelys in early September, for example, dates back to the Middle Ages.

A lyrical account of an enchanted rural childhood.