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This handsome market town was a famous lacemaking centre in the 17th and 18th centuries. The only examples you will see today are displayed in the Musée de la Dentelle “au Point d’Alençon”, housed in General Leclerc’s wartime headquarters, and in the Musée des Beaux-Arts et de la Dentelle. The latter presents an exhaustive history of the lace industry, along with collections of French paintings and Cambodian artifacts. Even the intricate stonework on the façade of the Église de Notre-Dame resembles lace. Inside, a chapel is dedicated to Ste Thérèse, born in the town and baptized here.

Apart from its role at the end of the Battle of Normandy (1944), commemorated by the nearby Mémorial de Montormel, the town is known for lace and horse racing.

On a rocky spur overlooking forest, vestigial fortifications nestle among well-preserved 17th- and 18th-century houses. There’s a wonderful mushroom fair here in late September.

Popularized by Napoleon III, the famous cheese was first made here by Marie Harel around 1790. Some nearby farms still use her original method.

Using waxworks, this museum in an old monastery reconstructs the everyday life of the monks.

Until 1936, when it was bought by the state, this imposing red-brick château had been in the Le Veneur de Tillières family for almost 500 years. Founded by Jean de Carrouges in the 14th century, it has all the attributes necessary for a grand château: moats, terraces, a park and gardens, and a particularly elegant 16th-century gatehouse with four pepperpot towers (see Autour d’un Piano, Château de Carrouges).

Its fairy-tale turrets, ornately carved pediments and steep-sloping roofs reflected in the limpid, green waters of its rectangular moat, this dainty early-Renaissance château is as enchanting as the family name is curious. It was built mainly during the 15th and 16th centuries, with a west wing – now the living quarters – added in the 18th. You can wander in the grounds or take a short tour of the interior, furnished in predominantly 18th-century style.