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A stylish and well-appointed former hunting lodge, with two pools (one indoor), a talented chef, and a smart dining room (with fair-weather terrace). A huge log fire warms the bar in winter.

Helicopters arriving here in the wooded Risle Valley (and some do) look for two thatched roofs joined by a modern extension. The decoration and superb food are also fusions of old and new, and every bedroom has its own character and style.

This half-timbered 18th-century inn with five comfortable, cottage-style bedrooms sits opposite the entrance to the abbey of Notre-Dame du Bec. Run by the same family for more than 40 years, it radiates friendly efficiency and offers meals both formal and informal, inside or out on its terrace.

Like most houses in Servon, the front of this former presbytery looks onto the village, the back over open countryside. Three bedrooms share the main building with the excellent restaurant; the rest are in the former schoolhouse next door. Mont-St-Michel is a scant half-hour away.

Although recently modernized, this ivy-festooned 16th-century Norman farmhouse in a peaceful hamlet retains its charming beams and bare stone walls. If the thoughtful, well-presented menus downstairs tempt you to stay overnight, the bedrooms are very comfortable.

Most of the good-sized rooms in this small, relaxed manor – round the side of a hill, minutes away from the hurly-burly of Honfleur – look out over the Seine estuary. Each room is styled individually, and residents have first call on the attractive restaurant downstairs.

Michel Leroux is probably the best chef for miles in any direction, and any thought of driving on should be dispelled by the quietly comfortable rooms – most of them in a modern wing overlooking the rose garden.

In the deeply rural setting of an old Norman cider farm is this well-regarded restaurant-with-rooms – now under new (English) ownership. Well-placed for Cherbourg.

To the east of Argentan, this handsome, well-dressed 18th-century hunting lodge is set in its own extensive wooded park at the source of the River Orne.

A real Gothic mansion at the end of a rutted forest track. Spacious rooms, fine furniture, pleasing views, excellent cooking.