Caen

Visiting the D-Day beaches with Caen as your base

To see the D-Day beaches from Caen, start at the Mémorial de Caen, then drive north to Pegasus Bridge and Sword Beach or west to the Juno Beach Centre. Without a car, take the train to Bayeux for buses to Omaha Beach, Pointe du Hoc and Arromanches, or join a guided tour.

Start at the Mémorial de Caen. It sets the landings and the long battle for the city in context, and it makes the beaches far easier to read afterwards.

The nearest sites are to the north. Pegasus Bridge at Bénouville, taken by British gliders in the first hours of 6 June, is a short drive towards Ouistreham, and Sword Beach begins at Ouistreham itself. Further west, the Juno Beach Centre at Courseulles-sur-Mer tells the Canadian side of the story.

Without a car, take the short train ride west to Bayeux. From there regional buses run to Omaha Beach, the American cemetery and Pointe du Hoc, and others go to Arromanches, where the remains of the Mulberry harbour still sit offshore. Services are sparse, so check the last return before you leave. If you want more than one sector in a day, hire a car or join one of the guided tours that leave from Caen and Bayeux; that is the only realistic way to see Omaha and Juno, say, on the same trip.

William the Conqueror's abbeys, the château and the Vaugueux quarter

Central Caen fits into a day: the Abbaye aux Hommes with William the Conqueror's grave, Rue Saint-Pierre and the Église Saint-Pierre, the château with the Musée de Normandie and the Musée des Beaux-Arts, lunch in the Vaugueux, then the Abbaye aux Dames and the Bassin Saint-Pierre. Keep the Mémorial for another morning.

Give the city itself a full day before or after the beaches. Begin in the morning at the Abbaye aux Hommes, William's own foundation, where a plain slab in the choir marks his grave; the monastery buildings next door now house the town hall. Walk east along Rue Saint-Pierre, one of the shopping streets rebuilt after 1944, to the Église Saint-Pierre with its tall Gothic spire.

Climb into the château opposite. Inside the walls are the Musée de Normandie, on the region's history, and the Musée des Beaux-Arts, and the ramparts give the best view over the rebuilt centre. Eat lunch in the Vaugueux, the cluster of old lanes just below the castle.

In the afternoon, walk on to the Abbaye aux Dames, founded by Matilda and quieter than its partner, then drift back through the centre to the Bassin Saint-Pierre for a drink by the boats. Keep the Mémorial for a separate morning, since it deserves at least half a day. Finish with dinner back in the Vaugueux, or with the bars of Rue Écuyère if you want a later night.

Tripes à la mode de Caen, teurgoule and Pays d'Auge cheeses

Caen's own dish is tripes à la mode de Caen, slow-cooked with cider and calf's foot. Around it come Pays d'Auge cheeses (Camembert, Pont-l'Évêque and Livarot), cider, pommeau and calvados, cream sauces, teurgoule rice pudding and seafood from Ouistreham. The Vaugueux has the densest cluster of restaurants.

The city's own dish is tripes à la mode de Caen: beef tripe and calf's foot cooked very slowly with vegetables and cider, traditionally in a sealed earthenware pot. A guild of tripe makers keeps the recipe, written as a poem, and holds tasting contests. Try it once in a brasserie; it is gentler than it sounds.

Calvados is apple country, so cider, pommeau and the apple brandy that takes the department's name appear on every menu. The cheeses come from the Pays d'Auge just to the east: Camembert, square Pont-l'Évêque and the pungent Livarot. Dairy runs through the cooking, with cream sauces on fish and chicken. For dessert look for teurgoule, a cinnamon rice pudding baked for hours in a slow oven.

For eating out, the Vaugueux has the densest cluster of restaurants, from crêperies to traditional Norman cooking, and the brasseries around the château are reliable for lunch. Seafood arrives fresh from Ouistreham and the Côte de Nacre. For picnic supplies and cheese, go to the open-air markets on Place Saint-Sauveur and along the quays by the Bassin Saint-Pierre.