Once the centre of a powerful medieval empire that controlled a significant area of continental Europe, and most of England and Wales , Normandy has an incredibly rich heritage to draw from. Many visitors come to be enchanted by historical attractions such as the triple peaks of Rouen cathedral, the Bayeux Tapestry's engrossing tale of vengeance and conquest, and the fantastical abbey atop Mont Saint-Michel.
Normandy is also famed for the D-Day Allied invasion on 6 June , and the brutal inland fighting that ensued, but which eventually resulted in the liberation of France from Nazi rule.
However, Normandy is more than just a history museum; this is a region of natural beauty too, from the chalky cliffs of the Alabaster Coast , to the rocky hills of the Suisse Normande, and the Cotentin marshlands. And where better to savour the twin pillars of Norman cuisine , milk and apples? Normandy is the land of the Normans, whose Norse ancestors arrived in and conducted several raids in their longboats up the River Seine, terrorising and extorting the Franks out of much of their wealth.
In , the Viking warrior leader Rollo besieged Chartres and forced the Frankish king Charles the Simple to sign a costly treaty; in exchange for ceasing their raids and protecting the coast from their Norse kin, Rollo and his people were granted the lands that became the Duchy of Normandy in perpetuity. On paper, the dukes of Normandy as Rollo's descendants became were vassals of the Frankish, and later French, crown. However, the early French kings were weak and controlled very little land beyond Paris, so Normandy had a lot of practical independence and levity to expand its borders, which it did repeatedly.
Thus followed a long period of Anglo-Norman domination on both sides of the Channel, and Normandy was for several centuries a part of the Kingdom of England. During this time, many defensive castles and Romanesque and Gothic churches were constructed, and the famous Bayeux tapestry was woven by now-unknown hands.
