Our Local Area — Rent a stunning traditional Normandy family home

Photos and the Local Area

How to get here

By Car: 1½hrs from Paris, 2 1/2 hrs from Calais. From London, we usually take the Eurotunnel from Folkestone to Calais, the crossing is 40 mins.

By Train: 1½ hrs from Paris St Lazare station. Our local station is Yvetot is a 20 minute drive from the house.

By Ferry: The closest port Le Havre is 40 mins by car from the house. Dieppe and Calais are also accessible.

By Plane: Charles de Gaulle airport is 181km/112miles away. Local taxi services are available.

Local Hertz car rental in Caudebec 4km/2½miles from our house.

On our side of the river is our local village of La Mailleraye. The drive is about 6 minutes and we have two bakeries, a post office, a cafe, a small market on Friday morning, a supermarket - Carrefour Contact, a petrol station and yes a lion and tiger rescue sanctuary Caresse des Tigres.

Also, on our side of The Seine are local producers of apple products, including cider and calvados, Le Clos Citots. Within walking distance we have a wonderful goats farm where daily, in the evening, you can buy fresh goats products, watch the goats being milked and on Fridays they have a local farmers market.

In the village next to us, Notre Dame de Bliquetuit, there is the regional museum of the area with wonderful displays https://www.pnr-seine-normande.com

There’s a fun tree/rope climbing activity centre in the forest, Viking Adventure.

Taking long walks through the Foret de Brotonne and along the Seine, is a wonderful way to walk off the delicious meals. There is also a sign posted route to follow highlighting the local thatched houses.

Across the Seine is the town of Caudebec en Caux, with butchers, bakeries, and a variety of shops and a newsagent and market on Saturday morning. There is also the wonderful MuseoSeine retelling, with wonderful displays, the history of the Seine https://www.museoseine.fr Bicycles for rent are also available here. There is a Michelin starred restaurant, Le Manoir de Retival. Above Caudebec en Caux, in Maulevrier, there is a wonderful restaurant Au Rendez-vous des Chasseurs in Maulevrier http://www.aurendezvousdeschasseurs.fr They serve very locally produced food and often mushrooms picked from the woods behind.

Further afield there are further market towns. Honfleur is one of our favourites with moules/frites in the harbour as a treat. Honfleur is beautiful, artsy and an old harbour town with an amazing church and delicious restaurants.

You can also drive along our side of the Seine and then take a tiny car ferry (la Bac) at Jumiege, across to an amazing local restaurant L’Auberge du Bac and then drive back on the other side, crossing the Pont de Brotonne to the south side. the Auberge du Bac is on the edge of the ancient village of Jumiege, which has more wonderful restaurants and a stunning old ruin Abbey.

Across the river from us is the fascinating Abbey de Saint Wandrille where you can have a tour, listen to the chanting from the silent order of the monks or sample their local produce and delicious beer from their shop.

Even further afield you can go to Giverny, Monet’s House, the medieval city of Rouen or even have a day trip to the Normandy Landing Beaches, although an overnight stay would give you more flexibility. We did have a session of watching Saving Private Ryan then A Bridge Too Far and the next morning pilling into cars to visit Pegasus Bridge, had lunch and drove home.

We could highly recommend an amazing garden tour group https://www.gardenguideparis.com/index.html for Paris, Normandy and Giverny.

Paris is a couple of hours by train from Yvetot or by car.

Bike along the Seine - from Le Havre to Paris or just sections of the route - https://www.laseineavelo.com A wonderful article from The Guardian describing the ride - https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2023/may/09/seine-a-velo-cycle-route-normandy-rouen-giverny-honfleur?CMP=share_btn_link