Cotentin Peninsula (Cherbourg Octeville)

Member Name: caro

Product:	Cherbourg Octeville
Date:	01/03/01 (1881 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: History, shopping, coastline

Disadvantages: Weather much like Britain's

My parents regularly take the Portsmouth – Cherbourg crossing to France and spend a few days in Normandy. When I joined them on their most recent trip, I’m not sure what I was more apprehensive about: my first family holiday for eleven years, or planning a route for our second day. After some research on the net (oh, the hardship!), I came up with a route which not only worked, but also included some places new to my family.

CHERBOURG

Cherbourg is on the top (er, that would be the technical term) of the Cotentin Peninsula, Normandy. The town is overlooked by a fort, now a museum of the town’s Liberation. There are also several other museums, a theatre and a cultural centre.

For shopping, there are some lovely shops in the town (my family got bored of me gazing through patisserie windows at the fabulous cakes), as well as two hypermarkets. Most visitors to France are likely to buy alcohol, given how much cheaper it is than in Britain, and the Carrefour by the port is full of visitors with trolleys full of wine. It is part of a shopping centre which also includes the Wine and Beer Company, which has familiar brands and is aimed entirely at British tourists, but is much more expensive than the hypermarket three steps away as well as having a much more limited choice. Carrefour has a large range of wines, beers, spirits, etc at really low prices; but it’s also worth looking at smaller, specialist shops which tend to have very good prices and selections, especially for better-quality wines. For smokers, tobacco is not sold at the hypermarket but prices are very low, in all the tobacconists in town.

A DAY’S TOUR

Cherbourg’s market is on a Thursday morning. As we arrived in the town on Thursday afternoon, we missed that but started my tour the following day at Valognes which has a Friday market day. It’s fun to browse around, and the vegetables and cheeses are wonderful
(don’t get carried away: mum once bought a large box of leeks, and the freezer was filled with leek and potato soup for ages!). There are also clothes and bags, household items, and live poultry. If you’re hungry, you can buy snacks including crepes. Apparently the sausages are also very good, but as a vegetarian I avoided those.

After the market, wander round Valogne which is known as the “Versailles of the North” because of its eighteenth-century buildings. Although many of these were destroyed in World War II, those that remain make the town worth a visit. The tourist information centre has a brilliant leaflet, with general information and a plan of the town including four suggested walks (available in English). The abbey in the rue des Capucins has a church and shop open to the public: the shop sells ‘pate de fruits’ (fruit jellies, with or without chocolate covering) made by the nuns. There is a cider museum and a calvados museum, although these are closed in winter.

From Valognes, we drove to St-Vaast-la-Hougue. Although now a small fishing town, it was the scene of a naval battle in the seventeenth century and there are two forts (La Hougue and Tatihou) looking over the town. Nowadays, it is more famous for its oysters and mussels: you will see St Vaast oysters on menus throughout the peninsula. At the end of the sea front is a fisherman’s chapel, all that remains of a larger church. Behind the chapel is a viewpoint over the bay. Back in town, visit M. Gosselin, a brilliant food and wine store with fresh produce, speciality foods, and lovely wine cellars that seem to go on forever. (Also the cheapest Krug champagne anywhere – but at £40, still outside my budget…).

Easily visible from the seafront is the Isle de Tatihou. You can walk across at low tide, or take a ferry regardless of the tide. The former leper colony is now a nature reserve, with a museum and f
ort.

From St Vaast, we drove inland to La Pernelle. Ignore the signs for the town, instead following those for the church, and you find yourself at an amazing viewpoint looking out across St Vaast, Barfleur, and the landing beaches. A display marks points of interest; put 5 francs (about 50p) into the machine on the wall and you can hear a commentary (English available). To your right is the Panoramique restaurant, which offers meals as well as a range of very reasonably priced crepes, and shares the same view over the coast.

Between the restaurant and the church is a small building. Originally an English guard post in the 15th Century, it is now one of the smallest town halls (perhaps the smallest) in France. During World War II, the Germans had guns here and the church was heavily bombed as a result. Only the tower survived: the rest of the building is modern. Below it, down a footpath, is a reconstruction of the grotto at Lourdes.

Drive through the town and along the coast to Barfleur. Cotentin’s largest port in the middle ages, it was overtaken by Cherbourg and is now a small fishing town. Note the lifeboat station, which was the first in France, built in 1865 and open to visitors. Nearby, notice the memorials to the ship which took William the Conqueror to England, which left from Barfleur. As you wander through the town, you will see information points explaining Barfleur’s history and literary connections.

From here, the coast road takes you back to Cherbourg. On the way, visit Gatteville and take the road to the lighthouse. It has 365 steps and 52 windows, and its beam crosses that of the lighthouse on the Isle of Wight. Back in the town, near the church, is the chapel of Notre Dame de Bon Secours. Jean de Gatteville left from here for the first crusade in the 11th century.

On from Gatteville is Fermanville. To your left is the Valley of the Mills, a footpath which runs alongs
ide the river. A number of mills were built here in the nineteenth century, and the viaduct used to carry a railway between Cherbourg and Barfleur. To the right, drive to Cap Levi which has a fort and lighthouse. In good weather, there are pleasant walks (when we visited, there was a cold wind so we didn’t stray too far). The coast road continues back to Cherbourg. Following the route at a leisurely pace will fill one fairly relaxed day. Completely useless fact: La Glacerie, just outside Cherbourg, got its name because ice cream was made for Versailles here. (Surely it would have melted??).

There is a lot more to see in the Cotentin Peninsula. Just one example is the town of Briquebec. It has a castle, part of which is now a hotel and restaurant. There is a museum of local history in the clocktower. On the edge of the town (take the road opposite the gendarmerie and continue past the biscuit factory) is a Trappist abbey. It specialises in charcuterie, but the shop sells a wide range of produce from abbeys throughout France and Belgium including cakes, biscuits, jams, beers, sandals and incense. The town also has its own cheese, for sale locally.

I thoroughly enjoyed visiting the peninsula. There is a huge amount of history; shops are generally small and individual; the coast is lovely, with rocky and sandy beaches. Vegetarians won’t find a huge selection of food, but with care (and maybe a few explanations to bemused waiters) you can eat well. For non-vegetarians, eating out is cheap and good, with seafood a particular speciality. It’s definitely worth travelling beyond Cherbourg’s port and hypermarket!

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