Why Expats Love Normandy, France

Normandy: France’s Most Underrated Region

Hello. Today we are talking about life in Normandy, France, one of France’s most overlooked and underrated regions. It is definitely overshadowed by Paris, bigger cities, and certainly the south of France, where the weather is undeniably better. But it offers this wonderful, unique mix of coastline history and an everyday livability that really deserves some more attention.

So, I just recently spent a couple of weeks there. I got my very quintessential French fisherman’s, French coastal stripy outerwear. You can’t be without it if you’re on the coast here in France, no matter what the coast is. And this is kind of the beauty of living in Europe for me. We decided to do this trip with my family. So, that’s my husband and two young daughters.

How We Booked Our Trip to Normandy

On a Thursday evening, we asked ourselves, should we book a place for our kids’ school holidays? They’ll be out of school for two weeks. We haven’t really booked any camps or activities for them. So, what should we do? So, by the next day, Friday night, we had booked a little house.

We had basically just gone through all of the booking sites, and we’re looking basically just at the house. We don’t know the region at all, so it didn’t really matter to us which little village we ended up in. We just knew we wanted a house, a yard, a barbecue and a close proximity to the sea. A nice little village atmosphere, etc. So, we packed over the weekend and we headed out Monday morning, we rented a little car and took only a couple hours to get up north.

So, this is really, again, one of my favorite things about living in Europe, the fact that it all is so accessible and so quick and easy to get to from one place to another.

Discovering to Luc-sur-Mer, Normandy

So, where we ended up was a little village called Luc-sur-Mer, which is, Luc on the water. Sur Mer means on the water. It’s a tiny village on the Cote Nacre, which is the mother of Pearl coast, which is right next to the Cote Fleurie, which is the flowered coast in the Calvados district of Normandy, France. And this is definitely not a huge tourism spot.

But there is a pretty steady influx of tourists here coming from the U.S., Canada and Britain because this was a major landing site. Of course, we all know about the famous World War Two landing beaches, and this is where they all are. So, even though it seems a little out of the way, it has a very steady tourism market. And it’s famous and a little bit more of a grim way than it really should be.

And because of all of that allied interest, there’s a relatively large number of Americans, Canadians, and Brits that come here, whether it’s as a tourist or as an expat. And you’ll hear English spoken in the smallest little corners of this region. You’ll find that a lot of the tourism materials are in English as well as French, which is not typical outside of Paris, really. And you’ll hear every kind of Anglo accent that you can imagine.

You’ll also notice flags all over. So, flags for all the Allied countries dot all along the coast as well as memorials. And there are lots of signs in English here, as well as in French, which again is very unusual in a non-Parisian part of the country.

So, it all speaks to this kind of shared and globally esteemed history. There’s a kind of feeling of camaraderie amongst foreigners here that we felt even just in two weeks there. And because it’s a beautiful countryside full of history, castles, churches, and farms as far as the eye can see, growing everything from wheat or apples or raising cattle or sheep. There’s a lot more going on here, obviously, than just those little tourism sites and memorials that you can visit. There’s active, fully agricultural, lifestyle going on here. And it’s got a distinct culture and history, even its own old language, which, you know, most parts of Europe, frankly, do.

The History of Normandy

Especially in France, they were all split up and made unified. But, before that, they were all their own little Gallic. All of these little Gallic tribes that became districts or regions, etc. So, Normand, the language Normand, dates back to the ninth century, when the Vikings settled here. And this is the basis for this population. You know, the people living on this coast are pretty much descended from Vikings.

They settled here. They brought Old Norse with them. It got mixed with all the other languages going on the continent. They became the Normans and their language eventually became Normand. And it was still used, surprisingly, until the early 1900s. And finally, it petered out in the 50s and 60s.

So, you’ll still see it in places, in a gift shop, we saw that they were selling baby books with my first Norman words and their after-school activities, programs, cultural activities to try and keep the language alive. So, it’s pretty interesting. And there is this very strong medieval history here that dates back to that era.

What Luc-sur-Mer is Like

And so, as I said, when we made the booking, we were looking more at the house than the location. We don’t know the area. It’s basically throwing a dart at a map for us.

So, that’s how we found ourselves in Luc-sur-Mer, which turned out to be by far the best village in the little region, the little area that we were in. It had a little main street promenade, a boardwalk, a little town center with restaurants and shops that were always full of people, despite it being, you know, a fairly small population.

And the little town hall park was really the best surprise for a young family. It’s home to two little petting zoos full of goats and bunnies. Lots of ducks and wild peacocks, a whole flock of wild peacocks that roam the town. So, you’ll see peacock crossing signs everywhere as you walk around the town. And you’ll hear them everywhere you go. I now know how to recognize a peacock call at any hour of the day.

And they just wander around. They fly from roof to roof. So, we got really used to them just hanging out on the roof, that we could see from our backyard. We woke up one day to one of them strutting by our window and the upstairs window. So, very fun, little claim of fame that this town has, along with its blue whale skeleton, which is the centerpiece of the local park that I mentioned and a major symbol for the town in general.

So, the blue whale is the symbol for this little village. And the poor whale unfortunately got beached on, nearby shore in 1885. He was moved around to a few different places. His skeleton, rather, was moved around to a few different places, until it finally returned to this village and came to its final resting place in this park.

It serves as this beautiful sculpture on the side of the park, as well as a great excuse for some cytology education. And so, there’s a little museum attached and lots of fun facts about whales and lots of little activities for kids to do around.

And while it might not seem like much to the peacocks, this park, this little petting zoo, and the blue whale actually amount to much, much more going on in this town than in any of the other villages that we visited here. Which really didn’t have that kind of central center of the city feel.

They didn’t really seem to have a promenade or boardwalk that was really used. And there was no little Main Street in most of these villages where, you know, you pretty much have to drive from one shop to another in many of these others. So, it really made an impression on us how lucky we got to find this little village.

Its church. Every village has one, no matter how small. The village, there is a church. It is small and basic.

And oddly, it is one of the least elaborate of any of the churches that I saw nearby. Because, you know, when you’re driving around, you’re going through basically all of these villages at any given time. And, it’s really saying something that this one is so basic because every single town seemed to have an overly large, overly impressive, overly tall spire.

You know, and I wondered, I did a little research, and apparently, there was a competition back in the day. This was a wealthy area, trading area, and so each little village wanted to compete with one another to see who could have the nicest church. Plus, the populations of these towns were much higher then.

So, it’s almost like the church was built and then the population shrunk around it. So, many seemed a little out of place. So, basic, but very nice little addition to the town.

And I mean, the village, it’s also basic, but it’s got one, each of the necessities, which you can’t say about every village here. So, it’s got its butcher, fishmonger, bakery, bank, post office, the tabac, where you can get your tobacco products and refill your phone data, buy a newspaper, etc.

It even has a small grocery store within the town, which is very, very rare. And a few restaurants and not just one restaurant that’s open one day of the week, but several restaurants that were all great and open almost every day. The hours were a little iffy, but, almost every day.

For bigger shopping, though, or some more culture, you wouldn’t want to go a bit out of town. The closest full hub is called Caen, C-A-E-N.

Caen, The Full Hub of the Area

I had to look up how to pronounce it because I’d never known. I think most Americans or most English speakers pronounce that Con, or Can or Cain, but the French pronunciation is Caen.

So, this is about 20 minutes inland from where I was right on the beach. And it’s got a major weekly market. Several of them actually, lots of shopping street and many more services and competition amongst businesses than any of the little villages would have here.

So, we had a fun day trip to Caen. I couldn’t resist buying some fun shirts in the market. My daughter got a ring that she fell in love with. So, you know, it’s a fun little day trip.

The castle and the fortress here are fantastic. It’s a great little city or big town, you know, it’s kind of right on the cusp of either, it would be a great place to live. I could definitely see it being a nice step down from main city living, but bigger than a village.

And if you are living in a village or in the countryside, it’s a very nice little hub here for a dose of larger living. The history here too is incredible.

The whole region, especially right here in Caen where I was, is completely tied to William the Conqueror, who I didn’t know much about before going there.

But read up on and, turns out he was a big deal. Who would have known that a name that goes down in centuries was worth talking about? So, the Caen castle and fortress that I mentioned were built by William the Conqueror. It’s basically now just a giant park and cultural center with a couple of museums, some really fun community centers and activities within it.

So, great place to just be the big central green lung of the city, to hang out for free to walk around, wonderful playgrounds, etc. but then also you’ve got all of the museums in there if you want any little dose of culture.

It’s also got an Abbey in Caen. There is an abbey that was also built by William the Conqueror and is now his resting place. So, if you’re a history buff or into medieval history of any kind, this is a major stopping point, globally speaking. So, definitely a place to go if you are a fan of medieval history.

The Villages in Normandy

Even closer to where I was staying, though, and all along this coast are lots of these little villages, so Ouistreham is one. It’s a busy little fish market town. And it’s got this port town atmosphere.

Courseulles-sur-Mer was just five minutes away. It’s got regular food markets, this lively harbourfront. It’s also home to some stables, which I took my daughter to.

And then smaller even closer villages like Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer, Langrune-sur-Mer, you’re hearing the pattern here, everything is sur-Mer because everything is on the sea, practically hanging off the sea on the cliffs.

So, these are all places that would have their own little weekly markets, bakeries. And each town would have its everyday essentials. But if you’re living in the region, you’ll really start to know which town has which market on which day. If you want to get a fish on a Thursday, which village should you go to?

You know, so, you’ll get really tied into the market life there once you’re living in this kind of region and the big regional hub here is Deauville, and as well as its neighbor, Trouville.

Deauville, The Regional Hub

To a lesser extent, but together they do actually form a kind of twin seaside hub in this region.

They’re pretty much treated as a singular cultural and leisure spot, mostly just called Deauville.

Trouville is the one that’s a little bit further to the east, and Deauville is a little bit more well known. Trouville might be a little bit more accessible, but Deauville is the one that’s really the well-known one.

They’re just separated by a little bridge, basically. So, Deauville is this polished, very high end. They call it the capital of chic on the coast. Built by rich Parisians in the 1800s.

It’s got luxury casinos, international film festivals, classic car shows, elite horse racing at the Hippodrome. It’s actually what the place was built for, the horse culture and the horse racing over here.

And designer shopping. So here, this is the most picturesque shopping street I think you’ll have ever seen in the world. Louis Vuitton and Hermes and these little half-timbered cottage-looking buildings. It is beyond cute and adorable in terms of expensive shopping.

And it generally just has a giant annual calendar of cultural events that attract people not only from France. And things for locals to do, but they attract global visitors, I mean, including some of the most famous people in the world.

Chanel actually opened her first shop outside of Paris here. Brigitte Bardot was a frequent beachgoer here. Probably not going topless quite as much. It’s a bit colder up here.

And it’s got this very famous 1920s boardwalk with about two-thirds of a kilometer of seaside strolling with these little Art deco cabins all along. It’s very cute.

Josephine Baker, there’s a photo of her walking her pet cheetah, Chiquita, along the boardwalk here. The queen, Queen Elizabeth, was allowed to drive her car down it, even though there had never been cars on the boardwalk otherwise.

So, it’s a pretty famous place. And the International Film Festival. It’s an American film festival, actually, not a French film festival. So, you know, this town is regularly, annually seeing the likes of Michael Douglas, Harrison Ford, Clint Eastwood, Meryl Streep, Johnny Depp, Morgan Freeman, Tom Cruise. You could go on and on.

Basically, this town is all about film, horses and upscale looks tourism.

Not necessarily the first place that you might think to live, which is why I think of it as more of a hub rather than a place you would actually live.

Trouville: A Livable City in Normandy

Trouville, right across the river Trouville-sur-Mer. If you want to get technical about it, is actually a little bit more of a livable city or feels more like a livable area.

It’s got this more bohemian, it’s more of a traditional counterpart, less Parisian, more locally authentic. It’s known for the working fishing port, exceptional seafood market, the classic Normand beach culture and a really long history as an artist and writers retreat.

So, the atmosphere is much more relaxed here, a little bit more authentic, down-to-earth. It’s got these lively fish restaurants and seaside promenades that are less star-studded.

Together, though they are this regional powerhouse, Deauville has the high end entertainment, the festivals, the international prestige, Trouville has, the maritime culture, gastronomy and the everyday kind of coastal life.

The pair, together though, are uniquely rich in both luxury and authenticity for this region. And it offers a pretty amazing cosmopolitan culture for the region. So, if that’s what you’re going for, you can have it on the North Coast. You don’t have to seek it out, only in Paris.

So, Deauville was only about an hour from Luc-sur-Mer, where I was based. And it was a fantastic day trip for us and for many of these little beach villages. It would be a quick little day trip. Maybe you could spend a little weekend there, get a place on the beach. And it’s classic.

They call the Deauville beach the quintessential Normandy beach. Unless you’re talking about Omaha Beach, you’re talking about the Deauville beach.

It’s famous for the way that they wrap their parasols. Famous for the people that go there. Definitely a place where you could be sitting on the boardwalk and see somebody famous walk by and not even know it.

So, Luc-sur-Mer, where I was based, isn’t really a market town. It’s not at all a market town, in fact. You’ll see a few tables set up, a few food trucks come in, they pop up on the weekends, especially in good weather, less so in the winter.

While we were there, for example, one of the weekend days that we were in this town, we passed a local fisherman who had just set up a little pop table, and he was selling his catch of the day, you know, so he had a few different crates.

By the time we got there, it was lunchtime already, and he only had a couple of fish left, so he must have been selling, you know, all morning. And I’m sure he was there much earlier than we were even a week. And it was fantastic.

So, I stopped to talk to him. We didn’t end up buying a fish from him because we didn’t have time to get it back to the house in the refrigerator before we had to go do another thing.

So, the problem with fresh, fresh fish, you need to make sure that it gets into the fridge fast or cooked fast. But I did consider it. We really wanted to try grilling a fish. And so, I asked him how we do that, I’ve never grilled a fish before.

And these are whole fish. So, I said, well, what do we even do? We just, like, throw it on the barbecue. And he said, no, I will descale it and I will take out all the innards. You’ll be left with, you know, kind of the husk, that you see, you know, hanging by a thread. Where you, you can see all the insides and everything else has been taken out.

And he said, so, you’ll end up with just a couple of fins, I’m trying to illustrate. There were two fins on the back and one on the bottom. And he said, when I give it to you, those fins will still be there. And once you cook it, you can pretty much just pull those out and it’ll pull out large parts of the bone.

He showed us how to cut it. He said, basically all you have to do is throw it in some foil. There are some garlic shallots in there. Whatever you want. And leave it on the barbecue for it depends on how big the fish was. But for a few minutes basically.

So, kind of been a great dinner and we were excited for it, but we didn’t have time.

Across from that guy was a little Moroccan food truck.

And you’ll see these little food trucks popping up all over in villages. They might have sandwiches, pizzas, salads. Many of them are Moroccan, or Asian, and some kinds that might be, Indonesian food, Vietnamese food, Thai food, whatever it is.

It’s just, you know, some immigrant who’s living there and decided they could, you know, make a good living selling the food that they had from back home. So, these are really authentic dishes.

In fact, I’ve been to some of these food carts here in Paris where I’m eating something from Vietnam that I’ve, you know, I’ve been to many Vietnamese restaurants, but I’ve never had this on a menu.

And I have to ask the person, what is this? You know, can you explain to me what this recipe is, so really fantastic way to explore international food as well is these little food trucks.

What the Weekends Look Like

So, on weekends, these villages really come to life. They turn into completely different versions of themselves. The gift shops are open. The restaurants are open. There are people everywhere. It actually felt quite crowded moving through the little pedestrianized streets.

And almost all of the other shops are closed for most of the rest of the week. So, you know, a few of them will open for a few mornings, a few will open for a few afternoons. But Saturday and Sunday are the only time when they are all open all day long. So, it really gives a different vibe.

It’s a really fun little village to go shopping in for some cute little things.

But the social hub of it all, which was a little surprising to me, at least weather permitting, is the mini golf course.

So, I saw this little mini golf course. And to be fair, France actually does have many of them. But if you’re from America and you know what Mini golf is there. When you come here, you think it may as well just be some kid in a backyard who put some tin cups in the ground randomly throughout the backyard.

But that’s kind of what it is in many places. So, I don’t have high hopes when I see a mini golf course here in Europe usually.

This one was no different. It’s not like there’s animatronic, you know, opening closing mouths or, you know, swinging back and forth thing. Nothing that elaborate, but you know, it had some, a cute little course, it had some statues, some fun little elements to it.

All very nautical themed. My girls loved it. We went several times because, again, this is basically the hub of entertainment in this little village.

So, we would go to the main park, with the animals in it. We go to another little park with a climbing structure shaped like a blue whale, and we would go mini golfing. And that was pretty much what life was in this town, which was great, I loved it.

Oh, and then walking on the beach to collect shells. If you weren’t too cold to do it.

But what was shocking to me was that the mini golf place had a little restaurant attached and we started to notice this all throughout the region.

There were many mini golf courses in all of these little villages on the seaside, and all of them would have Le Terrace mini golf. So, basically, the terraces of mini golf or the restaurant, the mini golf restaurant.

In my head, I think a mini golf restaurant. Okay. Some hot dogs, maybe some fries, you know, some ice creams. You don’t expect it to be a sit-down eatery, but in fact, in almost every case, the mini golf restaurant is one of the best restaurants in town.

And I do wonder if they go hand in hand. You know, most people are families that want to go to a little family event. You also want to have a nice meal. So, which came first, the golf course or the nice restaurant? I feel like it could go either way.

But it was fantastic. Because you can sit on the terraces and have a really nice, amazingly delicious meal, upscale meal, and the kids can play mini golf, or you can play mini golf and have your lunch, or you can have your lunch and play mini golf or dinner or whatever. So, very nice.

One afternoon the restaurant wasn’t open, but the guy was nice enough to give me a couple glasses of wine as I played with my daughters one afternoon. So, it’s very endearing, very charming little social hub. Especially when you’re a family like I am right now.

What Surprised Me About Luc-sur-Mer

So, as I’ve said now, I can’t believe how lucky we got in ending up in Luc-sur-Mer, because you’d never know from looking at a map just how different it is to the other very similarly named villages.

They’re all sur-Mer. They’re all right on the sea, you know, they seem to all have the same amenities. They all seem to be the same size. And again, looking at a map, you’d never know the difference.

But none of the others that we visited, I mean, and there were about a dozen that we either drove through or spent some time in. None of them had any kind of commercial or social center the way that this one did, unless it was a larger town.

And they all seem much sleepier, even on weekends. And as I say, you’d have to drive, really, from one to the others. Our village really seemed like the only one where you would walk from one thing to another.

And again, looking at the map before we made this booking, we looked at a map and we thought, oh, okay, there’s a bakery there, there’s a butcher there, there’s a grocery store there within a certain proximity to our home.

But in all of those other villages, when I actually went to that village in person and saw how it was laid out, it wasn’t even like there was a sidewalk in some cases, you know, you just had to get in your car to go down the street. And distances were much longer than they seemed.

So, I’m used to seeing a distance on a map and thinking at the time, and it walk. What seemed like a ten-minute walk was usually a 45-minute walk in my head. So, distances get much larger out here.

You know, I’m used to living in Paris, which is a fairly small city. My point is that it is hard to know any place just by a map. And as much research as you do, as many reviews as you read, you’re never going to really know until you’re there.

And sometimes it is a crapshoot. It’s a luck of the draw. As I say, we threw a dart at a map. We liked the house. It had everything we wanted. We took it.

We could have easily ended up in any other town or in Deauville. We looked at going to Deauville itself.

And who knows how different the experience would have been. I’m sure we would have found things to love and also things to compare more negatively.

So, it’s an argument for making sure that you never judge a book by its cover. Don’t judge a place by a map. Make sure you actually go and experience a place for yourself before you make up any, any decision about it.

The Cideries in Normandy

So, one of the main touristy things to do in this region other than the World War Two sites is to visit cideries and apple farms.

This is big Apple country. So, the cidery’s, if you’re not familiar, these are the farms where they grow apples and turn them into cider.

And there are other apple products too, like vinegar, Apple cider vinegar, calaveras, which I’ll talk about in a second. Apple jellies, apple butters, apple juice, apple. You know, countless kinds of apple products that you can buy in the shops that these little farms have.

So, Calvados, if you’ve never heard of it, I recommend it. Go to a nice liquor store and see if you can find a bottle of it.

Because, it is the namesake liquor of the region. And it’s basically a sophisticated brandy. It’s made from distilled cider, so it’s quite potent, and it is served generally after meals as a digestive.

So, you’ll have, you know, just a little, a little cup of it after your meal. And it’s yummy stuff. It goes down quite nicely. It’s a bit sweeter than you usually expect the digestive to be. But not in a cloying way.

The farms are great for both adults and kids. They get to run around, climb walls, jump off hay bales, pick wildflowers, whatever it is they want to do.

And many of them actually do have amenities for kids. Like a little playground, a swing set, at the very least. And kids are very welcome and embraced.

And then the adults, you get to learn about the process and taste the product at the end. So, I highly recommend this as a family activity.

And if you’re living in this region, this is just one of the things you would do annually. You would go maybe for harvest season or for distilling season. And you might even try your own hand at growing some apples in this region, because the apple trees are easy to grow here, and it might be fun to just pick a few of your own apples every year. Maybe press it. Maybe you don’t.

It’s a fun thing that many expats get into, whether it is that they have olive trees, orange trees, grapevines, whatever it may be, they really get into, I’ve known so many expats who really get into small-scale farming, you know, just a hobby farm kind of thing in their new home based on whatever the local produce is.

The Horses in Normandy

This is also a major horse country. I have mentioned how Deauville is very famous for its horses, but in fact this is one of the most important horse breeding and equestrian regions in the entire world.

Thanks to a unique mix of climate, land and a long-standing cultural investment in horses, this is ground zero for horses in France especially, and in Europe and globally.

So, if you’re looking for a thoroughbred, some guy in Dubai might be buying one from Normandy. You know, that’s how good they are.

So, I actually found a fun fact about horses because I was thinking jokingly to myself, there are more horses than humans in this part of the country, and I knew there would be stables within 20 minutes of the rental house.

But within five minutes of anywhere, there will definitely be at least one stable open to the public. So, within ten minutes of our house, there were no less than four stables.

Where my daughter did take lessons or go on rides. And within an hour there would have been far too many to count.

So, I found it very funny when I was reading their little tourist magazine and it actually says: “Fun fact there is a stud farm every four square kilometers in Calvados. That’s 42,500 horses.”

So, you’ll see some horses and stables are everywhere to be had around here, and I really recommend it. It’s, really, really fun way to get to know the culture.

Bottom line, the number of stables to population density here is shocking. And, if you’re into horses, this is a good place to come.

If horses aren’t your thing, the countryside here is remarkably flat and lends itself beautifully to biking and walking and hiking as well.

Things to Do in Normandy

So, I really recommend grab a bike and set off and explore this land whenever and however you feel like it, and the region is well prepared for it.

Drivers are very tolerant of bikers, very patient with bikers. You’ll see them everywhere in big groups and small groups in families with, you know, little ones and trailing along like ducklings.

And there’s even an app to find bike trails and to learn about the biking amenities and things in the region. So, biking culture is huge here, and it’s a great place to practice it with the flat land and the really beautiful climate that’s not too hot when you’re biking.

The Pace of Life in Normandy

And the pace of life here, I think I’ve painted a picture already that as in most places in Europe, that isn’t a capital city, it’s very slow.

Things move slowly here. And even though I’m fairly accustomed to the village pace of life, here, it even seem like a new standard of slow.

Eating in a restaurant will take well over an hour, if you’re lucky. You should really budget for two hours. Plan accordingly. You’re not going to get in and out in less than an hour for sure.

I went one day and had a dwindling hour for lunch before we had to go to an appointment, and once we did a little tour and realized we only now had 45 minutes, we had to just go back home and buy sandwiches at the grocery store, because there was no way we were going to, sit down, order, get our food and pay, before we had to leave.

And when driving home after a day trip, we encountered a little back up on our street, we were kind of shocked. We had rarely ever seen two cars drive by consecutively, the whole visit that we were there.

And so, we were wondering, what is this back up? Well, it wasn’t due to a car or many cars. It was due to a mobility scooter.

And the sidewalks, I guess, were too narrow. Or maybe there was a little bump in the road. She couldn’t get by, but no one minds if a mobility scooter just takes over the roadways.

I saw people driving golf carts and ATVs in the road here as well. So, you know, these are small roads, country highways, and tolerant drivers.

But anyway, back to this lady with her full grocery bag on the back of her vehicle. She was obviously coming home from her weekend shopping, and as soon as she was able to, she realized we were behind her. She pulled over to the side to let us pass.

So, it’s all very genteel and very polite, but that’s the pace of life.

And in one of the cafes that we visited for lunch, I thought this illustration summed it up pretty nicely. It basically translates to, well, it literally translates to “I’ll just give you a quick five minutes and I’ll be back in 15”

As in, take your time reading the menu. I’ll be back when I’m back. You know, in the U.S. they might say, I’ll give you guys a couple minutes to look it over, you know, and I’ll be right back.

And they do come back within two, three, five minutes.

These guys are pretty much saying, we’ll tell you, we’ll be back in five, but don’t count on it and take that in stride, you know? So, you have to learn to accept the pace of life in the place that you’re living.

The Downsides of Normandy

And when it comes to downsides, I would say the pace of life might qualify for some people and the climate as definitely in the number one, it’s not for everyone.

In fact, it’s probably my personally, my least favorite weather ever. It’s windy. It’s usually a little rainy.

And it’s chilly. It’s cold in the winter and chilly all summer long.

My husband, on the other hand, just to illustrate, he loves that weather. We were there in April. You know, April is not a warm month in many parts of the world.

And it was quite cold up there at certain times, quite warm at others, but quite cold in others, as April tends to be.

But he absolutely loved those bracing winds and that sheet of rain in his face, and that, you know, brisk weather and I for myself, I just couldn’t stand it. I thought I was in hell.

I had so many layers on that first night. We got there and I felt like I was getting a freeze. Then we learned how to turn the house heating on and it was all a little bit better.

But, I mean, this sea breeze here, it’s more of a sea gale. Especially if you’re in, like, a little wind tunnel, a little street that really catches it. You will feel like the wind is dictating where you are moving because you cannot move against it.

So, it is a funny thing if you like wind, if you like brisk seaside weather, then this is the place for you.

Tourist shops capitalize on this unique climate with funny little graphics. For example, I couldn’t help taking a couple of photos. This is what the region looks like from Google Earth. Just a bunch of umbrellas because it’s raining all the time and they joke that even if the weather isn’t perfect, they still spend all the time that they can outdoors grilling, even if they have to do it from underneath an umbrella.

There is something. I lived in Ireland for seven years, and there’s something to that Irish or British spirit of, well, you can’t let the weather get in the way because then you’ll never do anything.

You know, there’s that kind of a spirit here.

And the flip side of that is that it’s also a climate that tends to keep pests at bay.

So, they like to brag here that there are no natural dangers in Normandy. No sharks, no mosquitoes, no snakes, no alligators.

I don’t know anywhere in Europe that has alligators, but maybe there is a place.

Pros of Normandy for Retirees

Normandy, though in all, it brings together a slower pace of life with easy access to culture, coastline, and history, with lots of connections to Paris and the rest of Europe.

So, from places like Deauville and the nearby towns like little Luc-sur-Mer, where I was, you get your beaches, your markets, a strong cafe and food culture, satisfying outdoorsy, rural lifestyle, plus all of those direct rail and air links that make life easy.

For an American expat or a retiree, the appeal here is the balance.

So, there’s much lower stress in daily life because you’re not living in a major city and the pace is naturally slower. You’ve still got great access to health care. France has some of the best health care in the world.

These towns are walkable, the countryside is flat. So, it’s very easy to walk in these towns or to bike from town to town.

And the social rhythm here that really is built around local life, the markets, the tides, then just being in constant motion or following business hours, you know. So, that’s the beauty of this kind of a life.