Showing posts with label normandy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label normandy. Show all posts

18 September 2025

Throwback Thursday


 

 
The call of the sea.
 
 Above: evening and night walks in serene coastal villages

Below: sunsets and silhouettes

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Brittany / Normandy / Poitou-Charentes
 3 hours (or less) from Paris

 

 

There’s nothing quite like trading Paris' crowded boulevards for a few days of a rejuvenating seaside escapade. As autumn’s crisp embrace settles over the city, the call of the sea and windswept freedom of France's enchanting North Atlantic seashores beckon. Temperatures dip to invigorating levels. Coastlines unfold rugged cliffs kissed by frothy waves, quaint harbors glow under Golden Hour light, and beaches stretch toward the horizon.

 Unlike those once secret coastal destinations that have become overrun by post-Covid throngs emboldened by Instagram selfies, there are still retreats that remain unspoiled by the clamor of travel influencers in designer flip-flops and cheeseburger-seeking TikTokers waiting to be discovered.

There’s a special alchemy in joining locals gathering at sunset over apéros and oysters and watching the sky change from lavender to amber. These moments, steeped in laughter and the warmth of shared stories, are what pull us back again and again. - BPJ  

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Main points of arrival by train from Paris (+ car rental upon arrival) for quicker seaside village access:

 Brittany
Saint-Malo and Brest for their respective coastal regions (north-east and west)
Farther: Rennes

Normandy
Caen and Le Havre generally faster to access most seaside villages due to their proximity to the coast
Farther: Rouen

Poitou-Charentes / renamed Nouvelle-Aquitaine
La Rochelle for quick seaside village access due to its coastal proximity
Farther: Rochefort, Poitiers, Niort
 
 

1 June 2021

Camembert culture


 
 There's Camembert and there's Camembert.

June newsletter

27 April 2017

Day trip: At home with Monet #1


On the occasion of the publication of Un Jour avec Claude Monet à Giverny by Adrien Goetz (Flammarion), I was invited on a press trip to what was once Claude Monet's home in Giverny, complete with a private lunch arranged for us in the Impressionist painter's former atelier.

Above: photos don't do justice to the gardens at Giverny, a pleasant hour and a half drive from Paris