• France Guide

  • Introduction to France
  • Weather
  • Things not to miss
  • Getting around
  • Entry requirements
  • Money
  • Public holidays

• Explore France

  • The north
  • Alsace and Lorraine
  • Normandy
  • Brittany
  • The Loire
  • Burgundy
  • Poitou-Charentes and the Atlantic coast
  • The Limousin, Dordogne and Lot
  • The Pyrenees
  • Languedoc
  • The Massif Central
  • The Alps and Franche-Comté
  • The Rhône valley
  • Provence
  • The Côte d'Azur
  • Corsica

• Cities

  • Aix-en-Provence
    
  • Ajaccio (Aiacciu)
    
  • Angoulême
    
  • Avignon
    
  • Bayonne (Baïona)
    
  • Bordeaux
    
  • Caen
    
  • Cannes
    
  • Clermont-Ferrand
    
  • Dijon
    
  • Grenoble
    
  • Lille
    
  • Limoges
    
  • Lyon
    
  • Marseille
    
  • Montpellier
    
  • Mulhouse
    
  • Nîmes
    
  • Nancy
    
  • Nantes
    
  • Nice
    
  • Orléans
    
  • Paris
    
  • Perpignan
    
  • Rennes
    
  • Rouen
    
  • Strasbourg
    
  • Toulouse
    
  • Tours
    

France Guide

Normandy

Cherbourg

• Hotels
• Hostel and campsite
• Eating

If you are arriving from Britain or Ireland, CHERBOURG may well be your port of arrival. Many people head straight out and on, yet the town offers a busy network of pedestrian streets lined with appealing stone facades, the labyrinth of alleyways known as boëls, some lively bars, and an impressive maritime museum in a converted Art Deco station. Napoleon inaugurated the transformation of what had been a rather poor, but perfectly situated, natural harbour into a major transatlantic port, by means of massive artificial breakwaters. An equestrian statue commemorates his boast that in Cherbourg he would "re-create the wonders of Egypt"; although there are as yet no pyramids nearer than the Louvre, he succeeded in providing the city with one of the biggest fortified harbours in the world.