France Guide
Normandy
St-Lô
The city of ST-LÔ, 60km south of Cherbourg and 36km southwest of Bayeux, is still known as the "Capital of the Ruins". Memorial sites are everywhere and what is new speaks as tellingly of the destruction as the ruins that have been preserved. In the main square, the gate of the old prison commemorates Resistance members executed by the Nazis, people deported east to the concentration camps and soldiers killed in action. When the bombardment of St-Lô was at its fiercest, the Germans refused to take any measures to protect the prisoners and the gate was all that survived. Samuel Beckett was here during and after the battle, working for the Irish Red Cross as interpreter, driver and provision-seeker – for such things as rat poison for the maternity hospitals.
All the trees in the city are the same height, planted to replace the battle's mutilated stumps. But the most visible – and brilliant – reconstruction is the Cathédrale de Notre-Dame. Its main body, with a strange southward-veering nave, has been conventionally repaired and rebuilt. But the shattered west front and the base of the collapsed north tower have been joined by a startling sheer wall of icy green stone that makes no attempt to mask the destruction.
By way of contrast, a lighthouse-like 1950s folly spirals to nowhere on the main square. Should you feel the urge, you can climb its staircase and make your way into the new and even more pointless labyrinth of glass at its feet for a €1.50 admission fee. More compelling is the Musée des Beaux-Arts (Wed– Sun 10am– noon & 2–6pm; €2), behind the Mairie, which is full of treasures: a Boudin sunset; a Lurçat tapestry of his dog, Nadir and the Pirates; works by Corot, van Loo, Moreau; a Léger watercolour; a fine series of unfaded sixteenth-century Flemish tapestries on the lives of two peasants; and sad bombardment relics of the town.
Most of the hotels, restaurants and bars are across the river, near the gare SNCF. Overlooking the river from the brow of a ridge beside the station, the upmarket Hôtel des Voyageurs, 5–7 avenue Briovère ( 
02.33.05.08.63; Price: €66-80) is home to the Tocqueville, which has menus from €19. If you'd rather be up in town, La Crémaillère, at 8 rue de la Chancellerie ( 02.33.57.14.68; Price: €41-50; closed Fri evening & Sat in low season), has a good restaurant with menus starting at €9.50 for lunch and €12.50 for dinner.