Sentier Nature de Caen - Objectif Fraîcheur

Founded around 1060 by Matilda, wife of William the Conqueror, this abbey for Benedictine nuns enjoyed great renown from the 11th century to the French Revolution. Its abbey church - the Holy Trinity church. Its 18th century convent buildings are now home to the Lower Normandy Regional Council. Guided tours every day at 2.30 p.m. and 4 p.m. Visits in both French and English - 1 hour 15 minutes.

‘Le Petit Lourdes’ (Little Lourdes) is a Marian sanctuary built from 1879 to 1885 in the town of Hérouville-Saint-Clair. This Normandy version is an exact replica two thirds the size of Lourdes. It was built upon the wishes of Monsieur Duboscq in 1878. This inhabitant of Rouen had the sanctuary built after his wife was miraculously healed in the Marian city of Lourdes in the Hautes-Pyrénées. His idea was to offer all fellow Normans passing by Hérouville-Saint-Clair a pilgrimage site. It enabled those who could not make the journey as far as the Pyrenees Mountains to come and contemplate the sanctuary.

Founded in 1432, the University of Caen was first set up in rue des Cordeliers, at the bedside of the old Saint-Sauveur church, on the present site of Camille Blaisot Square. It was destroyed by a bombing in July 1944, which caused it to burn down Rebuilt from 1948 onwards under the impetus of Rector Pierre Daure, it was inaugurated in 1957. Today, Campus I is listed as a historical monument. It also has a remarkable artistic heritage with works by Yvonne Guégan, Charles-Emile Pinson, Jacques Pasquier, Raymond Subes .... Louis Leygue's sculpture, the Phoenix, marks the entrance to the campus and symbolizes the rebirth of the institution and, more generally, of the city. He created this work at the request of Henry Bernard. It measures 7.80 m high, 2.80 m wide and 1.70 m deep. Today, the University of Caen welcomes nearly 30,000 students spread across its various campuses, and the city is the seat of the largest student carnival in Europe.

Inspired by André Le Nôtre and inaugurated in September 1992, the Abbaye aux Dames park is dedicated to Michel d'Ornano, President of the Basse-Normandie Regional Council from 1983 to 1986. With its wide lawns and linden-tree lanes, this 'French-style' park offers over 5 hectares of places to walk and a breathtaking view over the city of Caen from the Cedar of Lebanon, planted in 1849. There are children's games and picnic tables at the back of the park.

The manor was originally known as "Manoir de la Talbotière", after a piece of land that belonged to Alexandre de Couvre-chef, Seigneur de Cresserons, at the end of the 13th century. He built his first manor house there, called "des Talbotières". In 1436, it fell to Jean de Couvrechef, married to Perrette Bertran, who gave him a daughter, Guillemine. In 1487, he gave the land and manor as a dowry to his daughter on her marriage to Philippe de Nollent, lord of Saint-Contest and King's lawyer in Caen. Their son Gérard inherited the estate and had a new manor house built. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the manor was used for agricultural purposes, and a farm was built on the site of the semi-circular wall of the walled garden. In the 1930s, the manor housed a cider mill. Following the liberation of Caen, an emergency housing complex of wooden barracks, intended to shelter some 50 homeless families, was temporarily set up in the immediate vicinity of the manor, in the farm's orchard. In the 1970s, these emergency housing units were replaced by apartment buildings at the rear of the manor.