La Verdoyante : de Falaise à Pont-D'Ouilly

Paris between 1920 and 1950, as soon as December comes, crowds gather and line up outside the window of the big department Stores. With their noses pressed against the windows, children and parents look in all directions. Passers-by are fascinated by dozens of automatons. At Automates Avenue, visitors can travel in time and in space, dream with these fabulous window-actors and see a fairyland of past times coming back to life. The streets of Paris have been revived for 300 Automatons featured in 16 large animated original window stores coming back into action, as they once did, in an extraordinary setting.

Andre Lemaitre (1909-1995) was born in Falaise. Inspired by nature, this painter in the great French tradition, produced some 4,000 paintings mostly of the Normandy countryside between Falaise and Honfleur. Andre Lemaitre: a traditional painter This museum, dedicated to him in his native town, contains around 90 of his works and reflects his life and art in all its diversity. All four major periods of his work are represented in the museum.

The Battle of Normandy started on D Day - 6 June 1944 - lasted 3 months and put 2 million soldiers in a corner of France that had about a million inhabitants. 150,000 Normans had to evacuate their homes, with an estimated 20,000 killed, mainly as a result of the bombardments. The Falaise area paid its price. The dreadful fighting in the Falaise-Chamois Pocket which marked the end of the Battle of Normandy and the beginning to the rout of the German army, is remembered as among of the most bloody of the war. The Second World war marked a turning point with 30million combatants and 35 million civilians killed: for the first time in the history of modern warfare the civilian dead were more than those of the military. The acknowledgement of the military sacrifice and the need for rapid post war reconstruction, meant the fate of the civilian population was largely forgotten. But now, to remember and pay homage to these millions of civilians, the local government organisations of Falaise and its surrounding countryside, have joined forces to create a memorial to civilian life in the war. Set in the heart of Falaise, next to William the Conqueror’s castle, in one of the major buildings of the first stage of Falaise’s postwar reconstruction, this new museum tells the story of civilian life in the Second World War. The painstaking reconstructions, put together by the Caen Memorial, are put into context by the memories of those who lived through it all.

Come and experience history at first hand. Discover the castle in virtual reality with the aid of a touchscreen tablet. Falaise Castle is a solid stone fortress dating from around 1000. Built by the first Dukes of Normandy, it was enlarged after the conquest of England in 1066. In the12th century, William’s descendants built two square, typically anglo-norman, keeps using the foundations of the original castle. These buildings show the Dukes of Normandy at the height of their powers. They are most sophisticated of the Royal Dukes’ palace/keeps and best preserved of their fortresses in France. The virtual reconstruction breathes life into the palace, taking you back to the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries. You go back to two different eras with the two circuits: The outside circuit shows you the first fortified enclosure and the daily life in the basse-cour (lower town) in the 12th century. You go inside for the real immersion in the history of the castle. Through your touchscreen tablet, the rooms of the keep appear before you as they would have been in the 13th century. You are plunged straight into the splendour of the Anglo-Norman court - how the people lived in the castle, how their lives were organised, what they all did as part of the daily life of a fortified castle. Images of the people who once lived here appear to tell you their stories with the sounds that accompanied their lives.

Chapelle Saint-Vigor: the apple-blossom chapel A true work of art Nestled in a rural setting, in complete harmony with the surrounding farms, a Chapel to St Vigor has been on this site since the thirteenth century. The current building, built for Guillaume de Vanembras, dates back to the 15th century with some later additions and changes. The Vanembras family were buried in the nave of the chapel until 1737, where some inscriptions are still visible. The chapel fell into ruin and was finally closed to the public in 1983. The Japanese artist, Kyoji Takubo, first visited in 1987 and fell under its spell. He decided to create an art work from it. Work started in 1992 with the aid of Japanese and French sponsors. The first thing restored were the roof timbers, followed by the main roof with the creation of the tiling which mixes old roof tiles with rainbow coloured glass tiles. The floor was relaid in steel and the walls covered in sheet lead on which the artists applied layers of different colour paint, finally on the last white layer he added the branches of apple trees. He then cut through the layers of paint to bring out the different colours of Normandy apple blossom.

In the heart of the preserved natural and undulating countryside of the Suisse Normande area, we invite you to discover the pleasure of outdoor sport. For schools, leisure associations, medico-social establishments or works councils, the Pont d’Ouilly outdoor leisure base proposes a vast range of sport and leisure activities: canoeing-kayaking, stand-up paddle, archery, orienteering, climbing, treetop adventure, fishing, environmental education, themed walks, geocoaching and a touring holidays for teenagers. Within an exceptional environment, the leisure base also proposes group accommodation adpated to suit your needs and your budget: two group rentals with a sleeping capacity of 30 and 36, together with a campsite with a capacity of 250. All accommodation is available on a simple rental or half-board basis. For private individuals, Pont d’Ouilly Loisirs also proposes canoeing-kayaking on the river - one or two hours on site or a 5 to 13km river tour from Pont d'Ouilly to Clécy. You will also find the Orne Aventure treetop adventure park at La Roche d'Oëtre.