La Verdoyante - Cycle/walking path from Morteaux-Couliboeuf to Falaise

The Mesnil-Soleil hillside is located in the commune of Damblainville. It is part of the Monts d'Eraines and forms their southern boundary. Its highest point is 156 m, with a vertical drop of 50 m. A subsoil composed of calcareous sedimentary rock, a southerly exposure responsible for a pronounced thermal amplitude and a steep topography explain the presence on the slopes of vegetation that is unique in Basse-Normandie. This flora is responsible for the development of a whole range of flora and fauna characteristic of hot, dry grasslands. Very rare plants can be found, some of which only exist in Basse-Normandie (Coronille minime) or even in the whole of north-western France (Brunelle à grandes fleurs). Orchids abound, as do many other plants characteristic of these environments. Many insects depend on a particular plant species to feed or reproduce. This explains the presence of over 200 species of butterfly. Access is from the Falaise airfield parking lot in Damblainville. Walkers are asked to stay on the signposted path, which crosses the reserve for 800 metres.

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.

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.