Hi all. I'm on vacation in Normandy, France. I'm in a little place called Isigny sur Mer, which is about 20 minutes from Bayeux (right next to Omaha beach). I'm wondering if there are any onteresting things here to see with regards to the middle ages? I have already seen the Bayeux tapestry a couple of times. Also, on the way home I plan to stop a Crecy and visit the battlefield and museum (it's right on my way home). But I am wondering if there are any other interesting sights to see or places to visit. There is a *lot* here about WWII of course but I have seen all that already (I've been here may times before). My main interest is 11th-13th century, but anything up to the 16th century or related to the Knights Hospitaller / Knights of Malta would be interesting!

Thanks in advance!

Le Mont Saint Michel is an absolute must see, less than 2 hour drive from Isigny sur Mer.
I recommend going late in the afternoon, in order to hang around by night in the medieval city when it's empty and possibly in the Abbey itself (they use to open the Abbey to the public at night a while ago, along with medieval music performances).
The all place is simply breathtaking.

Cheers,

Julien

You must see Chateau Gaillard in Les-Petits Andelys, Richard the Lionheart's staggeringly expensive castle.

Take pictures and share them with us poor souls stuck on this side of the pond. ;)

St Valery-sur-Somme, is the village where William the Bastard assembled his fleet before invading England. It's a charming village, (not much dating from the Norman times but very nice.) and the Bay of the Somme Estuary is stunning.

Rouen is also worth a visit.

Thanks all. I will be visiting Mt St Michel. I also found that Paris is just 2 hours by train, so I will be visiting the Cluny museum and see the sword exhibit, which ends the 26th. I'm afraid the rest is too far away. Although St Vallery-sur-Somme is close to Crecy, I don't have time for it. I can only afford a 2-3 hour stop when I pass through on my return journey, so I prefer Crecy instead.

As promised, here are the pictures! I went to Mt. Saint Michel and the Cluny museum. On the way home I stopped in Crecy. But because the Crecy municipal museum was closed we took the scenic route to Agincourt and went to the museum (and battlefield) there.

http://gallery.jejik.com/

Apologies in advance if the pictures are a bit slow to load. They are hosted from my home server instead of my server in Amsterdam. Some of the pictures might also be a bit fuzzy. I didn't filter those out yet but just uploaded everything.

ok ill go ahead and say it ,
things to do in normandy, dunno about you, but MY to do list involves assembling a fleet taking the english crown with a great host of maile clad knights...
*wispers off stage* what do you mean thats already been done..

I hope you managed to get to Falais castle, The Bastard's birthplace?

@ William P: It's been done so many times, one more time wouldn't hurt anyone (although probably not litterally).

I have tried to get a group of people together to try it, but they just thought I was insane (I am not, just a little crazy every now and then) :-( . But if you want to try, we'll be happy to join you! (I'll probably be holding the camera)

@ Matthew Bunker: I suggested to go there a couple of years ago, but Sander was still stuck in the wrong period of history: WWII. Now he does want to go....while we're back in the Netherlands...