Camping Les Petits Champs

For town and village hopping as well as sourcing those patisseries and local vino supplies, get along to Gacé five minutes' drive away; teeny Norman commune Chaumont within 10 minutes' drive for hiking on the marked trails around the village, and to Camembert (20 minutes) – oui, for the cheese. A drive of 40 minutes' south will land you at Alençon, the capital of the Orne department, once the seat of the dukes of Normandy, and famed for its lace for centuries. Learn the full ornate tale and peer at the world's biggest collection of needle lace at Alençon's museum of fine art and lacework (Musée des Beaux-Arts et de la Dentelle), where you can also pore over pics from the 17th to 19th centuries by the likes of de Champaigne and Courbet. Bookworms should also like a browse around the town library in the old Jesuit college, which holds over a hundred medieval manuscripts, and all types should make a strenuous effort to get along to the lively Alençon market, held on Thursdays and Saturdays at Place de la Magdeleine.