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Hotel Class: 
2 Stars - 3 Opinions
ZAC de la Vallee Barrey, Mondeville, Basse-Normandie, 14120, France
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of people enjoy staying here
3 Opinions
From the castle
The Carving of a Capital
The Bishops' Clock
Memorial de Caen, the peace museum
Hi there,
I will be driving from Calais to Rennes for my holidays and am looking for somewhere to stop off in the Caen area. We'd like a place that's easily accessible from the A13 / A84 where we can stop off and eat early evening, perhaps with some nice scenery or culture to take in. Any suggestions very much appreciated as we do not know the area at all!
Thanks
Jenni
Thanks, I'll check it out!
I'm also a great fan of Bayeux however it is pretty far north of your travel route. You could pop up to either Deauville or Cabourg more easily. They aren't as historic, of course, but they are on the sea and you can walk the beaches and enjoy the resort atmosphere. Cabourg has the Grand Hotel right on the beach and it is spectacular, including the tea room. It would make for a great dinner.
Obviously, Deauville with the casino would have more in the way of night life and possibly more to do in the evening.
If you just want to relax and take in a bit of culture, I'd recommend Cabourg.
Type all these places into the VT Search Window and see the photos that have been posted and read the Tips to see what catches your fancy. If you don't mind the extra travel and extra time, Bayeux is an excellent suggestion but if I were on the A13, I'd save Bayeux for a future trip when I could take the time to really explore it.
Whatever you choose, have a great trip.
Thanks for all the really helpful replies! We actually have a slight change of plan which means we may want to stop earlier as we need to swap a driver between cars. I'm thinking somewhere between Abbeville and Neufchatel-en-Bray on the A28 would be ideal. Any ideas around there?
Also as I am unfamiliar with French roads in general it would be great to know about the general accessibility of service stations on the toll roads. Are there lots of them and how might we easily identify a service station in advance if we chose just to meet at one of those?
Many thanks again,
Jenni
If you have a Michelin map or road atlas, look along the AutoRoutes and you will see at intervals small half circles on either side of the road. There are green ones with picnic tables in them; blue ones with gas pumps in them as icons to identify services available.
On the other main highways, the fuel icons are in small blue boxes on the map.
Obviously, there are other stops available, but the map gives you a good idea of what to expect.
Enjoy your trip.
Thanks everyone for your very useful replies! Feeling much better informed about it all now :) Jenni
Just next to the Abbaye des Hommes, another monumental large mansion requests your attention. This is the Mairie or Hotel de Ville (cityhall) of Caen. In it - for us tourists - a very important place: the tourist office. Here they can tell you everything about Caen and what events there might be of your interest. The building belonged to the Abbey and functioned as the appartment complex for the monchs.
Caen has about a dozen medieval churches. A couple (such as Saint-Sauveur le Vieux shown here) are little more than stark shells, showing the price of the city's liberation from the Nazis.
Others have been lovingly restored to their former glory, such as flamboyant St-Pierre directly in front of the Ducal Chateau which is probably the most decorative church in town.
The tomb of William the Conqueror of 1066 fame is located in the Abbeye aux Hommes. William the Conqueror died early on the morning of September 9, 1087 in Rouen. Gesta Regum Anglorum states that William, his stomach protruding over the forward part of his saddle, was injured when he was thrown against the pommel and his internal organs ruptured. He was fifty-nine years old and had ruled England for twenty-one years and Normandy for thirty-one more. In accordance with his wishes, he was buried in Saint-Etienne Abbey Church in the Abbaye-aux-Hommes.
Then something macabre happened. The monk of Caen writes that William was "great in body and strong, tall in stature but not ungainly." When it came time to bury the heavy body, it was discovered that the stone sarcophagus had been made too short. There was an attempt to force the corpse and, says Orderic, "the swollen bowels burst, and an intolerable stench assailed the nostrils of the by-standers and the whole crowd." Even the frankincense and spices of the censers was not enough to mask the smell, and the rites were hurriedly concluded.
William Rufus commissioned a memorial for his father, "a noble tomb, which to this day shines with gold and silver and precious stones in handsome style" with an inscription in gold. This memorial was to survive until 1522, when William's body was examined and reinterred. Forty years later, it was destroyed by a Calvinist mob and the remains scattered. Only a single thigh bone survived, which was preserved and reburied under a new monument in 1642. But even this was destroyed during the French Revolution.
Now only a simple stone slab marks the burial place of William the Conqueror. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle provides his epitaph.
"He who was earlier a powerful king, and lord of many a land, he had nothing of any land but a seven-foot measure; and he who was at times clothed with gold and with jewels, he lay then covered over with earth."
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Address: ZAC de la Vallee Barrey, Mondeville, Basse-Normandie, 14120, France
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