One day last week, on our way home from walking Fleur in the woods at Cerisy, we stopped off at the Local Tourist Board office to look at the new displays and to pick up some brochures of nearby places of interest that we like to take our visitors to.
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The Château de Balleroy has always been # 1 on our must see list, clickhere to visit their website in English.
It's been almost six years since we met English blogger Jackie there (you can read about her visit by clicking here) and I was interested to find out if there was anything new there to see.
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Things you might like to know about the Château.
Built in 1631 for Jean de Choisy by architect Francois Mansard it is still owned by the family of the late Malcolm Forbes (US newspaper magnate) who bought the Château in 1970.
The French formal gardens were designed by Henri Duchene at the beginning of the 20th century.
Dotted around the English style park are benches and picnic tables for visitors to enjoy and some of the outbuildings now house a tea room, balloon museum and gift shop.
The Abbaye Cerisy La Foret dedicated to Saint Vigor, Bishop of Bayeux, was founded in 1032 by Duke Robert the Magnificent (you might have heard of his son William the Conqueror, 1066 and all that).
A jewel of Roman architecture the apse is on 3 levels with 15 windows and the abbey archives are housed on the Room of Justice.
Here's a link to their website (in French).
Both the Château de Balleroy and Cerisy Abbey will open their doors to the public on 1st April.
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The Château de Colombières, a XIVth century Historic Monument, is what I call our "local" château as it only takes 5 minutes to drive there from home.
It may be local but it contains one thousand years of secrets, intrigue and passion inside it's fortified walls.
You can visit the Château's website here then click on the tabs to learn about it's fascinating history.
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The fourth and final brochure that I collected that day was for a sightseeing tour on board La Rosée du Soleil through the Parc des Marais du Contentin (Park and Marshes of the Contentin Penisula). Our village in situated on the edge of the Marais and so this is a trip has been on my to do list for many years, perhaps 2017 will be the year it happens?
The Château de Balleroy has always been # 1 on our must see list, clickhere to visit their website in English.
It's been almost six years since we met English blogger Jackie there (you can read about her visit by clicking here) and I was interested to find out if there was anything new there to see.
Things you might like to know about the Château.
Built in 1631 for Jean de Choisy by architect Francois Mansard it is still owned by the family of the late Malcolm Forbes (US newspaper magnate) who bought the Château in 1970.
The French formal gardens were designed by Henri Duchene at the beginning of the 20th century.
Dotted around the English style park are benches and picnic tables for visitors to enjoy and some of the outbuildings now house a tea room, balloon museum and gift shop.
The Abbaye Cerisy La Foret dedicated to Saint Vigor, Bishop of Bayeux, was founded in 1032 by Duke Robert the Magnificent (you might have heard of his son William the Conqueror, 1066 and all that).
A jewel of Roman architecture the apse is on 3 levels with 15 windows and the abbey archives are housed on the Room of Justice.
Here's a link to their website (in French).
Both the Château de Balleroy and Cerisy Abbey will open their doors to the public on 1st April.
It may be local but it contains one thousand years of secrets, intrigue and passion inside it's fortified walls.
You can visit the Château's website here then click on the tabs to learn about it's fascinating history.
The fourth and final brochure that I collected that day was for a sightseeing tour on board La Rosée du Soleil through the Parc des Marais du Contentin (Park and Marshes of the Contentin Penisula). Our village in situated on the edge of the Marais and so this is a trip has been on my to do list for many years, perhaps 2017 will be the year it happens?
