Caen

49° 11' 1" N 0° 21' 34.82" W [49.1836, -0.3597] (KML)

Caen [M] is a college city, very active. In summer, tourists (mainly British and German) gather in Normandy for WWII remains and the Memorial for peace. Caen is a modern city, 80% leveled in 1944 and rebuilt in the 50s and 60s. However, some old buildings remain, especially churches.

• from Paris [M], by A13 motorway (2 hours) (toll).
• from Cherbourg [S] by N13.
• from Rouen [S], by A13 or N175 (toll).
• from Rennes [M] by A84.
• from Tours [S] and Le Mans [S], by N138, via N158 at Sées.

• trains leave about every 2 hours from Paris [M] Saint-Lazare station to Caen [M] and Cherbourg [S]. It lasts about 2 hours long, costs 29,10 € (full price). If you book early, you can get tickets as cheap as 15 €. Out of rush hours, tickets cost 22,40 € for people under 25 years-old.
• Note that the train posting in Paris St-Lazare can be confusing to the first time traveler. The train line number ("la voie") is not posted unil 15-20 minutes before the departure, so do not panic if you arrive earlier than that (notice that the train will be at a line number near to the office "Grandes Lignes"). Look for the train heading to Cherbourg. Caen will not be the listed destination, as it is a stop along the way. Do not forget to punch ("composter") your ticket in one of the yellow machines before boarding. This will validate your ticket.

Ferries cross the Channel from Portsmouth (UK) to Ouistreham [S], 15 km north of Caen [M].

bus verts will get you around Normandy pretty easily. Within Caen [M] and its close suburbs, use the bus and tramway network, called twisto.

• L'abbaye d'Ardenne
• Les plages du Débarquement
• Les villes balnéaires de la côte Fleurie : Cabourg, Houlgate, Deauville, Trouville...
• Les petites stations balnéaires de la côte de Nacre
• Le pays d'Auge
• La Suisse normande
• Le Bessin
• Le Bocage virois
• Le Mont Saint Michel [M]

• Memorial for peace: a modern museum focusing on second world war and the Cold War: http://www.memorial.fr
• L'abbaye aux Hommes (Men's abbey) and l'abbaye aux Dames (women's abbey), wonderful example of romanic architecture
• Fine arts museum
• Museum of Normandy, within the Castle (free entrance)
• Caen [M] Castle / Château ducal de Caen [S] - William the Conqueror's castle, one of the largest medieval castles in Europe
• Saint-Pierre church
• Saint-Nicolas church and cemetery
• Escoville mansion
• Saint-Jean church
• Vaugueux district
• La rue Froide and Saint-Sauveur church
• Caen is 15 km away from the D-Day beaches

The Vaugueux is full of restaurants.

The Rue Ecuyère, near to the Rue Saint Pierre is famous for its bars. If you are looking for a pub, you will find some at the harbour located Quai Vendeuve.

• The little 17-th century harbor of Honfleur [S] (179 km north-east)

Text content was last edited at 02:02, on 15 January 2010 by D. Guillaime. Based on work by Philippe Malarme, Jonathan Balaban, Ricardo, Ian Kirk and Antoine, Wikitravel user(s) Episteme, Janki and InterLangBot, Anonymous user(s) of Wikitravel and others. A list of contributors is available at the original article on Wikitravel. This text content is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0.