About 30 miles (50 km) northeast of Carteret, which I've been blogging about for a few days, is the village of Barfleur (pop. approx. 600). It's on the opposite coast from Barneville-Carteret. Barfleur is officially one of the Plus Beaux Villages de France. It's built around a beautiful harbor.
Here's a map:
As you can see, this area of Normandy, historically called le Cotentin and administratively le département de la Manche (la Manche or "the sleeve" being the French name for what we call the English Channel), is a peninsula that juts out into the sea and is the western part of Normandy. The largest town in the area is Cherbourg, where ocean liners dock.
Above is a stitched-together panorama of the north shore of the Barfleur harbor. I took this set of photos in September 2004, the first time I ever visited the village. You can enlarge the image and scroll across it to see it at full size. Barfleur is famous as the port from which William the Conqueror, who was the Duke of Normandy, sailed to England in 1066. Richard Cœur de Lion (Richard the Lion-Heart) also sailed out of Barfleur when left France to take the throne of England.
Interesting that this little port town had such an important place in history: 1066 et al. The buildings are most attractive.
ReplyDeleteBarfleur looks lovely.
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