Upper Normandy

Even the attempt to define these areas in terms of cheese as the land respectively of the creamy Neufchâtel, the resilient Pont-l'Évêque, and the flowing Camembert is defective from the point of view of geographical accuracy.

The most distinctive parts of Upper Normandy are the valley of the Seine and the region to the north and east, the Pays de Caux, fringed by the coast from Havre to the frontier of Picardy.

Less monotonous than the bare plains farther east, the plateau of Caux is covered by a rich vegetation broken by scattered farmsteads where house and orchard and outbuildings are protected from the wind by those rectangular earthworks surmounted by trees which are the most characteristic feature of the region.

It is the country of Madame Bovary and of Maupassant's peasants.

Equally typical is the valley of the Seine, ample, majestic, slow, cutting its sinuous way through high banks, which grow higher as we approach the sea, winding around ancient strongholds like Château Gaillard and Tancarville, or ruined abbeys like Jumièges and Saint-Wandrille, where Maeterlinck's bees still hum in the garden, catching the tide soon after it enters Normandy, reaching deep water at Rouen, and meeting the longed-for dash of waves in the great estuary at its mouth.

Halfway from the Norman frontier to the river's end stands Rouen, mistress of the Seine and capital, not only of Upper Normandy, but of the whole Norman land.

Celtic in name and origin like most French cities, chief town of the Roman province of Lugdunensis Secunda and of the ecclesiastical province to which this gave rise, the political and commercial importance of Rouen have made it also the principal city of medieval and modern Normandy and the seat of the changing political authority to which the land has bowed.

As early as the 12th century, it is one of the famous cities of Europe, likened to Rome by local poets and celebrated even by sober historians for its murmuring streams and pleasant meadows, its hill-girt site and strong defenses, its beautiful churches and private dwellings, its well-stocked markets and its extensive foreign trade.

Even the attempt to define these areas in terms of cheese, as the land respectively of the creamy Neufchâtel, the resilient Pont-l'Évêque, and the flowing Camembert, is defective from the point of view of geographical accuracy.

The most distinctive parts of Upper Normandy are the valley of the Seine and the region to the north and east, the Pays de Caux, fringed by the coast from Havre to the frontier of Picardy.

Less monotonous than the bare plains farther east, the plateau of Caux is covered by a rich vegetation broken by scattered farmsteads, where house and orchard and outbuildings are protected from the wind by those rectangular earthworks surmounted by trees which are the most characteristic feature of the region.

It is the country of Madame Bovary and of Maupassant's peasants.

Equally typical is the valley of the Seine, ample, majestic, slow, cutting its sinuous way through high banks, which grow higher as we approach the sea, winding around ancient strongholds like Château Gaillard and Tancarville, or ruined abbeys like Jumièges and Saint-Wandrille, where Maeterlinck's bees still hum in the garden, catching the tide soon after it enters Normandy.

reaching deep water at Rouen and meeting the longed-for dash of waves in the great estuary at its mouth.

Halfway from the Norman frontier to the river's end stands Rouen, mistress of the Seine and capital, not only of Upper Normandy but of the whole Norman land.

Celtic in name and origin like most French cities, chief town of the Roman province of Lugdunensis Secunda and of the ecclesiastical province to which this gave rise, the political and commercial importance of Rouen have made it also the principal city of medieval and modern Normandy and the seat of the changing political authority to which the land has bowed.