About
Looking forward to welcoming you to La Longere in Lower Normandy, France.
Our aim
We will try to help you have a superb holiday - whether you would like to relax and chill out, visit local beauty spots and places of interest or if you would prefer to have an active holiday.
Places to Visit
Normandy has a lot to offer visitors. Whether you like to visit historic or interesting towns and villages, walk, hike, cycle, motorcycle, visit the Normandy D Day sites, go to the beach; Normandy has something for you to see and do.
Domfront en Poiraie is a medieval town with Norman castle ruins and is only a few miles away.
Lonlay L'Abbaye is a pictureque village with a medieval abbey at its centre. This is our closest village and has a chemist, bar-tabac, bakery, butcher, delicatessen, and a small supermarket. It also has a very good restaurant.
Mortain is famous for its waterfall and as it is on a hill and is strategically important, it was the scene of a fierce battle during the liberation in 1944.
Bayeux for its tapestry
The Counter Attack following the D Day Landings. There are many sites to visit including the D Day Landing Beaches.
Bagnols de l'Orne is a pretty town of the Bel Epoque with a lake, casino and beautiful buildings of a different architectural style to most of Normandy.
La Ferte Mace has a lake with a beach - an ideal place to walk, swim and play.
La Fosse Arthour is a local beauty spot with myths and legends attached to it. A river flows through a gorge where people go climbing, walking, bird spotting etc. There is an Auberge there with a very good restaurant and bar.
La Roche d'Oetre offers stunning views over the countryside from its high vantage point and there is a forest with high wire/tree climbing and canoeing activities.
Mont St Michel and St Malo are a little further away but both can be seen in a one-day excursion. St Malo with its port and walled city are beautiful. The walls can be walked around giving views of the coastline and Mont St Michel is one of the areas key tourist sites.
Local Produce
Our next door neighbour is a micro-brewery - Le Chateau de la Biere Owned by Donatien and Pascal Leselllier, the Chateau produces an excellent range of organic beers. Tasting sessions can be arranged if you would like to sample their beers, at a nominal cost.
La Biscuiterie de l'Abbaye is a biscuit factory based in Lonlay L'Abbaye. They have a well deserved reputation for their quality biscuits. There is a factory shop open to the public and their biscuits are stocked by most supermarkets and shops.
Glaces de la Ferme Bidard Herve and Delphine Bidard work on the farm accompanied by their daughter Pascaline and her partner Francois. They produce a delicious range of ice cream made from the milk of their own cows.
Cider and Perry are produced locally by many different manufacturers. La Longere is situated within the Pear Triangle renowned for producing some of the best pear and apple cider in the country.
Those producers also make Pommeau a fortified cider that tastes a little like sherry and Calvados the famous apple brandy.
Normandy is, of course, renowned for its dairy produce: milk, cream, creme fraiche and cheese. Camembert is probably the best known but there are other locally produced cheeses well worth tasting whilst you are here. Many of them are difficult to obtain outside of the area.
There is such a culinary heretage here to try. Other local delicacies include the Andouillette de Vire, a type of sausage made from slices of offal - it looks a bit like an onion when sliced.
The D Day Beaches
The D Day Normandy Landing Beaches attract many visitors throughout the year.
The 5 Beaches; Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword are about 1 1/2 hours away by car. (About 65 kms from here.) The impressive US Memorial at Omaha Beach is worth a visit as is the new British and Commonwealth Memorial at Gold Beach.
Mulberry Harbour can be seen from a Sculpture Memorial at Arramanches and there are many museums to visit in the area.
Other villages, such as St Mere d'Eglise were also key sites during the landings as was Pegasus Bridge.
Restaurants and Cafes
Sitting on a cafe pavement, drinking coffee with a croissant or crepe - what could be more typically French. The street cafes offer a moment to pause and watch the world go by whilst taking in the atmosphere and ambiance of the area - not to mention tasting the locally produced food and drink.
Outdoor Activities
If you like the outdoor life, there are numerous walks nearby. La Longere is only a few metres away from the GR22 a Grande Route or Pilgrims way. The GR22 goes all the way to Mont St Michel on the coast and is a popular long distance hiking route. The cottage is not far from the Fosse Arthour either; a protected site with walks, river and a good restaurant and cafe.
There are walks around Lonlay L'Abbaye and further afield.
There are also Voies Verts- green lanes for cycling through the countryside.
In the Swiss Normandy area, there are kayak centres, horse riding, and aeriel walkways and bungee jumping/zip wire centres.
Beautiful Scenery
There is some beautiful scenery around here. At La Roche d'Oetre, at the top of a 118 m cliff, the views of the wooded valley below are spectacular.
The Cascades, an impressive waterfall is at Mortain, just a few kilometres away from here.
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