Normandy gets its name from the Norsemen who invaded the region in the north of France under their chieftain Rolf the Ganger, named because it was said that he had such long legs that he could not ride a horse. The Norsemen and the King of France came to an understanding that the Norsemen could settle in the land now called Normandy if they would convert to Christianity and hold it as a Duchy as the King’s vassals. Within a couple of centuries, the Normans, as they were called, became not only Christian, but French, speaking the French language, and taking on French customs.

In 1066, the then Duke of Normandy William the Bastard invaded England and, after his victory at Hastings, became King of England as well as William the Conqueror. For some time thereafter the Kings of England were generally also Dukes of Normandy. Despite the fact that they held Normandy as vassals of the French King, they were not prevented from going to war with France from time to time. Normandy and most of the other English possessions on the continent were lost by King John in the early 13th Century. During the Hundred Years War, the English took Normandy and most of what we call France today until, in the early 15th Century, Joan of Arc turned the tide. By the 1550, all of the English lands in France were lost again, except for the city of Calais, which was lost in its turn in the 1550s.

Normandy was the venue of the greatest sea born invasion in history when the American, British, Canadian, and Free French armies landed on the beaches on the morning of July 6th, 1944 to take back the continent of Europe from the Nazis. After heavy fighting and at grievous cost, the allies took the beaches and began to move inland.

Today Normandy is a must visit destination, rich in history from the knights of the Middle Ages, to the heroes of World War II.