7 must-see museums

Occupied since 1878 by the congregation of Franciscan nuns who used to live there, this remarkable Deauville heritage site is now a unique venue, entirely dedicated to culture. It includes a museum, an auditorium, an auditorium, exhibition, reading and documentation areas structured around themes dear to Deauville: horses, cinema, entertainment, photography, the art of living and youth. With its innovative scenography, this new Deauvillais living space invites visitors to become actors and put their "imaginations to work". There's no set itinerary here, and visitors can choose according to their inspiration. Shows, concerts, literary encounters, conferences, major exhibitions and cultural events linked to the artistic and publishing scene are scheduled throughout the year. At the heart of the building is a museum dedicated to the figurative painter André Hambourg (1909-1999). The Cour des expositions and the Galerie des maîtres host temporary exhibitions.

Ideally located on the marsh, close to the beach and the Vaches Noires cliffs, the Villers-sur-Mer Paléospace is an atypical museum that takes you back to the Jurassic era, 160 million years ago, when a warm sea covered Normandy. Spectacular, interactive and sensory reconstructions make this a cultural, scientific and fun place to visit! Opened in April 2011, the Paléospace offers a 300 m² permanent exhibition space focusing on the interpretation of three sites located in Villers-sur-Mer: the Vaches Noires cliffs, the Villers-Blonville marsh and the Greenwich meridian.

In Trouville-sur-Mer, the Villa Montebello, built in 1865 by architect Jean-Louis Célinsky de Zaremba, has preserved and exhibited the museum's collections (paintings, posters, lithographs, drawings, manuscripts, objects, clothes...) since 1972. A little further along the Côte fleurie in Cabourg, La Villa du Temps retrouvé takes visitors on a journey back in time thanks to Marcel Proust, a true guide to the Belle Époque through a journey into the daily life of this fascinating and fertile period. In Honfleur, the covered, air-conditioned Naturospace offers an astonishing journey into an Amazonian-type biotope, where tropical butterflies fly in total freedom. And on the port side, come aboard the Mora, William the Conqueror's flagship, and relive the tremendous epic of the Battle of Hastings, whose victory would make the Duke of Normandy the new King of England! On the other side of the Seine estuary, the André Malraux Museum of Modern Art in Le Havre boasts an aesthetic of transparency and lightness, making it a masterpiece of modernity.