WINTER SPECIAL OFFER: Bed, breakfast and EVENING MEAL included,

65 Euro for 2 people 

 

Bed & Breakfast amid a thousand years of history, a mile from golden beaches in a Regional Nature Park; halfway between Cherbourg and the Mont Saint-Michel, a few miles from the D-Day Beaches, Le Mesnil is an ideal base for ramblers, cyclists, ornithologists and holiday-makers alike, where a warm welcome and deep comfort are always available.

‘We never expected to find a place in Normandy where we felt at home – but we did! MG, California

‘A most relaxing, peaceful night. Thanks! DM, Bromsgrove, UK

‘Lovely house, lovely rooms. Lovely people around – what else do we need to have a good time? Lovely weather – and we had that, too! RL, Madrid.

‘We came here for a night’s rest and found ATMOSPHERE’ JM, Germany

‘Another wonderful experience in exploring France new and old. Many thanks to you! DB, Virginia

LE MESNIL DE CRÉANCES

is, according to a local historian, “at least a thousand years old”. The staircase tower (above) probably dates from the 12th century, contemporary with the Château de Pirou, two miles South.

All the bedrooms are accessible from the Hall (above left). Breakfast is served in the small dining room (right).

The Yellow room (left), fifteen feet square, has a double bed and a single, with room for a child’s folding bed. Its private bathroom has WC and shower. All bedrooms have private bathrooms to the North and windows to the South, overlooking the garden.

The Gallery Room (below left) has two single beds which can be put together to form one enormous double, just leaving space for a cot alongside. There is a private shower and separate WC adjoining.

The Treasury Room (above right) has the best garden view of all. It is a large room with a four-poster bed. There is also space for a child’s bed. The en-suite bathroom has WC, basin and shower.

The East room (left) is similar to the Treasury room, but on the ground floor. It is a family room with a double bed and two bunks, and its en-suite bathroom has a bathtub rather than a shower.

Finally, the Blue Room can be made available to families using the yellow Room and its facilities who need an extra single room.

NO SMOKING is permitted in the house

(but there's an ashtray on the terrace!)

Visitors have the use of well over an acre of garden, half of which remains a classic meadow with a labyrinth of paths among the wild flowers.

A Mesnil is the old word for a large farm or small country house, whose occupant – the Squire – was lower in the scale of nobility than the Seigneur of a Manoir. The Sieur du Mesnil controlled about a quarter of the area of Créances, and paid fealty to the Comte de Créances. In 1505 a member of the Guéroult family, which already held the lordship of another quarter, moved into the house and applied for a patent of nobility. It was probably this man who built the eastern half of the building, at the time a barn and a labourer’s cottage, now the Hall and the Gallery, Treasury and East rooms.

Originally, the downstairs ceilings were higher than they are now, and the space above was used only for storage. The windows of the East bathroom and the treasury bathroom were both fitted with iron bars on the outside. They would belong to the same ground-floor room, which must have been either a treasury or possibly the local lock-up.

The comparative importance of a Seigneur could be assessed by the number of pigeons he kept. Only noblemen were allowed to keep pigeons, which feed on other people's corn and thus represent a form of taxation. Some manor houses and châteaux in Normandy have vast pigeonniers capable of taking up to a thousand nests. Here at le Mesnil there are precisely two pigeon-holes, so the Sieur du Mesnil in the Middle Ages must have been just about as poor as a nobleman could get. In the Yellow Room, now, you can lie in bed and spy on the world outside through the pigeon-holes.

Créances is forty miles South of Cherbourg, on the West coast of the Cotentin peninsula. From Cherbourg, follow the signs to Rennes and Mont Saint-Michel as far as Lessay, where you turn right next to the Abbey Church and again just after it.

If you miss the turn for Mont Saint-Michel, never fear – go on to CARENTAN and pretend you were coming from Caen.

Coming from Caen, Rouen or Paris, leave the N13 at CARENTAN and follow signs to COUTANCES as far as Périers, where you should head for Lessay.

From Lessay, follow the signs to Créances. This involves a right turn just outside Lessay and a left turn soon afterwards. Once in Créances, go straight on along the main street. Rue de la République is the second turning on the left after the CHAMPION supermarket. Once in Rue de la République, you will find Le Mesnil on the right after 350 yards.

From Coutances, head for Cherbourg. After the village of Montsurvent the road goes o