Auberge in Manche, France

Bed and Breakfast Accommodation details

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Le Mesnil de Creances at night

The garden

The Terrace

Home description

A mile from golden beaches in a Regional Nature Park; halfway between Cherbourg and Mont Saint-Michel, and 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 is always available.

Créances is an ideal centre from which to visit Lower Normandy. Situated on the route South from Cherbourg, on the edge of the Natural Regional park of the Cotentin Marshes, the village itself offers country walks and interest for the nature lover, and its varied habitats  -  marsh, moorland and estuary  -  are home to a bewildering variety of birds.

The vast sandy beach stretching past Créances Plage, Armanville and Pirou Plage, with its views of Jersey and the bluest of blue sea, is used by both surfers and sand yachts, and the highest tides in Europe encourage the cultivation of oysters and mussels. Behind the beach, there are miles of sand dunes to explore. The carrots of Créances are known throughout France for their rich flavour. They are grown in rich, deep sandy soil and fed with local seaweed. Leeks, too, are a local product, and there are also onions and potatoes. If you like soup, come to Créances!

Within a fifty-mile radius of Créances you can visit Mont Saint-Michel, Caen, Bayeux, the Normandy invasion beaches and the Norman Switzerland.

The whole of the Cotentin peninsula is at your disposal; the cliffs of La Hague, the mild fruitfulness of the Val de Saire, picturesque villages like Barfleur; Romanesque abbeys like Cerisy-la-Salle and Lessay (only two miles from Créances); the great gothic cathedral crowning the hilltop of Coutances; the superb horses of the National Stud at Saint-Lô; the bell-foundry and copper workshops of Villedieu-les-Poêles; the resorts of Barneville-Carteret and Granville (Monaco of the North), and the simple delights of miles of sweet countryside and empty roads.

Le Mesnil de Créances is, according to a local historian, 'at least a thousand years old'. The staircase tower pictured floodlit at the top of the page probably dates from the 12th century, contemporary with the Château de Pirou, two miles south.

All the bedrooms are accessible from the galleried Hall.  All bedrooms have private bathrooms to the North and windows to the South, overlooking the garden.

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.

We will be happy to see you at Le Mesnil for a holiday or just for a night.

A Little Bit of History

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.

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.

Comments from previous Guests

'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 

Accommodation detail

The Treasury Room

There are 4 bedrooms available. They are all accessible from the galleried Hall.  All bedrooms have private bathrooms to the North and windows to the South, overlooking the garden. They can accommodate up to 12 people.

• The Yellow room - fifteen feet square, has a double bed and a single, with room for a further single bed or cot.   Its private bathroom has WC and shower.
• The Gallery room - has two single beds, and there is space for a cot alongside.  There is a private shower and separate WC adjoining.
• The Treasury room - (see picture) has the best garden view of all. It is a large room with a four-poster bed. There is also space for a single bed or cot.  The en-suite bathroom has WC, basin and shower.
• The East room - is similar to the Treasury room, but on the ground floor. It is a family room with a double bed, two bunks and room for a cot. The en-suite bathroom has a bathtub with a shower.

About the location

Cherbourg: Cherbourg used to be the port of departure for transatlantic liners (including the Titanic), and its deep-water berth still frequently hosts cruise ships. The port is the world's biggest artificial harbour, and was a major objective for the allied forces after D-day. The town of Cherbourg is charming; not too large, with pedestrian streets, picturesque quaysides and good shopping, and a spectacular view from the Fort du Roule on its cliff above the town. Cherbourg is less than an hour's drive from Créances.

Le Mont Saint-Michel: The most visited monument in France The spectacular Mont St. Michel guards the boundary between Normandy and Brittany and is certainly a must to visit. This ancient Christian Church and fortress is built on rocks where the Archangel Michael is said to have appeared in 708 AD. Le Mont Saint-Michel is less than fifty miles from Créances.

Parc Naturel Régional des Marais du Cotentin et du Bessin: Thousands of years ago, the Cotentin peninsula was an island. A rich variety of flora and fauna can be observed in the protection of a 70,000-acre Park which stretches from Créances across to the neighbouring Département du Calvados. There are seals in the Baie des Veys near Carentan and Isigny, and above all thousands of birds: Teal, waders, oyster-catchers, curlew, buzzards, tern, storks, and migratory birds of all kinds. Half an hour's drive from Créances.

Pirou: Pirou is the next village South from Créances. Like most villages in the area, it comes in several widely-separated parts (Créances is divided into more than a dozen small hamlets). Pirou Bourg is less than a mile from Le Mesnil. At Pirou Pont the Château, founded by Vikings and rebuilt in the twelfth century, is well worth a visit for its rooftop walks and impressive defences. Pirou Plage is a thriving holiday resort and the centre of the shellfish industry. A number of seafood restaurants can be found at Pirou-Plage, and there is a splendid market on Sunday mornings.

Lessay: Sleepy little Lessay, with its wonderful Abbey church dating from the time of William the Conqueror, wakes up with a start for three days on the second weekend in September every year, when the population of 2,000 is swollen by 350,000 visitors to the annual Holy Cross Fair. The Champ de Foire at Lessay, for those three days, becomes the biggest shop in Europe. Lessay is just over two miles North of Créances.

Villedieu-les-Poêles: The name means 'Town-of-God-the-frying-pans', and if you need pots and pans, you couldn't go to a better place. Villedieu is full of little workshops where coppersmiths beaver away at all sorts of vessels in copper, brass and pewter. You can also visit one of the biggest and oldest the bell-foundries in France. The church contains a number of examples of the fine post-war stained glass of this part of Normandy.

Granville: Granville is a major holiday resort with many attractions. Don't miss the view from the Pointe du Roc, or the busy activities of the fishing fleet; stroll in the medieval streets of the Old Town on its hilltop, the walls still intact even to drawbridges and watchtowers. The beach, like all those in the Département de la Manche, is sandy and clean, and there fine stretches of beach at the smaller resorts on either side of the town. On the cliff tops perch a series of luxurious holiday villas, including the one where Christian Dior spent part of his childhood. Villa and gardens now form a Dior Museum. Granville is about an hour's drive from Créances. A good day out can be had by making the round trip to Granville and Villedieu-les-Poêles, taking in the zoo at Champrépus between the two.

Coutances: Coutances is our Cathedral town, spectacularly built on a steep rock amid a saucer of hills. The crest of the ridge is crowned by three great medieval churches: St.-Nicolas, of the earliest Gothic in style; the Cathedral, the acknowledged masterpiece of Norman Gothic; and Saint-Pierre, late Gothic and Renaissance. Besides these, the greatest glory of the town is its park, the Jardin des Plantes, here, a formal French garden with fountains and floral sculptures is surrounded by an English garden full of shady walks and winding paths, in its turn surrounded by a belt of virgin woodland. The contrasts and the views afforded by this inspired landscaping are worth travelling a long way to see. Nevertheless, Coutances is only fifteen miles South of Créances.

Bayeux: The French call it 'La Tapisserie de la Reine Mathilde', we call it the Bayeux tapestry; needless to say, it was not made by Queen Matilda, it did not originate in Bayeux and it isn't a tapestry. It's an embroidered strip cartoon, probably produced in England soon after the conquest, and designed as propaganda to legitimise William's claim to the English crown. I especially like the bit where the two armies are preparing for battle; the English have weapons and food, the Normans have weapons and wine.

Nevertheless, there's a lot more to see in Bayeux; an excellent Battle of Normandy museum next to the vast Commonwealth War Cemetery; a Cathedral which reads from bottom to top like a history of Norman architecture; a host of small museums and galleries, a lace museum and very good shopping.  There are a maze of medieval streets to explore. All this less than an hour's drive from Créances.

Caen: This is our nearest Big City. Thoroughly devastated during the war, it yet retains a good deal of interest: excellent shopping, of course, and a host of restored medieval churches, including the Abbaye aux Hommes, with the tomb of William the Conqueror; the Abbaye au Dames with that of his Queen, Matilda, and in the centre of the city Saint-Pierre, a masterpiece of the Flamboyant Gothic, a style found in France but not in England, which had the Perpendicular instead. Next to Saint-Pierre is the enormous and rambling Castle. There are museums and galleries all over town, but the most important is the MEMORIAL, a Museum for Peace entirely appropriate to one of the places where war has been at its worst.

Val de Saire: This north-eastern corner of the Cotentin peninsula produces early vegetables, especially salads and cabbages; all round the Cotentin our maritime climate protects us from the extremes of winter. The wind, mainly from the West, is a problem, which is why most of the hedges in the Val de Saire run from North to South. Driving North from Utah Beach, one comes across a profusion of manor-houses, a preserved German Battery at Crisbec, a fine viewpoint at Quettehou, an extensive yacht marina at Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue and two notable places: the island of Tatihou, a maritime museum whose entry fee includes the boat trip to get there, and the village of Barfleur, one of two in the Département de la Manche (the other is Mont Saint-Michel) to be listed among the Most Beautiful Villages in France.

La Hague: This is the North-western corner of the Cotentin, a granite outcrop very similar to Brittany or Cornwall, with tiny winding roads and houses huddled into valleys out of the wind. The painter Millet came from Gréville, and the poet Jacques Prévert spent his last years in a house behind Port-Racine, the smallest port in France. Prévert's garden is open to visitors. The extreme tip, Cap de la Hague, is rocky but flat; Goury with its enormous lighthouse, sailor's memorial and lifeboat station is worth a visit.

Suisse Normande: The Valley of the Orne includes this picturesque region, well worth a day trip. It calls itself the Norman Switzerland despite having no mountains. In fact, the area is a plateau with a deep valley - spectacularly deep in places, such as the Roche d'Oëtre, where the garden of a roadside café suddenly stops and confronts the startled visitor with a 300-foot drop. Along the river are sweet villages, and the Lac de Rabodanges is a centre for water sports and water play of all kinds.

Saint-Lô:Créances is in the Département de la Manche, and the Chef-lieu or County Town of the Département is Saint-Lô. On D-Day the Allied Air Forces completely destroyed Saint-Lô in a single twenty-minute raid.  The town walls, grounded in solid rock, survived, and one tower of the Parish Church.

The best thing to visit in Saint-Lô, however, is the Haras National. This is one of 26 establishments founded by Napoleon - a National Stud to provide horses for his army. In the summer there are still 130 stallions at Saint-Lô, and they can be visited daily. On Summer Thursdays the stallions are shown off to visitors, both in hand and in harness.

See Local guide and map for information on nearby towns and facilities.

Activities near by

Bird Watching, Boating, Boules, Cycling, Fishing, Go karting, Golf, Hiking, Horse riding, Ice skating, Mountain biking, Rambling, Sailing, Sea excursions, Shopping, Sightseeing, Swimming, Tennis, Walking, Water sports, Wind Surfing

See Activities and attractions for more information on nearby activities and places of interest.

How to get here

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. From Coutances or Lessay or the coast road, follow the signs to Créances and then South towards Pirou. Rue de la République is the second turning on  the left after the Carrefour supermarket. Once in Rue de la République, you will find Le Mesnil on the right after 350 yards,opposite Rue du Mesnil.

For visitors from Paris, there is a good rail service from Paris St Lazare to Carentan, and visitors can be collected from the station. Hire cars can be arranged in advance, or personally guided tours of the D-day sites arranged.

See Local guide and map for information on nearby towns and airports.