Normandy walking holiday in France

Planet

We believe that walking trips are the best way to experience a destination, because you have more time to appreciate changing landscapes and get to know locals in villages and towns you pass through that would otherwise be overlooked. Travelling on foot has minimal impact on your environment, but we encourage clients to stay on the marked trails to avoid erosion.

This slow style of travel not only affords you more time to appreciate Europe but, just as importantly, positively contributes to the regions that host you.

Where possible, we select hotels and accommodations that are trying to reduce their environmental impact. In Honfleur, for example, the hotel we work with is reducing its impact by using LED lamps and energy saving heaters, while each room has a booklet suggesting recycling and energy saving options.

Our Waste Management Policy encourages our travellers to take their own reusable water bottles, lunch boxes, coffee cups and reusable stuff sacks to avoid single-use plastics. We follow this same philosophy in our London office as well as on the trail: we have banned single use coffee cups and water bottles; we use recycled paper and are working towards reducing the overall amount of paper we use; and we recycle all our of plastic and paper waste.

Already in 2000 we developed the award winning Responsible Travel Guidebook, which presented our Travel Group’s comprehensive policies on sustainable travel. Over the years our Responsible Travel Guidebook has evolved to meet the ever-changing landscape of sustainable travel. In March 2018, The Thoughtful Traveller booklet was launched, which is an easy-to-read document that empowers travellers with suggestions about how they can be part of the solution and collectively make the world a better place when they travel. Everyone is encouraged to read the Thoughtful Traveller ebook before departure.

People

The accommodations we use on this trip are all locally owned and not part of big international hotel chains; this way we ensure your tourist spend is staying within the area and benefiting local people.

Your French hosts prepare breakfasts full of enjoyable local produce such as jams, butter and seasonal fruits, and they work with their neighbourhood baker to bring freshly made breads to the breakfast table. In addition to helping money stay in the area, spending the night in locally run accommodations will give you a more authentic taste of Normandy.

For this self guided trip, we offer restaurant recommendations during the walk in Honfleur, Beuvron, Port en Bessin & Bayeux. These are all carefully selected and use locally sourced products that not only taste great but also reduce your “food miles” and impact on the environment.

During the walks you have the opportunity to visit small distilleries to sample Calvados or, if you prefer, a local apple juice. We suggest only the small Calvados and cider producers with an AOC certification (for example, the Manoir d'Apreval in Honfleur and the Distillerie Pierre Huet in Cambremer) to make sure that the apples they use come from Le Pays d'Auge and the local area, as many distilleries these days import fruit from other European countries.

Tip: if your trip coincides with the Farmers market in Honfleur (Saturday) or Organic market (Wednesdays), you will get the opportunity to purchase your lunch supplies directly from suppliers!