Caen, France

CAEN, capital and largest city of Basse Normandie, may not be a place that many tourists go out of their way to visit: in the months of fighting in 1944, it was completely devastated. Nonetheless, the city that nine hundred years ago was the favoured residence of William the Conqueror remains impressive in parts, and makes a convenient and pleasant base for exploring the D-day beaches and the rest of the region.

Its central feature is a ring of ramparts that no longer have a castle to protect, and, though there are the scattered spires and buttresses of two abbeys and eight old churches, roads and roundabouts fill the wide spaces where prewar houses stood. The city centre remains attractive on the whole, though, with some pretty pedestrianized shopping streets and a restaurant-lined marina.