This sacred town in Normandy’s Calvados department hardly needs an introduction for Catholics as it’s France’s second pilgrimage site behind Lourdes.
The 19th-century Saint Thérèse spent nearly all her life in the Lisieux, first in an idyllic house with her father and then at the Carmelite convent from the age of 14. If you’re following in her footsteps there’s a smattering of Thérèse-related sites around the town. But for everybody else there’s just as much to see and do: Lisieux has a real gastronomic pedigree, making Calvados apple brandy and some of France’s most prized cheeses, while there is a welcoming zoo, Deaville's sophisticated castle and luxurious resort just a breeze away. Discover the best things to do in Lisieux.
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1. Basilica of St Thérèse
This church built in St Thérèse’s honor is the second most-visited pilgrimage site in France after Lourdes. To get a picture of the fervor that Thérèse generated in the first decades of the 20th century, the entire cost of this church was paid for by donations.
There was enough to start work in 1929 and following a pause, during the war, the decorative neo-Byzantine basilica with a 45-meter high campanile was consecrated in 1951. The crypt is the essential bit and was the first section completed; it is furnished with sculpted marble and mosaics depicting the stages of Thérèse’s life.
It was here that Lisieux’s few remaining locals took refuge during the Allied bombing in 1944.
2. Château de Saint-Germain-de-Livet
Located in a forest outside Lisieux, this magical castle dates back to the 1400s. The property was built on top of an earlier fortress, but apart from the moat, you can tell that this home was designed for luxury rather than defense.
The Renaissance gatehouse and towers are from the end of the 1500s and are made from stone and glazed bricks arranged in a chequerboard pattern, while the bulk of the house is older, from the 1400s and is half-timbered.
The interior was richly decorated and had paintings by the romantic artist Léon Riesener, a cousin of Eugène Delacroix.
3. Les Buissonnets
Saint Thérèse's house was 4 to 15 years old, when she joined Carmelite Monastery, Les Buissonnets was a lovely 18th-century hotel a short walk from the town center.
The Martin family moved to Les Buissonnets in 1877 shortly after Thérèse's mother died and it was here that she contracted an unknown disease that she attributed to the statue of the Virgin Mary in her cousin's room.
Step inside to browse the Martin family properties, like the cloak Thérèse wore for the first communion she and her father learned. In the garden, there’s a statue memorializing the moment she asked her father if she could enter the Carmel in 1887.
4. Musée d’Art et d’Histoire de Lisieux
With an enchanting home in one of the last remaining timber-framed houses in the town, Lisieux’s museum of history and art reopened in 2013 after a few years of renovation. It holds the coveted French Museum label, and traces the story of the city from Roman times to the present day, pausing at the most important periods along the way.
So you’ll get detailed insight into the 19th-century dressmaking industry, the post-war reconstruction of the town and the medieval bishops who wielded great power hundreds of years ago.
5. Lisieux Cathedral
At the transition between Norman Romanesque and Gothic, Lisieux’s cathedral was built in 60 years up to 1230 and was one of the only monuments to come through the war without too much damage.
Outside the architecture is sober and understated, but inside you’ll be awed by the height of the vaults in the nave, which are similar to those at the Notre-Dame in Paris. If you’re on the Thérèse trail you’ll be thrilled to learn that it was while praying in the cathedral’s chapels in the 1880s that her religious calling was revealed to her.
She would stop to pray in the Notre-Dame Chapel here every morning before going to school, while the confessional was just like she had visited after receiving her first Communion.
6. Zoo de CERZA
A couple of minutes outside Lisieux is a 60-hectare safari park where more than 1,000 animals live in semi-freedom in woodland and green valleys. You’ll be able to view them on two trails, or aboard a “Safari Train”, sure to go down well with younger kids.
Many of the species in the park are threatened with extinction, and CERZA is involved in 40 breeding programs and directs profits conservation around the world. Some rare species have given birth at the park in the last few years, like the Indian rhinoceros (a first for France) and red pandas.
7. Carmel Museum and Chapel
At 14 Thérèse moved from her home to this Carmelite Convent where she remained until she passed way in 1897 at just 24 years old. This is a working convent but there’s an exhibition about her time here and a chapel where you can visit her reliquary.
The temple has a saint's supernatural marble sculpture on top of her remains, carried through the town in a procession at the end of September. If you’re less interested in the Thérèse phenomenon you’ll appreciate the footage and photographs that give an idea of the life of the Carmelites up to the present day.
8. Jardin de l’Évêché
André Le Nôtre, a gardener in Versailles, placed these gardens next to the church in the 17th century.
And in true Le Nôtre style, they have an official French plan, with geometric lawns, flowerbeds, and roads organized around a fountain and placed below a terrace where you can reflect on the vision.
The park was laid for the city’s bishop and canons, who lived in the episcopal palace next door, which was later converted into Lisieux’s courthouse.
9. Deauville
You can be on the beach in half an hour from Lisieux. And there, there's nothing normal about the nearest resort: Polished Deauville is a seaside outlet developed in the 1860s and put on the fashion map by Coco Chanel in the 1910s.
Earlier, Deauville had been visited by the writer Flaubert and painter Eugène Boudin, who died here in 1898. The American Film Festival has been bringing stars since September and the resort's luxury resort is highlighted by casinos, beach spas, luxury hotels, shops, and two racecourses.
But for a day trip from Lisieux, you can content yourself with more than three kilometers of spotless golden sand.
10. Graindorge Fromagerie
Livarot is under 20 kilometers from Lisieux, and this village is a household name for anyone who loves good cheese.
You can visit Graindorge Fromagerie here, which has been operating since 1910. Each wheel of Livarot and Pont l’Evêque it makes is the product of three generations of cheese-making knowhow.
The diary has been laid out in a way that allows you to see most aspects of cheese production through the enameling galleries looking directly at the diary floor. There are explanatory videos, information boards and you’ll get to sample of the fromagerie’s delicious wares at the end of the tour.
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from : https://wikitopx.com/travel/top-10-things-to-do-in-lisieux-708912.html
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