Talking Location With author S L Russell – Normandy

4th March 2020

#TalkingLocationWith… S L Russell, author of The Healing Knife, set in Normandy and London.

As I write here in southern Normandy in February, storm Dennis is gathering pace, my trees and shrubs are whipping about in a wild dance, and a cold rain spits horizontally across a sodden terrace as we huddle by a log fire behind our thick stone walls. This is the downside of owning a home in northern France – a home which must be visited and looked after whatever the season or weather, and we have probably seen them all.

The upside is, of course, summer, and then I realise afresh just how fertile this part of the world is. Hay bales rest in stripped golden fields, awaiting collection; maize stands tall and green, but it will be taller still by the time it is harvested in October, to be stored as winter feed for the ubiquitous brown and white cattle. Market stalls are loaded with produce, much of it local, and the summer fruits are sumptuous and colourful – nectarines, apricots, melons. One stall is piled high with nothing but ropes of pink garlic, another with strings and coils of sausage. Next to a stall both stacked and surrounded by flowers and plants wafts the unmistakable redolence of many cheeses. Small wonder that this region, with its plentiful rain, fertile fields and well-fed herds, boasts such an array of famous names: Pont l’Evêque, Camembert, Livarot, Pavé d’Auge, heart-shaped Neufchâtel.

Another aspect of summer in this part of rural France is the town or village’s annual festival, which can take the form of a ‘Corso Fleuri’, in which slow-moving floats are decorated with tiny paper flowers, each as big as my thumbnail. Each tableau represents some local interest – a Viking longship, dairy produce, and of course the beauty queens, sitting high on makeshift thrones and waving to the holiday crowds. The town will often be covered in glorious displays of real flowers as well, on every balcony, bridge and lamp post, and the town band may well be in attendance, marching through the streets in resplendent uniforms. One town I know has a band wittily called ‘Eléfanfare’, with a mighty sousaphone decorated as a blue elephant!

The famous attractions of this region are well known: iconic Mont Saint Michel with its abbey perched on top of narrow streets and overhanging eaves; the castle at Falaise, famous for its wartime associations as well as being the birthplace of William the Conqueror (sometimes less politely known as ‘Guillaume le Bâtard’); Bayeux, home of the Tapestry, a miracle of survival, and a fine cathedral; the landing beaches of D-Day all along the northern coast. Less well known perhaps are the great castles defending the border between Normandy and Brittany, which was once a separate and independent realm: Fougeres, Combourg, Vitré, Chateaubriant. Closer to where we live is the granite town of Avranches, set high on a bluff overlooking the flood plains of two rivers, the Sée and the Sélune, which pour into the bay of Mont Saint Michel, replete with salmon and trout. Here is the Scriptorial, a museum dedicated to the development of writing, culminating in a darkened, temperature-and-humidity-controlled circular room in which the famous Mont Saint Michel manuscripts are displayed. In the other direction lies Villedieu les Poêles, literally ‘God’s town of the Pans,’ where there is a working bell foundry, one of two in France and the only one open to visitors, who might well be amazed at the primitive things used in this ancient craft: horsehair, dung…Here you can buy many things made of copper, brass and pewter. The resident of Villedieu is traditionally known as a ‘sourdin’, or deaf person, because of the clanging of all the bells. Some years ago the bells of Notre Dame in Paris were replaced, and all but one were made in the Villedieu foundry.

There are, of course, many other splendid places further afield: Monet at Giverny, Rouen, Caen…but here in the south other things dominate: long, unspoilt beaches, rolling hills, shallow, swift-flowing rivers and tiny streams, cows, maize, and  orchards of apple and pear, resulting in a cuisine characterised by beef, lamb, sea food, cream, and cider. Delicious.

In my latest novel, The Healing Knife, one long section is set in this very region, in a fictitious town called Roqueville, based loosely on the town nearest to our French house. It was the easiest part to write, needing little or no extra research, coming as it did from eighteen years of frequent visits and close association. This part was a delight to write, and I think of it, in part at least, as my fond tribute to our second home.

Thank you to S L Russell for introducing us to this beautiful part of the world.

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