C'EST MAGNIFIQUE! I have returned refreshed from a wonderful week in Normandy, one of my favourite regions in my beloved France, which is sure to be more appealing than ever in 2008 as a touring destination for motorists from Northern and Southern Ireland.

Not only is Normandy our closest Continental playground, but getting there direct will also be more pleasurable and faster than before -- thanks to the introduction of the luxurious Irish Ferries cruise ferry Oscar Wilde on the Rosslare - Cherbourg overnight route this month. This gives time to re-train the crews and get all the new facilities ship-shape ahead of the 2008 season.

The £30 million vessel has been named in honour of the great Irish wit and dramatist who was born in Dublin and died in Paris after being exiled in Barneval, Normandy. I was pleased to remind my old friend Don Hall, the long-standing and highly-respected Irish Ferries PR consultant, that Oscar was schooled at Portora, Enniskillen, thus adding a strong Northern dimension to the Norman -Irish link embodied in the brave choice of his name.

Passengers will be particularly impressed with the new cabins. All ensuite, they range from the two-berth Standard to the delightful De Luxe with flat screen TV, minibar and sofa. What an improvement on the previous ferry, where some facilities had become a bit tired.

Oscar's other new amenities include two state-of-the-art cinemas, great bistros, live entertainment lounge, bars, shopping, and children's play areas. Other passenger facilities have been themed to reflect Wilde's work. In the 30 years I have been travelling on the route, I always loved the food and service in the main restaurant which is now re-born as Berneval Restaurant and there's also an authentic Left Bank Brasserie.

With eleven decks, Oscar carries up to 1,458 passengers and 580 cars -- an increase of 160 cars. More powerful engines means that an hour has been shaved off the journey time to Cherbourg .

Fares in 2008 will start from 99 Euros one way for driver and car in the off-season, which is when I would earnestly advise you to travel.

The networks of narrow roads meandering through the iconic hedgerow landscapes (bocage) of rural Normandy are totally delightful when they are free of traffic; in summer they are a nightmare. Coastal routes are completely congested in August, when the whole of Paris decamps to the seaside.

A few weeks ago, in glorious sunshine, we had these same Norman roads to ourselves, with welcoming smiles everywhere we went. We discovered some fantastic places to stay -- a mix of chambres d'hotes (B&B guesthouses), inns and hotels -- starting at Fort du Cap Lévi, near Cherbourg, going on to Le Clos Saint-Martin in the city centre of Caen, then along the coast to Hotel Flaubert on Trouville beach, then inland to the glorious Petit Coq aux Champs at Campigny near Pont-Audemar, before heading down the Seine Valley to La Réserve, the perfect overnight stop at Giverny.

We discovered lots of other delights, from the famous Monet's Garden to undiscovered gems like the astonishing mediaeval quarter of Dives-sur-mer. I am very keen to pass on these latest additions to my Norman wisdom!

Great value near the City of the Sea

UNLIKE every other tourist vehicle disembarking at Cherbourg, which seemed to be heading off on the five-hour drive to Paris or much further afield, our first overnight stopover was just a few minutes drive from the Irish Ferries terminal, at a spectacular coastal B&B near the pinnacle of the Normandy Peninsula.

LE FORT DU CAP LEVI was built by Napoleon as a defensive artillery battery against an invasion by the English from the other side of the Channel. This has turned out to be a long-lasting failure as it is now invaded all year round by English ( and increasing numbers of Irish) walkers who use it as a base for bracing wildlife walks and explorations of the fertile Saire Valley. The whole region of La Manche, in general, is a paradise for nature-lovers, gourmets and history enthusiasts -- which sums me up pretty well!

A lot of money was spent by a Cherbourg millionaire shipbuilder in the 1960s restoring Fort Lévi as a place for accommodating and entertaining his international clientele. It is now in local public ownership, operated as a visitor attraction / shop / B&B.

Its six bedrooms are tastefully furnished in a maritime theme ; they surround a sheltered courtyard facing the outer harbour of Cherbourg, which is just six miles away. The views from upper rooms are superb and the breakfast-room has a coastal panorama around Cap Lévi which is among the best restaurant views I have encountered in a lifetime of travel ( even though it reminds me of Ballymacormick Point, near Groomsport!).

At 65 Euros per double-room with continental breakfast, the Fort du Cap Levi at Fermanville is good value. Tel: 0033 02 33 23 68 68.Email:chambre.fermanville@cg50.fr. WebSite:http://perso.orange.fr/tourisme.fermanville/chfortlevi.htm

It's great base for exploring some of my favourite attractions on the Cotentin Peninsula:

CITY DE LA MER: This is the mighty complex celebrating Cherbourg's enduring connections with the sea, and underwater exploration in particular. It is housed in the newly-restored Gare Maritime, which served the great transatlantic liners. For decades this was also the base for the Harland and Wolff-built Nomadic which is now being restored for exhibition at Belfast's Titanic Quarter. Another local connection I relished was the full-scale model of the first-ever working submarine which was designed by the Ulster-American Robert Fulton. It is dwarfed by the City of the Sea's most famous exhibit, France's decommissioned nuclear submarine, Le Redoubtable. I loved the huge shop which is popular with souvenir-hunting homeward-bound car-ferry passengers.

St-VAAST-LA-HOGUE has been my favourite village of the Cotentin since I discovered it 35 years ago. La Manche is France's biggest region for cultivating oysters and mussels, so it was appropriate that our first meal of our latest Norman conquest was a platter of six plump local oysters followed by moules frites, enjoyed on the sunny terrace of L'Embarcadere restaurant. At 15 Euros a hea, it was also the best value lunch of our whole trip.

Sophie Bougeard (www.manchetourisme.com) gave me a big portfolio of literature highlighting her region's superb seafood and dairy produce, plus its 222 miles of beaches, the most famous being the sandy vastness of Mont St.Michel Bay on the west and WWII Utah Beach on the east of the peninsula

High-class hideaway in Caen city centre

HAVING managed somehow to by-pass Caen in our many expeditions through Normandy over the years, we booked into a highly-recommended guest house for two nights. What a great little city! What a wonderful place to stay!

LE CLOS SAINT MARTIN is an exemplar of how modern French hospitality is still among the world's best. Sylvie and Jean-Noel Vandevivere offer four beautiful bedrooms in an 18thCentury mansion in one of the most pleasant quarters of this buzzing university city.

It is indeed a hideaway -- it took me a half-hour to discover that this substantial 'maison d'hotes de charme' surrounding a big courtyard, was behind a nondescript gateway with a discreet brass plate!

It would make a brilliant secret haven for runaway lovers or couples in search of a romantic getaway. To add to the romanticism, the top-floor two-room suite is reached by ancient stone spiral steps. The breakfast-room is picture-perfect; I took a dozen photos of the elegant silverware and candle-lit settings while we ate fresh bread and local honey from the market at the front door. Classy Clos!

Le Clos Saint Martin, Caen Tel: 0033 6 80 87 39 05; Website: www.leclossaintmartin.com; email:clossaintmartin@free.fr. Rooms are from 90-150 Euro and worth every cent.

The quality of our welcome was enhanced by the presence of Brittany-born press officer Armelle Legoff of the fascinating Calvados tourism region which includes some of the greatest attractions in Normandy from Bayeux to Honfleur. It is the home of world famous cheeses (Brie, Camembert and my favourite cow-dung-scented Pont L'Eveque), as well as cider and Calvados apple spirit.

She was very keen indeed for us to visit Caen's top visitor attration,Le Mémorial, and now I know why.

LE MEMORIAL is a truly world-class Museum for Peace. Caen was 70 percent destroyed following the 1944 D-Day Landings and you can still see shrapnel damage on surviving buildings. On the rubble of the Nazi General's bunker, the city has built a living memorial to the victims of hot wars and cold wars which also provides insights as to how we can create a more peaceful future. Using everything from reconstructions, enthralling movie documentaries and full-scale aircraft, tanks etc, the horrors of conflict are starkly portrayed. I was pleased to see John Hume and David Trimble, our own Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, given a place of honour in the Conflict Resolution galleries. We spent five hours being intrigued and moved in turn, with a break for an excellent restaurant meal. This is a must-see for young and old. Check out www.memorial-caen.com.

SHOPPING and sightseeing in Caen is a pleasure in a compact city where everything happens between the massive Ducal Chateau and the Hotel de Ville with its dazzling floral displays. As the ferry port of Ouistreham is just up the River Orne, lots of English tourists ensure that the shops are always lively. I took a pic of a shoe shop called 'Aerosoles' which would sound rude on the high street here! We loved Caen and hope to return toute suite!

Trew's travels towards Trouville

TROUVILLE, Deauville and Honfleur are the brightest blooms of the Cote Fleurie section of the lengthy Calvados Coast which also includes the recently re-branded Cote Nacre (Mother of Pearl) which overlaps the immortal D-Day Landing Beaches of Sword, Juno and Gold.

I have spent manys an hour exploring WWII sites over the years and once even found a rusty, but intact, tin of US Army K-Rations. At Le Memorial in Caen you can now buy --for one euro -- a Discount Card for the best of the many D-Day Commemorative museums along this historic shoreline (www.normandiememoire.com).

This trip we went to see the German batteries (complete with guns) at Longues-sur-Mer and the tiny US Rangers Museum at Grandcamp-Maisy where due credit is given to Carrickfergus as the actul birthplace of this heroic American commando unit.

We spent a full day motoring, under cloudless autumn skies, along the seafronts of resorts like Courselles and around the harbours of fishing towns like Port-en-Bessin. Apart from a few para-sailing enthusiasts and trotting ponies getting ready for the weekend races at Caen , the beaches were absolutely empty -- apart from a mysterious crowd of about 100 along the tide-line at Cabourg. I'm still wondering why...

At Dives-sur-Mer, thanks to the advice of our Parisian friends Eva and Paul Jourdan-Millot, we discovered the absolutely authentic Village of William the Conqueror hidden down alleyways near the town's most famous building -- a 15C Market Hall made of oak frames held together with wooden pegs instead of nails . How both these ancient sites survived the onslaughts of 1944 intact is a mystery. ( We also found the Norman equivalent of a Pound Shop in Dives where I bought a pair of 5 Euro pyjamas which, less mysteriously, did not survive the first wash intact!)

Passing through slumbering, off-season Deauville ( whose fashionable summer season is just 100 days long) we crossed the Toques river into the much more lively resort of TROUVILLE.

HOTEL FLAUBERT is right on Les Planches, the traditional boardwalk along the beach where the craze for sea-bathing began in France during the Second Empire. It's a traditional wooden-clad seaside hotel of the type that I thought only existed in the 1880s paintings of my favourite pre-Impressionist artist Eugene Boudin who was born hereabouts. It was named after novelist Gustav Flaubert who spent happy family holidays here.

I fell in love with the hotel's authentic 'fin de siecle' atmosphere (although it was rebuilt in the 1930s) and surrealist touches such as the table-top aquarium in a wicker birdcage at the entrance to the cosy bar. Our bedroom was a sunny and spacious corner room with views over Trouville beach, Deauville Casino and the little lighthouses at the mouth of the Toques.

We had breakfast on the narrow terrace of our room in spite of the morning chill. It would be glorious in high summer to dunk croissants in the Flaubert's strong coffee while looking down upon the jogers and the kids playing crazy golf opposite.

Hotel Flaubert Tél : 0033 0 31 88 37 23 E-mail : hotel@flaubert.fr - Website: www.flaubert.fr . Double rooms start from under 100 Euro per night. Check for midweek deals off-season.

For dinner, we followed our well-trained noses to winkle out (geddit?) the best seafood plaice in town and found Les Vapeurs on the port. There we indulged in a mighty £55 Platter of Shellfish -- oysters, crabs, winkles, whelks and prawns -- but none of my favourite Normandy shrimps which,at that price, should have come in bucketsful.

'Little cock' can crow about its delights

LE PETIT COQ AUX CHAMPS is the intriguing name of what turned out to be the best accommodation we enjoyed on our Normandy odyssey -- and that's saying something!

'The little cockerel of the fields' is an utterly astonishing inn, featuring thatched roofs with permanent iris bulbs growing along the ridges. It has 12 rooms (including a lovely duplex), a famous restaurant with innovative cuisine, a heated outdoor pool, orchard and kitchen garden.

Its architectural style inspired us to explore the nearby region of Le Marais Vernier on the little-visited floodplain of the Upper Seine where the uniquely Norman houses and ancient inns have iris-covered thatch and there's a few sheep or beef cattle in every paddock eating windfalls from the apple trees.

Fabienne Desmonts, a born hotelier and Jean-Marie Huard, a truly inventive chef, together make Le Petit Coq a romantic rural retreat in the Risle Valley just south of Pont-Audemer. It seems remote until you get there and realise that you are right in the middle of a triangle created by the great Norman cities of Caen, Le Havre and Rouen which are all within a 40 minute drive.

LE PETIT COQ aux Champs, Campigny,Pont-Audemer: Tel: 0033 2 32 41 04 19 Email them through the website:www.hotel-coq-pont-audemer.com. Rooms from around 150 Euros B&B.

In Trew's Travels I usually don't describe restaurant dishes in great detail even though I take a digital photo of nearly every course.It would be hard to describe Jean-Marie's cooking anyway, as it's so unusual. For example, who else but France's answer to Heston Blumenthal could create an off-the-wall dish of cabbage soup with pan-fried goose livers floating in it? Sublime!

His nightly 38 Euro menu, served by head waiter Gregorie's friendly team, is composed of such creations. No wonder gourmets travel for miles to sample his award-winning fare. We shared the dining room with a hundred ceramic cockerels (of course!) and a friendly couple from the Isle of Wight who return year after year for the food and poolside pleasures.

I really loved this place and will make it my base in future, thanks in part to its proximity to my favourite town in Northern France.

HONFLEUR is like a stage set for a maritime musical. Its picturesque harbour has been the subject of 3,109,089 paintings (and that's only the ones I've seen!) and is therefore usually crowded with crocodile-lines of bewildered Japanese coach-parties following a tour guide with a colour-coded umbrella. The port is packed with brasseries, bistros and restaurants catering to them, but that's no reason to spurn good-value tureens of steaming mussels and fried fish honfleurais.

Pilgrimage to Monet's horticultural heaven

AS A LIFE-LONG FAN of the Impressionists, as well as an enthusiastic gardener, Claude Monet's House and Gardens at Giverny have been for years at the top of my list of Places to See Before I Die.

It was the ultimate destination of our Normandy odyssey. However, because, as you will have already gathered , the rest of our trip was so pleasurable, I feared that Giverny would be an anti-climax.

No way. If anything, Monet's Walled Garden exceeded my expectations with floral displays that were the equal,I'm sure, of any seen in high summer. This show was due to scores of autumn-flowering shrubs, old-fashioned scented roses and colourful perennials and exotic climbers twisting themselves around the ring frames and obelisks which were everywhere.

The Water Lily Lake was awesome even though the floating lily blooms were long gone over. Weeping willows and other waterside trees and shrubs blazing with autumnal russets and golds made this a magical place. The famous Japanese Bridge, where wedding parties queue in summer to be photographed, was empty. Monet used to get into a boat to paint this bridge from a particular angle to catch the light and to get close-up views of the lily blooms.

He made at least 250 studies of his beloved nymphae which became more and more abstract in form as his eyesight faded. These images have become among the most copied in art history and now adorn everything from posters and pencil cases to pillows and mugs. I once saw a tea-tray featuring his spiky pink lilies in an Aboriginal settlement in Queensland. I have also seen dozens of his original canvases in New York's MoMA , the Paris Musées d'Orsay and Marmottan as well as in London and Sydney.

Because we got to the Gardens long before the day trippers arrived from Paris, we were also able to tour the House in crowdless comfort. I was able to stand alone in the bedroom where the Father of Impressionism died in 1926, after 43 happy years at Giverny. In last month's Trew's Travels I reported how I stood alone in the much smaller attic bedroom where Vincent van Gogh succumbed to his self-inflicted wounds. I am not getting morbid. I hope.

Among the green-fingered brigade who made the pilgrimage to Giverny the week before us was the Dali Lama and actress Sharon Stone (I am not making this up).

Giverny village stretches two miles along the little river Epte. Well-kept cottages are strung out behind very attractive clumps of ornamental grasses. The old Hotel Baudry still stands as a monument to the hundreds of artists, mostly young Americans, who followed in the Master's footsteps and came to this beautiful village for artistic inspiration. A splendid Museum of American Art displays samples of their work.

As you would imagine, the Claude Monet Foundation operates a huge shop where you can purchase every conceivable kind of Water-Lily souvenir; profits are ploughed back into the upkeep of the Gardens.

I bought (a) seeds to grow my own Giverny back home and (b) a gardening gilet with 37 pockets in which to lose sizable items like hedge clippers., as I have already painfully discovered.

Best place to stay overnight so as to get an early start for the Gardens, is La Reserve, a chrome-yellow manor house on the hill above Giverny.

It is secreted behind extensive orchards from where gentlemanly Didier Brunet, who runs the place with wife Marie-Lorraine, emerged to greet us.

He later gave us a big box of heritage varieties of apples. You could have knocked me down with an appletree twig when he told me that he had built the manor just a few years ago, to a traditional plan. Bedrooms are spacious, with typical Norman furnishings. These included a painting over the bed of a severe looking old crone who looked like she would not tolerate any hanky-panky under the downy duvet!

I really liked the familiar Irish Country House feeling of this place -- wellies at the door, dogs running around, auction-room prints on the wall -- and can recommend it highly.

LA RESERVE, outside Giverny Tel 0033 2 32 21 99 09. Email through the website www.giverny.fr/LA-RESERVE. Rooms from 100-150 or you can book the whole house for a gardening group from 1000 Euros a day.