Hotel de Normandie

I spent a few days in Arromanches in early July 2019 with the purpose of seeing the famous D-Day landing sites, and the other iconic locations in the surrounding area. My room was a double room at the end of the corridor on the first floor. A beautiful sea view, and far away from the wooden staircase which creaks quite loudly - I found that to add to the charm of the hotel, actually. I stayed for 3 nights, and didn't bother to eat anywhere other than the hotel restaurant, which serves up traditional French cuisine at a very reasonable price, such as beautifully soft waffles throughout the day, as well as moules, steak and fish soup in the evening, and perfectly good carafes of wine (although at 16 I'm happy with any alcohol that I can drink in public scot-free, one of the beauties of France). The room provided a view of the Mulberry Harbour, and was less than 100 metres of the D-Day museum. The staff were very friendly and appreciated the occasional pseudo-French conversation (I did learn something in French GCSE, amazingly). All together this hotel and restaurant made up a big part of why I enjoyed my time in Arromanches so much, and I'd highly recommend it. My one word of advice - get a room with a sea view!

The cheapest Affligem in Arromanche, but that's the best I can say about the bar -restaurant. We didn't eat in the main restaurant, maybe in there you get a better experience. To be fair we arrived around 8.30pm and hadn't booked but we were shown to a table and given menus. My husband ordered the mozzerella and tomato starter, I the duck terrine. The starters were OK, nothing to shout about though. For main course he chose the risotto, I took a risk and ordered the fish and chips. We hadn't finished our starters when the waiter came and plonked down our main courses! He saw our bemused faces and said the kitchen was very fast! It didn't bode well for the risotto that it had taken less than 10 minutes from ordering to arriving at our table. Honestly it was like mush! We've had over cooked risotto before but this was on another level. Rice pudding would have been less mushy than this. My husband couldn't eat it. The fish and chips... not fresh made batter, in fact if you'd said it had come from the frozen isle at a supermarket I'd not be suprised. It was shockingly bad. The service was swift, in fact you have to be careful you don't get whiplash from the waiters as they zip here and there. Definitely avoid, there are better restaurants in Arromanche. Absolutely no love showed to the food or to serving the customers.

Liked · Let's be realistic, this hotel is an old lady, it survived the war, its a typical french 2 star hotel with a creeky staircase and full of history and character and it delivers the basic needs. Its worn in places, but its clean, the rooms are comfortable and have been modernised. It faces the waterfront with views over the mulbery harbour and the new D-Day musuem is right underneath the Hotel. Free parking on site, round the back. Disliked · The Food has been criticised in past reviews and generally I'd agree with them. This sort of Hotel, especially at low seaon, is not going to attract a Michelin chef. But, there's little alternative in Arromanche low season. The Fish & Chips for example came from a processed packet, the moules-a-la-creme was a moule mariniere with a cream added on top, and the deserts are processed and displayed in a glass fronted fridge by reception. Breakfast is a petit dejeuner, so don't expect ceriels, or anything cooked.