Cod, God and a sticky liqueur are the chief ingredients of Fécamp. It is also a busy summer resort with a pleasant sea-front promenade and marina which has displaced the sadly depleted fishing port.

Fécamp’s monastic heritage can be traced back to the 7thC when a monastery was established here to guard a relic of the Precious Blood. By the 11thC, it had become a major pilgrim centre protected by the Dukes of Normandy who founded the Eglise de la Trinité. The present Norman Gothic abbey-church dates from the 13thC, and is one of the largest in France, with a bleak unadorned nave, soaring lantern tower and superb chancel decorated with carved Renaissance screens. Pilgrimages still take place on the Tuesday and Thursday after Trinity. From Norman Gothic to nightmarish neo-Gothic, the distinctly theatrical 19thC Palais Bénédictine, benedictinedom.com, rue Alexandre Le Grand, houses a joint museum-cum-PR exercise devoted to the famous local Benedictine liqueur invented by monks in the 15thC. You take in relics from past abbeys and antique alembics before encountering the liqueur itself – adults qualify for a tasting.