Lisieux is a French commune located in the department of Calvados in the region Normandy and populated by 20 171 inhabitants called Lexovii and Lexoviennes. Lisieux is the capital of the Pays d’Auge , a region characterized by its valleys and bocage .

Sights

Two tourist walks marked with descriptive panels allow you to discover the city. The first circuit is entitled “In the footsteps of Saint Thérèse”. It is indicated by a blue line painted on the sidewalks. The second walk is entitled “Medieval Lisieux”, the fourteen signs are yellow:

1. Departure: rue Monseigneur-Germain
2. River Lisieux: left bank of the Orbiquet
3. From the line of William the Conqueror
4. Les bruits de Lisieux: rue au Char , in front of the forecourt of the Saint-Jacques church
5. The chapter: 1 rue Aristide-Briand, between the Desmares manor and the hotel du haut doyenné
6. Fort l’Évêque: rue du Maréchal-Foch, at the entrance to Square Arnoul
7. The bourgeois city: in the garden of the Bishop’s Palace
8. The Hundred Years War: in the Bishop’s Palace garden
9. Prestige of the bishops and counts: Place François-Mitterrand, to the right of the forecourt of Saint-Pierre cathedral
10. The end of the Middle Ages and the Wars of Religion: place le Hennuyer, at the corner of rue du Docteur-Degrenne and rue Paul-Banaston
11. Lisieux, the Englishwoman: 1 rue Paul-Banaston
12. Lisieux, la Française: 17 quai des Remparts, near the Lambert Tower
13. Origin of French Canada: 25 quai des Remparts, right bank of the Touques
14. The end of the count bishops: rue du Docteur-Degrenne, to the right of the La Ferronnays fountain

Religious monuments 

Related to Saint Therese of Lisieux 

In the heart of the city of Lisieux, rue du Carmel is the Carmel, founded in 1838 by the young ladies Gosselin (originally from Pont-Audemer ). The young Thérèse Martin joined 50 years later. There is the statue of the Virgin of the Smile. This is the one that was in Thérèse’s room at Les Buissonnets when the future saint was miraculously healed in 1883. The facade of the chapel is made of Oise stone.

Les Buissonnets 

The house “les Buissonnets” is located on Chemin des Buissonnets. It is the childhood home of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. Today it is a museum made up of scenes describing the stages of Thérèse Martin’s life.

Other religious monuments 

• Saint-Pierre Cathedral
• The episcopal palace
• The Haut-Doyenné hotel 
• The church of Saint-Jacques 
• Saint-Désir church 
• The Frémont institution
• Saint-Joseph church
• Saint-Jean-Bosco church 
• The Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes chapel 
• Saint-François-Xavier church 
• Reformed temple, rue Ramon.
• Evangelical Baptist Church, rue de la Gare.
• Evangelical Protestant Church, rue du Camp Franc.

Secular monuments 

• Town Hall
• Museum of Art and History 
• Castle of Saint-Germain-de-Livet 

Lost heritage 

• House 40 rue de la Paix.
• Plantefor’s house of the cirier. The medieval house of the cirier Plantefor was demolished inMay 1899. It was located at the corner of rue du Paradis and Grande-Rue, which today has become rue Henry-Chéron.
• Manoir de la Salamandre. The “manor of the Salamander” or “François home I ^st  ” medieval house, located at 19 rue for beans was destroyed by Allied bombing in earlyJune 1944.
• The butter market. The butter market was weekly in Lisieux. The butter market was located next to the Saint-Jacques church , at the corner of the rue Saint-Jacques and the rue au Char, on the old Saint-Jacques cemetery, the current place Boudin-Desvergées. 
• The Delaunay barracks . The Delaunay military barracks was built between 1875 and 1878. It bears the name of the General of the Revolution Jacques Charles René Delaunay . It was originally to be called the Grand Jardin barracks. 
• The prison 

Green spaces 

The city’s main park, the Bishop’s Palace garden (which would have been designed by Le Nôtre ), is located in the heart of the city. It has five entrances to access it: by a staircase in the Cour Matignon; by a staircase behind a gate on rue Jacques-de Condorcet; by a staircase behind the war memorial, closed by a gate, boulevard Carnot; by a portal on Boulevard Carnot; by a staircase in front of a gate at the end of the dead end of the public garden. It houses the municipal greenhouses, the octagonal bandstand inaugurated in June 1910 created by the Maison Antoine Chassaing, a central circular basin with water jets, the war memorial, the statues of François Rude , Jean-Antoine Houdon ,François Denis Tronchet and Aristide Denfert-Rochereau .

The archaeological garden of the hospital is located at the corner of boulevard Jeanne-d’Arc and rue de Paris, near the Robert-Bisson hospital . Gallo-Roman remains (unearthed during archaeological excavations carried out from 1978 to 1985 ) are on display there. They include a thermal building and a private building.

The arboretum is made up of 700 trees of 130 varieties spread over 12 hectares. It stretches between rue Roger-Aini, avenue Jean-XXIII, boulevard John-F.-Kennedy, rue du Canada and rue d’Écosse.

Culture 

Media library 

Inaugurated on June 21, 2002, the André-Malraux media library , the latest cultural space in the city of Lisieux, is a public library offering around 100,000 documents for consultation or borrowing (books, periodicals, phonograms, videograms, CD-ROMs, electronic resources). It also has a 70-seat auditorium where conferences and screenings are organized.

Theaters 

• Municipal Theater of Lisieux , located 2 rue au Char.
• The “Tanit theater” association, located 11 rue d’Orival.

Cinemas

• Le Royal Cinema, located 12 rue du 11-Novembre.
• Le Majestic cinema, located 7 rue au Char.

Museums 

This museum brings together archaeological collections, particularly Gallo-Roman, ceramics from the Pré d’Auge , paintings and historical photographs of the city of Lisieux.