Created in 1974, the Boucles de la Seine normande regional park (81,000ha/200,000 acres) stretches out on either side of the meanders of the River Seine from the Roumare loop to the doorstep of Le Havre, just before the Normandy Bridge. It encompasses a rich and diverse patchwork of woodlands and marshlands, strewn with tidy villages, abbeys, chateaux, bread ovens, wine presses, dove cotes, barns and water mills.