If the museum in Dieppe awakened your interest in Georges Braque, you may be interested in visiting his grave in the clifftop church some way north of VARENGEVILLE, 8km west of Dieppe (25min ride on bus #311 or #312, afternoon only). Braque's marble tomb is topped by a sadly decaying mosaic of a white dove in flight. More impressive is his vivid blue Tree of Jesse stained-glass window inside the church, through which the sun rises in summer.Also in Varengeville, 300m south of the D75, is the Manoir d'Ango, the "summer palace" of sixteenth-century Dieppe's leading shipbuilder (mid-March to mid-Nov daily 10am–12.30pm & 2–6.30pm; €5). Jean Ango outfitted such major expeditions as Verrazzano's, which "discovered" the site of New York in 1524, and made himself rich from pillaging treasure ships out on the Spanish Main. His former home consists of a rectangular ensemble of fine brick buildings arranged around a central courtyard. The intricate patterning of red bricks, shaped flint slabs, stone blocks and supporting timbers is at its finest in the remarkable central dovecote, topped by a dome that rises to an elegant point, which is aflutter with pigeons. Back along the road towards Dieppe from the church, the house at the Bois des Moutiers, built for Guillaume Mallet from 1898 onwards and un-French in almost every respect, was one of architect Edwin Lutyens' first commissions. Lutyens, then aged just 29, was at the start of a career that was to culminate during the 1920s when he laid out most of the city of New Delhi. The real reason to visit, however, is to enjoy the magnificent gardens, designed by Mallet in conjunction with Gertrude Jekyll, which are at their most spectacular in the second half of May (mid-March to mid-Nov daily 10am–noon & 2–6pm; €6 during May & June, otherwise €5.33). Enthusiastic guides lead you through the highly innovative engineering of the house and grounds, full of quirks and games. The colours of the Burne-Jones tapestry hanging in the stairwell were copied from Renaissance cloth in William Morris's studio; the rhododendrons were chosen from similar samples. Outside, paths lead through vistas based on paintings by Poussin, Lorrain and other seventeenth-century artists. Varengeville holds one single, very lovely accommodation option, the Hôtel de la Terrasse, atop the cliffs on route de Vastérival west of town (tel 02.35.85.12.54; €40–55; closed mid-Oct to mid-March). Fishy menus in its panoramic dining room cost from €15.
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