"Gites" in France are almost invariably interesting places to stay.  They are typically reclaimed or repurposed houses, farms, or manors, made into unique tourist housing that is usually comfortable and visually fascinating, and well-atuned to the locale.  

In Asnelles, Normandy, not far from Arromanches and Gold Beach, there is Le Pressoir d'Asnelles.  An old apple press in the front driveway gives this renovated house its name.  This gite had ivied walls, an intimate garden behind the dining room, a swimming pool, and a large working garden (with a remaining apple tree and a variety of other fruit trees).  Stone building walls are works of art in Normandy, and offer endlessly interesting graphic details that (admittedly) tend to be more interesting to photographers than to casual observers.   Le Pressoir's stone walls seemed perfectly built, and irresistible to ivy.

The gray slate roof contrasts with the colorful ivy wrapping two sides.

Norman geometry lesson: triangles, rectangles, lines.

The big garden, not yet fully buffed out; a future project

L: The apple press (think Calvados)

R: The steeple of the nearby church floats behind rosehips.

L:  Chairs wait, vibrantly, near the pool.

R:  Getting a foothold and head start, ivy climbs the trellis.

Thick original walls now frame the stained-glass window to the second floor of guest rooms.

In the big garden

Mono-plane weather-vane

The wall across the little street beckons; more stones.