Normandy
Normandy is popular among American tourists due to our help in invading Europe during WWII (1/4 of all troops that landed on the d-day beaches were American). The last time I was here I chose Caen as my base but we'd visited Bayeux to see the 1000 year old tapestry depicting William the Conqueror's invasion of England. We liked the town and decided that when we returned to Normandy we'd stay here so we did.
Bayeux is the only town on the coast that didn't get bombed. It also has a pretty healthy tourist draw but handles it reasonably well. I didn't think the prices of things were out of whack although there were quite a few tourist shops selling trinkets.
The Cathedral here is quite massive and completely out of proportion to the rest of the town and the tapestry is well worth a visit. You can also ride the city bus out to the American Cemetery. There was a deal going on so we were able to ride round trip for about $5. The last time we were here there was a bus (bus verte) that left Caen and went to about 4 of the touristic sites before returning to Caen for about $12. That bus no longer exists so it's more work to get to all the sites on public transit.