Wherever you look in Normandy, you will see the region’s flag – as windowstickers on cars and campervans, fluttering outside public buildings alongside the Tricolore and the EU flag, and possibly on the packaging of a certain brand of Camembert cheese.

So here’s a little test: shut your eyes and see how accurately you can describe it. The answer is not as straightforward as you might think.

The first point to clarify is that those beasts you might be picturing in your mind’s eye are not lions but leopards.

The two symbols are often confused: leopards typically have three paws on the ground and a fourth raised while lions are on their hind legs.

Most people would say the Normandy flag is two golden leopards on a red background. Your leopards may sprout dark blue claws and tongues, or not, according to taste.

Sometimes though there are three leopards – Richard Coeur de Lion is understood to have preferred there being three.

Suffice it to say that the proper number of cats on the Norman flag has been the subject of much debate. The Mouvement Normand is adamant that this device belongs on a coat-of-arms, not on a flag.

They claim the true flag is an Olaf cross, reflecting the Scandinavian origins of the Normans or Norsemen: a gold-bordered red cross on a red background, and preferably no leopards in sight.

As a concession the mouvement accepts the Olaf cross flag with two (or three) diminutive leopards in the top left-hand segment.