She was built at Kværner Masa-Yards Turku New Shipyard in Finland and has been sailing for Brittany Ferries since 1992.

On the 1st January 2015, the EU (including the North Sea, English Channel, Eastern side of the Western Channel and Baltic Sea) will have sulphur in marine fuel cut from the allowance in 2014 of 1% to 0.1% of sulphur allowed.

Normandie rarely strays from the route for which she was built, however she has operated between Portsmouth and Cherbourg on a number of sailings, mostly for Christmas and New Year layovers but also in 1994 to transport the Tour de France back to its home country after a leg in the United Kingdom.

The new vessel, Honfleur, would result in a fleet movement with Normandie assigned to the Portsmouth-Le Havre service from late 2019.

In June 2020 Brittany Ferries announced the cancellation of the Honfleur contract with the Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft shipyard in Germany meaning Normandie will remain in the Portsmouth-Caen route.