Possible Clues:

• 'It's News to Me' columnist Herb
• City WNW of Paris
• Setting of William the Conqueror's castle
• Columnist who wrote 'Baghdad by the Bay'
• Bay Area columnist who coined the word "beatnik"
• Port on River Orne in northern France
• Port on the Orne
• City near Paris
• Where William the Conqueror is buried
• French city largely destroyed during the Normandy campaign