Advice and Itineraries for Visiting the D-Day Landing Zone of Normandy

The most rewarding travels in the D-Day Landing Zone and surrounding area of Normandy come when you’ve found an insightful and personal combination of visits to sights, cemeteries, and museums, of views and tastes of contemporary life in the area, and of human encounters along the way. You can try to concentrate those into a single day or take the slow-travel approach over four or five days. In any case, you may well come away from this part of Normandy with a greater sense of History—that ever-moving force that the news never manages to capture—then you’ve ever had before. 

Since I’m often called upon to create customized itineraries and encounters for individuals, small groups, and high-end agencies, it goes against the grain of my sense of personalized travel to present generic, one-size-fits all itineraries. In fact, the information and itineraries presented here are largely intended to give a sense of the logistics and possibilities in and around the Landing Zone rather than to dictate a specific way of visiting the area.

Any itinerary naturally attempts to include major war-related sights such Pointe du Hoc, the American Cemetery, Arromanches, and Pegasus Bridge, but visiting the Landing Zone actually means choosing between numerous museums, cemeteries, sights, the beaches themselves, and all else that the surrounding area has to offer.

In creating your own itinerary, there are four important points to keep in mind:

1. Regarding museums: While there are notable war museums associated with various landing sites and battle areas—Airborne Museum at Saint Mère Eglise, Utah Beach Museum at Utah Beach, Visitor Center at the American Cemetery, Battle of Normandy Museum at Bayeux, Landing Museum at Arromanches, Juno Beach Centre at Courseulles sur Mer, Pegasus Bridge Museum at Ranville—they overlap in various ways. Therefore, depending on your interests and available time, as well as on the weather, you might visit certain sites without visiting the corresponding museum or by visiting some museums more thoroughly than others. Having said that, it would be a shame to visit war sites without understanding what went on at those particular sites there and the role it played in the larger battle.

2. Regarding cemeteries: The beauty and drama of the American Cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach is naturally one of the calling cards of the Landing Zone, yet understanding Normandy comes not simply from seeing the largest cemetery of your own nation. There are two dozen cemeteries, great and small, along the Landing Beaches and within ten miles inland. If staying for at least one night, make a point to visit the cemetery of another nation. And if staying longer then go searching for one or two of the smaller ones; you don’t have to know anything about it, just look for the crosses on the map or the cimetière sign on the road. I’ve visited many cemeteries on the twenty or so trips I’ve made to the Landing Zone since 1992, but one of the most memorable to me was the one I came upon one June evening by following a sign that let me off a narrow country road onto a dirt road that ended at a small cemetery planted in a field by Secqueville-en-Bessin (see photo above).

3. Regarding timing: Keep your schedule loose. You might arrive thinking that a visit to the American Cemetery and accompanying museum will take 90 minutes only to have it turn into a three-hour stay or longer if find yourself in a prolonged conversation with your father or son or with a recently encountered stranger discussing the meaning of life and wealth and freedom on Omaha Beach—a conversation that will be well worth missing yet another museum. Visiting the Landing Zone can have a profound effect on people, so allow me to throw in some travel therapy here: go with the feeling.

4. Normandy is not simply one big war memorial. You may be setting out to visit sights and memories of WWII but there’s more going on here than memories of war. Despite the development of the tourist industry relative to war sites and their aftermath, the Landing Zone remains a rural, out-of-the-way area that, outside of the period June through September, can feel very much off the beaten track. Therefore, beyond your decision concerning individual war sites and museums, much of your stay in this part of Normandy will depend on the particularities of your own travel group:
- Is everyone gung-ho for devoting all daytime explorations in this part of Normandy to WWII sites?
- Do your passport and interests lead you to focus more on zones and cemeteries particularly marked by the presence of American, British, Canadian, Polish, or German soldiers?
- Would you be willing to linger over lunch by the port of Grandcamp-Maisy or Port-en-Bessin at the expense of, say, a museum at Arromanches?
- Will you take the time to stroll through Bayeux? (For any tour beyond a daytrip—and perhaps even for well-timed daytrips—you’d be remiss to not include a visit to the Bayeux Tapestry in your explorations)
- Are you a green enough traveler to want to spend a few hours meandering in Pays d’Auge, the lush rural area east of Caen,
- How deep is your interest in local cheese and cidre or Calvados brandy?
- Would you take half a day to visit the historical sights and Memorial (war museum) at Caen?
- Will you take an afternoon or day or more to luxuriate along the Flowered Coast, la Côte Fleurie? That coast runs to the east of the Landing Zone, from the 19th-century resort of Cabourg to the pretty tourist-bustling port of Honfleur and includes Deauville, the resort town with greatest international high-end appeal in the area.

Begin by making a basic decision of how long you plan to explore the area and the depth of your interest in understanding the wheres, whens, and hows of the Invasion of Normandy 1944. Then build your itinerary from there, adding extra time and days for the various possibilities noted above.

Understanding the logistics of touring the Landing Zone

The Landing Zone of Normandy is but a small portion of the greater, historical region of Normandy. Normandy consists of two regions, Upper Normandy and Lower Normandy, though there is currently political talk of combining Lower and Upper Normandy into a single region, and already the two regions have joined forces in promoting some tourism under a single banner.

The five Landing Beaches are situated in Lower Normandy, whose capital is Caen, which is on the eastern edge of the Landing Zone. Lower Normandy is comprised of three departments, a department being something like a county within a region. Four of the five Landing Beaches are situated in the department of Calvados, with the fifth and westernmost beach, Utah, and the town of Sainte-Mère-L’Eglise, site of the excellent Airborne Museum, being located in the department of Manche. Other than that corner of Manche, these suggested itineraries concern only Calvados and two points of interest along the way from Paris (Giverny and La Roche-Guyon, described below). Upper Normandy, which is comprised of two departments, with Rouen as its capital, will not be discussed here though you may well consider extending your stay to that side of the Seine.

When to go

Though the beaches of Normandy can be cold and damp in winter, grey skies and slanted rain are possible at any time of year—for proof see weather report from June 1944. In planning your itinerary, a deciding factor won’t be so much the weather as the length of daylight.

The short days of winter mean that from November through February you won’t have daylight for visiting beaches and cemeteries beyond 5pm. During that period, museums are closed by 6pm and in some cases also during lunchtime. I don’t mention that to discourage winter travel (in fact, I’m a big fan of off-season travel, the weather be damned) but rather to note that you have to plan accordingly. The daylight of March through October naturally lends itself to greater explorations of the countryside, with late April to early July being optimal.

Once the Landing began on D-Day, June 6, 1944, it took ten weeks for the Allied forces to break out of Normandy, until August 21, when the German Panzer divisions were fully defeated in the Falaise Pocket, eliminating the German Army’s presence west of the Seine. Cities, towns, and villages throughout the area celebrate the anniversary of their liberation. Those planning to travel during that period should look at a schedule of local events on the website Normandie Mémoire. The site also has a good intro film to the Landing Zone and lots of helpful information about specific sites.

If interested in visiting or staying along the Flowered Coast, particularly Deauville, note that that as the resort portion of Calvados it be busy during spring and summer weekends and holidays and during the American Film Festival at Deauville, which in 2009 takes Sept. 4-13, 2009.

A daytrip from Paris

A round-trip daytrip to the Landing Beaches from Paris is tiring yet doable. Door to door you need to count on about 7 hours of transportation. It is not possible (or at best highly impractical) to visit the D-Day sights by public transportation, though you can take the train out to Normandy and hire wheels from there.

There are several alternatives to a round-trip daytrip from Paris:

1. By car. The advantage is complete freedom in the timing of your day, but renting a car for a single day requires additional planning as well as confronting Paris traffic, not to mention 3½ hours of driving each way.
Alternatively, you can hire a car and driver. You can’t always count on the driver being much of a guide even if the car service promotes him as such, though perhaps all you really want is the driver and his wheels. For the best of all possible daytrips you would specifically hire a car and driver-guide or better yet a car, driver, and guide.

2. By train. Trains leaving from Paris’s Saint Lazare Station reach Caen in 1¾-2¼ hours and Bayeux in 2-2½ hours. Bayeux is the more central point from which to explore the most accessible American sights (Pointe du Hoc and the American Cemetery) and British sights (Arromanches, Cemetery and museum at Bayeux). Juno, the Canadian beach, along with the Canadian museum at Courseulles-sur-Mer and the nearby cemetery at Reviers, lies more or less equidistant from Caen and Bayeux.

From the train station you can (a) rent a car (if you haven’t done much advance planning, car rental and return is typically easier in Caen), (b) join on a tour with wheels, or (c) hire a private guide with a car or (d) a taxi-guide, which may be more or a taxi than a guide. The Caen and Bayeux Tourist Offices provide some information on guided tours.

3. Tour buses from Paris, such as Paris Vision or Cityrama. These are convenient because no planning is required, but if there are at least three or four in your party then the price of more personalized options above starts to look more reasonable.

In all cases, the earlier you set out the better. Leaving by 7:30am gives you a head start on morning rush hour traffic leaving Paris and allows you a good six to eight hours in the Landing Zone before returning to Paris. Be sure to hit the road by 9am at the latest. Given your limited time visiting the beaches, you’re advised to keep lunch on a daytrip brief (a sandwich or creperie or café lunch).

Travelers staying in the Landing Zone for more than a daytrip will have time, if they wish, to cross the American, British, and Canadian sectors, each with its own sights, museums, and cemeteries. But on a daytrip, traveling Americans, Brits, and Canadians naturally let their passports set the basic agenda.

American visitors might choose Pointe du Hoc as their first Landing sight, followed by the American Cemetery and its museum. Completing the day with other D-Day sights might then lead you to continue along the coast to the German battery at Longues-sur-Mer and remnants of the artificial harbor (with or without visiting the related museum) at Arromanches. Perhaps you’ll have time at the end of the afternoon to visit one or more of the sights at Bayeux (the British Cemetery, the Bayeux Tapestry, and the cathedral). Since Utah Beach is the furthest of the Landing Beaches from Paris you should consider including it on a daytrip only if you have a personal connection there.

Canadians heading out from Paris might set their initial sights on Juno Beach, including the Juno Beach Centre (the Landing Zone’s only Canadian museum), and the Canadian Cemetery at Reviers (a few miles inland, near Bény-sur-Mer). Where to go from there depends on interest. I would recommend having a quick glance Arromanches and perhaps Longue-sur-Mer before heading to the American Cemetery and Bayeux.

British visitors are far less likely to even consider a daytrip from Paris since they can arrive directly at Ouistreham or drive down from Calais. British passports will naturally feel greater attachment to the British Cemetery at Bayeux, the Bayeux Tapestry, the Battle of Normandy Museum at Bayeux, Arromanches, Pegasus Bridge, and the Merville Battery, though it’s impossible to visit all of those well in a single day.

An overnight from Paris

An overnight can give a good glimpse of the Landing Zone without too many frills but nonetheless with a sense of life, landscape, and seascape in this area. Your exact itinerary for an overnight excursion depends on what time you arrive and to a lesser extent on where you’re staying. Suggestions for hotels and other lodging will be provided in an article to be posted within the next week.

For an overnight or for longer stays, there are two notable stops on the way into Normandy from Paris that might be considered since they’re within ten minutes of the highway: Giverny and La Roche-Guyon.

War buffs interested on the German effort to reinforce the Atlantic Wall might wish to stop at the town and castle of La Roche-Guyon, Field Marshall Erwin Rommel’s headquarters in winter and spring 1943-1944 after his appointment by Adolf Hitler to beef up the Atlantic Wall. La Roche-Guyon, which is on the edge of the Paris region, is just over an hour from the center of Paris. There’s actually little to see at La Roche-Guyon from its wartime history other than casemates dug into the cliff containing an exhibit about that period, but irrespective of its wartime history, the castle (open late March to late November) is a fascinating mishmash of additions from various centuries, beginning with its 12th century dungeon, and the Seine-side town itself is quite pretty. You might feel a bit pressed for time if including this on an overnight trip into Normandy, but should definitely be kept in mind if headed out for a long stay. The fact that relatively few visitors stop here (especially considering its proximity to Giverny) is a further attraction.

Six miles away, just over the border into Normandy, is Monet’s House and Gardens at Giverny (open April 1-Nov. 1). For most travelers, Giverny takes precedence over La Roche-Guyon. To understand why, you need only imagine the look on your wife’s face when you tell her that you’ve decided that it would be more interesting to visit the cave where Rommel stored weapons than the world-famous garden that Monet painted. I’ve received dozens of requests over the past years that ask different versions of the same question: how do we reconcile the interest of the women in the group to visit Giverny, Honfleur, and Deauville, with the interest of the men in WWII. (I reserve the response of that particular form of travel therapy to individual requests.)

If you’ve left Paris by 9am and stopped to visit Giverny and/or La Roche-Guyon, then you’ll reach Bayeux in the middle of the afternoon. You might then have time to visit all of the sights of Bayeux: British Cemetery, Battle of Normandy Museum, Bayeux Tapestery, cathedral, and a walk around town.

If driving without detour from Paris or arriving by train then renting a car at the station you could be ready to explore the Landing Zone by early afternoon, in which case it might be possible to fit in either Utah Beach and Sainte Mère Eglise or Pointe du Hoc and the American Cemetery/Omaha Beach. Utah Beach is the most distant beach so on an overnight you would need to choose between Utah and Saint Mère Eglise on the one hand and Pegasus Bridge and the Merville Battery on the other.

Generally speaking, 10 hours of sightseeing in the Landing Zone provides a good introductory view of the events of D-Day even though it’s impossible in that time to see all the major sights and the two or three museums that are required “reading” in and around the Landing Zone.

Your explorations on that second day will also naturally depend on your interests and nationality and to a lesser extent the time of year. For Americans, a full day from Bayeux would consist of the German Cemetery at La Cambe, Saint Mère Eglise (the church and the Airborne Museum), Utah Beach, Sainte-Mairie-du-Mont (a quick stop in a village but possible to stay for lunch at one of the café-restaurants by the church), Pointe du Hoc, and the American Cemetery/Omaha Beach. Whether you visit all or some of those, I recommend touring in that order. (To those horrified by the suggestion to visit the German Cemetery I can only say “Get over it.”)

On the western (American) end of the Landing Zone, the museum and film at Sainte-Mère-L’Eglise provide the best introduction to the sights and events of D-Day while on the eastern (British) end, Pegasus Bridge and the Pegasus Bridge Museum are the best introduction. The airborne landing began in those two areas on night of June 5-6, 1944 so they make for good entry points for exploring the Landing Zone over two days or more.

If visiting on an overnight, you’ll naturally want to stay a good part of the day in the Landing Zone before starting on the drive back to Paris or into other regions in the late afternoon.

Two nights

A two-night stay is a good way for a traveler to get an overview of the Landing Zone along with a sense of life, food and drink in that immediate area and perhaps visit the Flowered Coast for a few hours on the way to or from Paris. Travelers often opt for a two-night visit when they want to make a thorough excursion from Paris or when visiting two or three regions during their trip, perhaps some combination of Champagne, the Loire Valley, Brittany, and Normandy. You might also consider renting a car from the airport when you first arrive in France in order to begin your stay in Normandy, saving Paris for later in your stay.

With two nights you might devote 1½-2 full days of D-Day touring, which allows for detailed explorations of the Landing Zone without testing the patience of co-travelers lesser interested in the war. (Actually, everyone gets interested once they’re here.) Staying anywhere from Bayeux to Caen works for this length of stay.

If you’ve had the chance to visit Bayeux on your arrival afternoon, then on the next day you might explore the western end of the Landing Zone—Utah Beach to Omaha Beach—and on the following morning and early afternoon the eastern end—Arromanches to Merville Battery.

Alternatively, if not everyone in your group has your passion for visiting war-related sights then simply designate the second day of your trip, i.e. your first full day in Normandy, your D-Day day. Then, on the final day, include a war sight or two in the morning before spending the afternoon on the Flowered Coast (some combination of Cabourg, Deauville, and Honfleur) or in the Pays d’Auge (e.g. Beaumont-en-Auge, a Calvados stop, a cheese picnic).

If not returning to Paris, you can head to Le Mont Saint Michel and spend the next night in the area of Cancale or Saint Malo to get a taste of Brittany.

Three nights

Now we’re talkin’! I’m a fan of the three-nighter for those with a true interest in WWII, including Utah Beach, and a desire to get a wider view of the department of Calvados. This is particularly recommended for France revisitors who are taking 7-10 days to visit two regions, say, Normandy and the Loire Valley, or Normandy and Brittany.

In three nights, meaning two full days in the Landing Zone plus an arrival and departure day in other areas, you’ll get to good sense of the historical and contemporary offerings throughout, enjoy an afternoon or more on the Flowered Coast, and still feel (if the weather wasn’t too gray) that wish you had more time to explore. You might spend a first night out from Paris somewhere from Honfleur to Caen and the next two nights near Bayeux or all three nights in or around Caen.

Four nights

Members of the slow-travel movement take note: You’ll actually need four nights to include all of the areas mentioned just above and to have a broad sense of the Landing Zone, the Flowered Coast, and the rural greenery of Pays d’Auge. You might also be able to include a game of golf (there are a number of courses around) or a day of biking. Travelers who have ever considered barging in Burgundy or biking along the Loire Valley will understand the attraction of staying in a single region for a full four nights.

Add yet another night and you could take a daytrip to Mont Saint Michel. Otherwise, for any of these itineraries, you can head off to Mont Saint Michel as you leave Normandy. (If heading off for a daytrip to Mont Saint Michel or planning to stop there on your way to Brittany or south, it’s advisable to plan to arrive before 11am. That’s when the major of tour buses coming from Paris and elsewhere start arriving.)

Useful links

Normandie Mémoire: www.normandiememoire.com. The site has a good introductory film to the Landing Zone and lots of helpful information about specific sights and events. Look at the events schedule on this site if planning to travel in June and July.
Normandy44 La Memoire: www.normandie44lamemoire.com/versionanglaise/indexus.html. An affiliated website offering a quick glance and description of sights, cemeteries, and museums.
Normandy Tourist Board: www.normandie-tourisme.fr
Calvados Tourist Board: www.calvados-tourisme.com
Bayeux Tourist Office: www.bayeux-tourism.com
Caen Memorial: www.memorial-caen.fr
Manche Tourism Board: www.manchetourisme.com

© June 2009, Gary Lee Kraut
 

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