Day Trip To The Normandy Beaches..

Do you need any covid-lark checks?

 

I’d like to do that trip , very interesting , let us know how you get on

 

Have done it a few times, last time was in late May this year. Best book to get is Major & Mrs Holt's Battlefield Guide. Maybe too late for you to order a copy though.

Shame that the Portsmouth > Le Havre route is no more as that meant you could ride over the impressive Pont de Normandy, get brekkie in Honfleur and then ride along the coast stopping off at the various sights.

You don't really say how long you're over there. However, returning in September means you'll have plenty of time and maybe do Brittany too. We did Caen and then back via Roscoff > Plymouth.

 

That's how I read it initially then I noticed the thread title "Day Trip" so he must be going over in Sept and back same day.

 

Ahh, just a day trip...thought he was going this Sat. Now re-read his post and also clocked the title...

Planning is vital then. More reason for the book I mentioned. Would recommend Pegasus Bridge, Arromanches (Mullberry Harbour), Pointe du Hoc and American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer... Other places are available

Your ability to manage such a schedule will depend on ferry times and your willingness to skim though some of the locations. Far better to do it over a long weekend and immerse yourself IMHO.

 

Mate and I stopped off at Omaha beach while we were down there. No one else around .... Got the stove out and had a brew .... in silence ... except for birdsong ..... Hairs up on the back of head typing this ...

 

The Mullberry Harbour at Arromanches is a 'quick win' as there's a viewpoint on the main coastal road where you get a decent view of what's left of the Harbour (weather/visibility dependant). There as also one of the gantries from the pontoon bridge that spanned between the floating concrete harbour parts as well as the shore. The whole Mullberry Harbour thing was a work of complete bonkers inventiveness that you wouldn't think possible... "No need to capture the heavily fortified and defended deep water port of Cherbourg... we'll just build our own in England and float it across 100 miles of sea". Completely mad but it worked, made the supply of the invading army possible and meant that Cherbourg and it's sizeable garrison could be by-passed and effectively ignored until a decent foothold was established and they were cut off. Absolute genius.

There were two but the one at Omaha Beach was practically destroyed in a storm a couple of weeks after the invasion before it could be fully assembled.

 

You will be off the boat around 7am. If I were you I would ride to arromanche and visit the museum. It has all the engineering models of the Mulberry Harbour amongst other things. I think you will still have time to go back to Pegasus Bridge and visit that museum. Its a 5 minute ride back to Ouisterham there are plenty of restaurants for a meal before getting back on the Ferry

 

The hotel de Normandie, opposite the Arromanche museum car park was good for breakfast

 

On the headland above Arromanches is a 360 degree cinema. The film takes you by air road and sea cutting from WW2 footage to modern times and back again around the local area. Really worth consideration.....

 

I wouldn’t bother with the UK sticker. I’ve never had one and never been stopped. I think the French hate us even more now, so the last thing the police want to do is stop and talk to you.

 

If you can pop into St Mere-Eglise their is a very wonderful, poignant museum maybe 45 mins from the ferry. Also it’s where the paratroopers got caught on the church spire in the WW2 classic The Longest Day.

 

It’s probably over ten years ago that we visited https://www.airborne-museum.org/en/ it was a great museum

 

I had this trip planned for June 2020 …… didn’t happen due to COVID of course ….. hoping to go next year now that I have the V4s as well and especially to Caen as my Grandad’s brother was killed there and is one of the names on the memorial ….. our youngest is in the Royal Marines and they went for a weekend and said how emotional it was we’re hoping to ride there together …. Enjoy

 

Yes Ducbird this was very moving but it must have been good for the families involved to know after all these years what happened to their loved ones.My uncle George was killed in action at Paschendaele in 1917 he was only 19 years old and he has no known grave although his name is recorded on the Tyne Cot memorial.It would be good to know where his remains are.Maybe they will be found one day.

 

Thanks for all that info definitely going to plan a trip in.