D Day beaches - help with 1 day itinerary.....

[paul360m]

Currently in France on holiday with wife and children and we have stopped in Normandy with a view to visit the D Day beaches.

However, I seem to have booked us in Deauville which is very pleasant but not quite near where we seem to need to be..,,

Basically, we have 1 day to get in as much as we can so any advice on the 'best' places to visit would be appreciated....

I'm thinking set off in the morning to Bayeaux and then head to Arromanches but it's a good hour or so to Bayeaux so any other ideas for places to visit along the way? Nearest beach to us looks like it's near Caen at Ouistreham which is particularly interesting as it's Sword beach comprising of British Forces BUT from our limited research, there doesn't seem to be much there in the way of memorials?

Anyway, any assistance appreciated....

Cheers

[ralphy]

Currently in France on holiday with wife and children and we have stopped in Normandy with a view to visit the D Day beaches.

However, I seem to have booked us in Deauville which is very pleasant but not quite near where we seem to need to be..,,

Basically, we have 1 day to get in as much as we can so any advice on the 'best' places to visit would be appreciated....

I'm thinking set off in the morning to Bayeaux and then head to Arromanches but it's a good hour or so to Bayeaux so any other ideas for places to visit along the way? Nearest beach to us looks like it's near Caen at Ouistreham which is particularly interesting as it's Sword beach comprising of British Forces BUT from our limited research, there doesn't seem to be much there in the way of memorials?

Anyway, any assistance appreciated....

Cheers

I visited Le Grand Bunker back in June and it’s well worth a look:

Le Grand Bunker - Musée du Mur de l'Atlantique is a fascinating museum inside the German bunker at Ouistreham which has been recreated inside to look as it would have done on D-Day. The 52ft high concrete bunker was in charge of the batteries covering the River Orne and the canal and formed a last pocket of resistance when the British troops landed at Sword Beach and took the town. A garrison of German soldiers was held up inside for 3 days after D-Day until Lieutenant Bob Orrell of the Royal Engineers, accompanied by 3 men, blew upon the armoured door with explosives and the garrison surrendered.
Inside the bunker you can see all 6 floors filled with rooms recreated to look as as they were during the war - the generator room, the medical bay, the radio transmissions room, ammunitions store and many others including the observation post with a 360° view over Sword Beach at the top. As the Museum of the Atlantic Wall, there are also lots of photographs and documents about the creation of the Atlantic Wall and beach defences, the artillery and the observation posts.

This is outside, along with other interesting items:


R

[duffy78]

Ousitreham has not much going on apart from grande bunker. If you can get to arramanches then you're in the middle of all the main museums etc. everything about a 30in drive apart, Omaha etc.

[Top Cat]

I did the Normandy beaches last year using Deauville Ibis as a base. I found the American Cemetery and museum at Omaha beach the most jaw dropping, it really brought home the scale of what happened. I also went to Utah and Sword as well. Deauville is lovely place, if you are there for the weekend there might be horse racing at the hippodrome, stunning course and only 5 euro entry.

[paul360m]

Thanks for the help - in the end, just managed Pegasus Bridge, then the Grand Bunker and them some time on Ouistreham beach - with two winging girls in tow, it's the best I could manage!

Having said that it was quite poignant that they were having a lovely game on the beach - without what had happened 70 years ago, I don't know if that would have been possible.......

There is racing in Deauville this weekend and I would have liked to have gone there but we are back home in the morning. Deauville is an interesting place - Paris sur plage with the shops to go with it!!!


Cheers

Paul

[walkerwek1958]

I was planning to visit Normandy this summer and go around the WW11 sites, but it didn`t happen; my dad was in the Navy and he was there on D-Day, so it's always interested me.

Definitely on next year's 'to do' list.

Paul

[Thewatchbloke]

I took my youngest lad on a four day Normandy tour with the Leger "Battlefield" company when he was 13. It was a trip to remember for all the right reasons, and my lad chatted incessantly two to very lively and amusing veterans (one Navy, one Army) who were on our bus for the trip, it was their first time back since 1944.

[Kris]

I was planning to visit Normandy this summer and go around the WW11 sites, but it didn`t happen; my dad was in the Navy and he was there on D-Day, so it's always interested me.

Definitely on next year's 'to do' list.

Paul

Definitely do this, my Dad was 1st Lt on LCT 858 that was at Gold beach.

We visited the beach 2 weeks ago and managed to workout within about 100 yds the section where he would have landed and earned his DSC. Cant put into words how much that means to me..

[paul360m]

Definitely do this, my Dad was 1st Lt on LCT 858 that was at Gold beach.

We visited the beach 2 weeks ago and managed to workout within about 100 yds the section where he would have landed and earned his DSC. Cant put into words how much that means to me..

Wow - nice one - must have been fantastic to be able to do that.