Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - HELP... Normandy Beaches private tour guide

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HELP... Normandy Beaches private tour guide

Has anyone used a private guide to see the Normandy Beaches and Bayaux Tapastries. We will be off a ship for the day in Le Havre and don't want to do a ship's tour. Any suggestions would really be appreciated. Thanks, Sandy

Yes, we did last year book a private tour for 6 persons from Le havre to the landing beaches throuhg an agency in France. The service was great, the guide was bilingual & very knowledgeable. You can contact frenchadventures.com, it was a great tour!

I appreciate the suggestion but... I went to their website and they're asking $1000 per van for their Normandy Beach tour and we're just two of us!! Anyone have another suggestion that's a bit less expensive. Thanks, Sandy

18 months ago some family members used Bus Fly tours and found them excellent. Don't recall the price.

I have no personal experience with this, but I've heard good reviews of the BusFly tours (www.busfly.com). I've also heard people speak positively about someone named Colonel Chilcott who runs a B&B and gives private tours. You might do a websearch for him.

Here's the Col. Chilcott info: Le Manor des Doyens St Loup Hors Bayeux 14400 France From US: 011 33 2 31 22 39 09 [email protected] www.vrbo.com/vrbo/352.htm We stayed in their B&B in June 2000. Passed on the tour though. If you do a text search by typing Chilcott into the box at the top of your page, you should get several messages about his tours from the archives.

In 2000 I took Col. Chilcott's private D-Day Beach tour which included the British, American and German cemeteries. I stayed at the Chilcott's 300 year old farmhouse B&B in Bayeaux. Comfortable accomodations amd warm hospitality from The Colonel and his wife. Colonel Chilcott is retired from the British army and a noted military historian. I am a history buff so I considered it a plus that, the night before my D-Day Beaches tour, he showed me some excellent BBC video tapes of the invasion. He also shared with me his British perspective on the invasion which was quite interesting. One of the BBC tapes was a fascinating docudrama about a French resistance spy who, before the war, was renowned throughout Europe as a top cyclist. As even the Germans respected this famed athelete he was given carte blanche cycling priveleges throughout the Normandy beaches even in the proximity of gun emplacements. He then would discreetly sketch maps of these fortifications that he would then hide in his bike and or his clothing to get the information past German checkpoints.The maps were then secreted out of France to Allied intelligence. One scene in the docudrama features the Chilcott's B&B as a backdrop. Regarding the Bayeaux Tapestry there are individual recorded audio guides as the Tapestry is quite long and the audio guides are superb in explaining the significance of all that you see on the tapestry. I was amazed at how well it has been preserved down through the centuries. I would recommend the Chilcott's Normandy Beaches tour and their fine accomodations in Bayeaux.

Was in Normandy last month. Bus Fly tours is out of business having been bought out by Normandy tours. We used them and were very well sastified with a english speaking guide (65 years old) who lived in Bayeux during the occupation and was there of course for D Day. www,Normandywebguide.com will give you all the information you need.

Do you happen to remember approximately what Colonel Chilcott charged for his private tour? Thanks!

Author: Lisa ([email protected]) Date: 06/25/2002, 11:17 pm Message: Linda, I can see that my information on Col. Chilcott was confusing. Here's a very specific breakdown: 330E is for the first couple total. On top of that is a flat fee for gas/van and that is 20E. So for a couple, it's 350E, plus buying the Colonel lunch at a cafe. If you have any additional people, it's 20E per person. For a couple, it's 175E per person. Keep in mind it's a personal tour, tailored to your interests, and lasts 10 hours (he seemed like he could have kept going!).

Thanks Lisa! It sounds like it would be a terrific tour. We live in Germany and may just put together a small group and make a van trip up there!