Hi! I'm planning a last minute trip to Paris with my family (2 adults, 23, 99, and 16). We want to rent a car and take a side trip to Normandy for 2-3 days/nights. We are mostly interested in this region for WWII history, but also would be interested in seeing and/or staying in some cool coastal towns. Can you help with ideas of great cities/towns to visit as well as where best to go to see/learn about the history? Thanks! I'm also open for suggestions for any other "must sees" ... Thanks in advance for your help!

Hi,

We are going for three nights in July. Here is what we were planning.

Day 1: Stop at Giverny and Honfluer on the way from Paris
Day 2:
St. Mere Eglise
Utah Beach Landing Museum
Utah beach
Pointe du Hoc
Omaha Beach
American Cemetery & Memorial
Longues-sur-Mer battery
Day 3:
Mont St. Michel + anything left over from 2 + Arromanches etc
Day 4:
Drive back to Paris

If your primary interest is WWII, try to visit the Peace Memorial (museum) in Caen. It's the most comprehensive museum on the Battle of Normandy. You could easily spend a couple of hours there. While there years ago, we picked up some free/handy drive-yourself tour maps/brochures. There are several other museums throughout the invasion area that are worth considering.

https://destinationwwii.com/best-nor...i-enthusiasts/

I would find vanshoppers' itineraries for Days 2 and 3 close to impossible. Although the starting/end points for those days aren't mentioned, it's a LOT of driving on both days... not counting time spent out of the car. Since you are traveling with a 99 year old, your pace will have to be much slower and your itinerary very selective.

Oops! I meant 19 year old, not 99! lol

Big difference!

I would include everyone in the planning process... itinerary, pacing, etc.

You didn't mention the time of year. If high season summer, you could get bogged down in holiday traffic were you to stay in a coastal town.

I am a bit confused. Are there three of you - 23 yo and 19 yo adults plus a 16 yo . . . OR . . . are there 5 of you - two old codgers, 23 and 19 yo adults you consider not to be adults, and a 16 yo??

janis, it is the latter. My husband and I and 3 young men aged 23, 19, and 16.

Also, this is early July.

Yesterday we visited the gorgeous Cabourg.A seaside town with lots of stunning houses. There were lots of people in the Main Street which leads straight to the beach. I loved this town although would be very busy in peak time. Here is a few photos of the houses


Stunning house

And another one

Beautiful

The beach and looks good and meets my Australian standards of good sand with no pebbles 🤣

How much time would you estimate is needed?

We are staying in Bayeux. Drive time on Day 2 is about 2-2.5 hrs. I am assuming we wont be able to cover everything on Day 2. On Day 3, MSM is 1.5 hours away. I am assuming we will have 2-3 hours to visit any left over spots from Day 2.

We also visited Arrowmanches and it is by far the best of the lot, and spent hours there. I too think you have an action packed couple of days. We are seeing these places in June, and there are a lot of people around, car parks in some places are hard to find, and the traffic and detours have certainly been a challenge.

If you stay close by where you will be touring, you save 2x the commute time daily. Bayeux is too far away.

I stayed at Port-en-Bessin in May of 2022 and really enjoyed using that town as a base to see Normandy. Arromanches looked good, too. We made an overnight trip to MSM and really enjoyed that as well. We did not do Giverny, but spent a couple of nights in Honfleur.

If you've got 3 nights, then you could probably do Giverny and Honfleur on your way to Port-en-Bessin or Arromanches, but, if WWII is your primary interest, I think I would spend that travel day seeing stuff in the British section, like Pegasus Bridge and Arromanches, perhaps the Peace Museum in Caen, rather than Giverny and Honfleur. I'm not saying those are better sites, but if you want to do D-Day sites, then that's what I'd prioritize. The next day, you could see Omaha, Pointe du Hoc, Utah, St. Mere Eglise, then see the American cemetery on your way back to your base (the tour guides all try to be there at 5:00 for the lowering of the colors). The next day, you could see anything you missed on your way to MSM, where you could spend the night on the mont or at one of the hotels inside the gates of the parking area (which is what we opted for -- you can take the shuttle up to the mont as many times as you like from here, and can see it in daylight and at night). The final day, you drive back to Paris (possibly stopping at Giverny or Honfleur if you didn't see those on the way out, if time permits).

We need to keep advice to the OP (Okie) separate from comments to Vanshoppers. Okie has not mentioned Giverney, Rouen, Honfleur or Mont Saint-Michel. Vanshoppers has separate threads regarding their trip that includes these other destinations.

Having said that...

Vanshoppers, we've stayed in Bayeux and thought it was a good base for the D-Day sights, but we stayed longer and it wasn't in high season summer when traffic is heavier everywhere. After picking up the car in Paris, we stayed in Caen for one night, then 5 nights in Bayeux and one night in Cherbourg (for a departing flight). On a separate trip, we visited Rouen, Etretat, Honfleur, Pont-l'Eveque, Evreux, etc., and many years ago went to Mont Saint-Michel on a trip that included the Loire Valley and LeMans for the 24-hour race.... The driving times you mention are very optimistic. (Google Maps? It's a calculation based on posted speed limits and not real-time traffic conditions or time finding parking.) Day 2 would be closer to 3 hours of just driving. You're planning on making 6 stops, and you could easily spend an hour or more at a few of them. Then, there's the fact that moving a group around just takes longer. Meals (lunch), pit stops, loading/unloading the car, staying together... everything. You do have the advantage of late sunsets, but that doesn't help if anyone in the group is running out of gas. You might want or need to make a rest/snack stop in the late afternoon. FYI, the visitor center at the cemetery closes at 6 p.m.

Okie, when you've developed the basic bones of an itinerary, come back for more suggestions/advice. There are day tours from Bayeux and Caen if that appeals...

Okie
On our first trip we satyed in St-Aubin -sur Mer, a small town with a preserved anti-tank gun.
It is quiet at night, good for walkson the beach and reflection.

https://www.dday-overlord.com/en/bat...-aubin-sur-mer

Second visit, with my 20 year old twins, we stayed at Courselles-sur-Mer, a bigger town with more accomodation choices.
The Canadian cemetery is nearby, even at the height of season iis not crowded.

My Normandy trips focused more or the Polish/Canadian involvment but both towns are an easy drive to all points of interest..

Okie:
I would recommend the following itinerary, we've used it in varying forms three different times with different groups if you're focused on the WWII stuff. First, take the earliest train from Paris to Caen to avoid the drive up and rent the car there. Leaving the train station with the rental car I would head north to the Peace Museum on the northern edge of Caen, it gives you a very good overview of the battle area, with some very interesting and poignant stories mixed throughout. This can be completed in 3-4 hours on the long end. From Caen, I'd head to Bayeux and visit the Tapestry museum as well. Then I'd return to the car and head to Port-En Bessin (as mentioned above) for a nice coastal town to sleep. We've stayed at the Ibis Port En Bessin and found it to be very nice considering it was used for a place to sleep and they have a nice breakfast spread as well. There are several restaurants in Port En Bessin, but it is only just a few kilometers from Bayeux, so dinner in either place is fine.
The next day, I'd start by heading to the American Cemetery, which is about 15 minutes west of there on D514. It is a very beautiful place, especially in the morning. This can take anywhere from 2 -4 hours, depending upon how much time you spend in the museum. From there, head further west on D514 (20 minutes) to Point du Hoc. Again, 2-4 hours here. Leave the Pointe and head further west to Grandcamp-Maisy to see the Ranger Memorial and then have dinner? We liked Restaurant de la Maree when we were there in 2019. After dinner, before dusk, I would head up to La Cambe and view the German Cemetery there, its a different visual look than the white crosses and stars at the American Cemetery, but it is still interesting.
Day Three, If the Mont St. Michel Abbey interests you, I'd get out of the hotel very early and head out to Mont St. Michel. It opens at 9:30, so leaving the hotel before 8:00 will get you there fairly close to opening. With the parking, shuttles, etc., as well as the walking tour, I'd budget no less than 4 hours on the Mont total. From there it's another 90 minutes to Utah Beach area. If you're more interested in the WWII stuff, then heading to the Utah Beach area first makes sense.
If you want to spend a day at the Utah beach area, there are several places we found interesting. Obviously the Utah Beach memorial and museum are interesting and you can easily walk the beach for a while as well. Other sites we found interesting were the church at Angoville au Plain that was a makeshift hospital on d-day and the next several days - interesting stories available for your kids to look into before you go. Also, Sainte Mere Eglise where John Steele got hung up during the air drop. There are several places throughout that area that were featured in the Band of Brothers series with monuments, etc. There are also a couple of interesting museums in Carentan - the Dead Man's Corner Museum and the D-Day Experience are right next to each other and the Experience has some interesting interactive exhibits.

For me, the best first place to go for the history is the Museum of the Atlantic Wall in Ouistreham. It is in the former German Command Center. It is the opposite of a polished, modern museum, and it gives you the feel of what was in store for the Allied troops. Then Arromanches where the Allies built a vast port of mulberries (temporary piers). Now only a few pieces remain jutting out from the surface to give you an idea of the scope of the place. The American Cemetery at Colleville is quite moving, and Pointe du Hoc is gorgeous and famous for the Texas Rangers who scaled the cliff only to find the German guns had been moved to another location. I also recommend seeing the bocage, the farmland that the troops had to traverse with imposing hedgerows (impenetrable walls of vegetation) that made for difficult advancement because you couldn't see who was just around the corner.

I recommend seeing the movie The Longest Day, the highly anecdotal and somewhat fictionalized account of what happened that day. There is no plot to the movie, just a series of scenes within the timeline of D-Day.

Hi All, thank you so much for your feedback and ideas!!! Here's a tentative itinerary. I need to look at the Museum of the Atlantic Wall after shelemm's feedback. Let me know if this seems doable or if we are missing something important. Times, of course, are estimates. Thanks again!!

Day 1Caen Memorial Museum: 4 hours, open 9am to 6pm

Lunch: 1 Hour

Drive 35 minutes to les bains

Arromanches-les-Bains, Musee du Debarquement: 1-2 hours, open 9am-7pm

Stay somewhere in the area of Arromanches / Port-en-Bessein



Day 2

Longues-sure-Mer Batterie Museum: 1-2 hours

Drive to Omaha Beach: 23 mins

Lunch 1 hour

Omaha Beach, Collesville-sure-Mer: 3-4 hours

Normandy American Cemetery open 9 to 5pm

Normandy Visitor Center open 9-6pm

Drive to Point due Hoc: 10 mins

Pointe du Hoc site: 1-2 hours, open 9-5pm

Stay somewhere in the area of Arromanches / Port-en-Bessein again

I’d be at the American Cemetery about 2-3 pm. The flag lowering is really quite emotional, it happens 1 hr. before the cemetery closes so around 4pm.

joannyc, thank you!! Great info! I definitely want to be there for the flag lowering. Thanks for the suggestion.