Normandy Walking Tour: WWII sites

Arrival in Caen, (transfer on your own to the hotel), the main city of the region and home of the WWII Peace Memorial. After checking in at your hotel, you will have some free time to discover this city. A museum visit of the Caen Memorial is a highly informative and complete start of your tour.

After breakfast, a taxi will transfer you at 9:30am to the Battery Museum of Merville-Franceville-Plage sur Mer in the Calvados area, from where you follow a part of a local GR (Grand Randonnée/Long Distance trail) along the Orne River. During this walk you will, at several places, have a view on the sea of Sword Beach. The trail brings you via the fauna and flora of the Orne river estuary to the Benouville Bridge, renamed Pegasus Bridge where you can visit the Pegasus Memorial and museum, dedicated to the first liberators who arrived in Normandy on the night of 5th/6th June 1944. The west bank of the canal will bring you to Ouistreham where, on Riva Bella you will have an overview on the landing area of Sword Beach. Here you can visit the Atlantic Wall Museum, a former German headquarters. The Belvedere has an interesting orientation table and in front of the casino you can visit the Landing museum. Return to the hotel by taxi transfer at 5:30pm. (RDV Tourist Office).

Distance : 16 km (10 mi).

Elevation : 75 m.

Today starts with a taxi transfer at 9:30am to an interesting point about 500 m east from Arromanches-les-Bains. On the descent to Arromanches you walk past Arromanches 360, a circular theatre where “The Price of Freedom” is shown on nine screens. In the D-Day Landing Museum in Arromanches you learn about the construction and operation of the artificial harbors assembled in front of Arromanches on the days following D-Day. After a short walk along the cliffs we take some country lanes to pick up the trail to the Longues sur Mer battery site in front of Omaha and Gold Beach. More country road lanes bring you to Port-en Bessin. As soon as you walk in the town, the shipyard and trawlers of the fishing fleet will tell you that you are in important fishing harbor.

After a taxi transfer to Bayeux at 5:30pm, you may take the opportunity to visit one of the many points of interest of this town of art. The Bayeux Tapestry –70 m long and 50 cm high, completed in the 11th century-is unique in the world. Other visits include the recently re-opened Musée de la Bataille de Normandy and Mémorial du Général de Gaulle.

Distance : 15km (9mi).

Elevation : 121m.

In the morning, you will be transferred at 9:30am to Colleville-sur-Mer, a nice quiet village which will be your point of departure of today. A nice walk brings you to the see where we have a superb overview of Omaha Beach. You walk along the vacation resort and reach, after an uphill through a former battery site, the US Military Cemetery. You can visit the cemetery (172.5 acres) , the chapel and the memorial dedicated to the youth of America. There is also a viewpoint which overlooks Omaha Beach. The GR brings you up to the coastline where you can walk on the beach (part of Omaha Beach) until les Moulins. Here again you have to follow the trail until the Omaha viewpoint and . Return to Bayeux by taxi transfer at 5:30pm. (Meeting at the Hotel du Casino Vierville).

Distance : 16 km (9 mi).

Elevation : 125 m.

You can take your time getting started in the morning to have breakfast and depart at your leisure. Trains from Bayeux to Caen and Paris possible. (Depart on your own).