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merican D-Day Experience

Group guided tour

Ref Tour : # F1

Pick-up/Drop-off places : Caen at St Peter's church or Bayeux traint station
Pick-up time/Drop-off time : according to the calendar
Duration : 8 hours with 1 h for lunch time

Rates : 90€ for adult / 75€ under 18 years old

Inclusions
Lunch of the guide/driver
Entrance fees for museum

Exclusions
Gratuities for the driver/guide
Meals and drinks, unless specified
Personal insurance and expenses

Description
Omaha beach – The US cemetery – The German Battery Pointe du Hoc (the Ranger Memorial) – Utah Beach – The Utah Landing Museum – Sainte-Mère-Eglise

Explore with your licensed driver-guide the details of Overlord operation and discover key American D-day sites and the different divisions (Infantry, Navy, Airforce, Support) involved in the landing of Omaha and Utah areas. During that highly personalised tour, your guide will give you some full explanations to better understand what went wrong and what whent right for each battlefield site. By the end of your visit, you will understand the strategic choices for the Allied invasion of Normandy and you will feel that you have proudly fulfilled your duty of remembrance by paying tribute to all those young men who sacrificed themselves to save France, Europe and the world.

You will start your day in « Bloody Omaha » with two stops, elements of the German Atlantic Wall: the famous strongpoint WN 62, one of the main German defenses on Omaha Beach where the Big Red One division landed and the second strongpoint WN72 located on the Dog sector which had to face the first assault wave, the 29th division. You will be able to observe the remains of the artificial harbour of Omaha called Mulberry A. Naturally, a stop at the American cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach is in order to honour the memory of the 10,000 American soldiers buried or missing in action.

The visit will continue at the German battery at Pointe du Hoc, the only place where huge craters are still visible due to naval and aerial bombardments. 250 rangers bravely climbed the 100 feet cliffs to capture the 4 guns. They will be liberated a day and a half after intense fighting with the Germans.

For the lunch, you will be heading to Utah beach. We suggest you to have a quick meal in a special place a few meters from the dunes of Utah Beach where Theodore Roosvelt Junior landed here exactly. The restaurant was a a fisherman's house before the war. Then during the german occupation, it served as an office for the Todt Organisation and became the headquarters of the 1rst Engineer Brigade. Adjacent to the house, there was a bunker for the US Navy communications center. Both operated from june until november 1944. You will have the opportunity if possible to visit the private bunker with german and american equipments from the time. Inside the restaurant and bunker, hundreds of veteran autographs decorate the walls.

The visit continues on Utah Beach to pay tribute to the memory of the men of the engineers, the navy and the 4th and 90th infantry divisions. Then, you will admire in the Utah Landing Museum, a rich collection of objects, artifacts, vehicles, boats, materials among them, an original B26 bomber, one of the only six remaining examples of this airplane in worldwide.

Then your guide will drive through the countryside and the hedgerows to take you to Sainte-Mère-Eglise, made famous in the movie « The Longest Day » with an accidental drop of some paratroopers of the 82nd airborne division in the center of the village. Among them, John Steel stayed hanging at the church steeple for a few hours. The tour will end with the visit of that roman church with some military stained glass windows devoted to the 82nd airborne division.

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merican D-Day Experience

Group guided tour from Paris

Ref Tour : # F2

Pick-up/Drop-off places : Bayeux train station
Pick-up time/Drop-off time : according to the calendar with restricted program during winter period, on week-ends and bank holidays
Duration : 8 hours with 1 h for lunch time

If you stay in Paris, you can take a train from Paris St Lazare station at around 7 am and it takes 2 hours and half to get to Bayeux or Caen train station. Our guide will welcome you at the train station. Then after you will experience the main highlights in the Normandy landing beaches and pay tribute to these brave men who fought and died here. The standard tour will finish at 6 pm in order to catch the train for Paris with an arrival time at around 9 pm. We can operate on request on Saturdays, on Sundays and Banks holidays with an adapted program because the tour is shorter. We suggest you to stay around Paris St Lazare station. We can give a list of a few hotels.

Website and timetable for the train company (sncf)
SNCF – Timetables, Trains, Traffic, Services, International | SNCF
Type Paris-St-Lazare to Caen or Bayeux station. Caen is the first stop and Bayeux is 20 minutes after. Bayeux is a better choice for US and Gold sectors, Caen for Sword and Juno sectors. Be careful on saturday, sunday and bank holidays. Trains are not so frequent. You need about 2h15 to reach Normandy. Over you probably have a connection to reach your final destination. During the week, a departure at 7 am is required from Paris for an arrival time at 9 am in Bayeux. And a return at around 6 pm from Bayeux is advised for an arrival time at around 9 pm in Paris.

Rates : 90€ for adult / 75€ under 18 years old

Inclusions
Lunch of the guide/driver
Entrance fees for museum

Exclusions
Gratuities for the driver/guide
Meals and drinks, unless specified
Personal insurance and expenses

Description
Omaha beach – The US cemetery – The German Battery Pointe du Hoc (the Ranger Memorial) – Utah Beach – The Utah Landing Museum – Sainte-Mère-Eglise

Explore with your licensed driver-guide the details of Overlord operation and discover key American D-day sites and the different divisions (Infantry, Navy, Airforce, Support) involved in the landing of Omaha and Utah areas. During that highly personalised tour, your guide will give you some full explanations to better understand what went wrong and what whent right for each battlefield site. By the end of your visit, you will understand the strategic choices for the Allied invasion of Normandy and you will feel that you have proudly fulfilled your duty of remembrance by paying tribute to all those young men who sacrificed themselves to save France, Europe and the world.
You will start your day in « Bloody Omaha » with two stops, elements of the German Atlantic Wall: the famous strongpoint WN 62, one of the main German defenses on Omaha Beach where the Big Red One division landed and the second strongpoint WN72 located on the Dog sector which had to face the first assault wave, the 29th division. You will be able to observe the remains of the artificial harbour of Omaha called Mulberry A. Naturally, a stop at the American cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach is in order to honour the memory of the 10,000 American soldiers buried or missing in action.

The visit will continue at the German battery at Pointe du Hoc, the only place where huge craters are still visible due to naval and aerial bombardments. 250 rangers bravely climbed the 100 feet cliffs to capture the 4 guns. They will be liberated a day and a half after intense fighting with the Germans.

For the lunch, you will be heading to Utah beach. We suggest you to have a quick meal in a special place a few meters from the dunes of Utah Beach where Theodore Roosvelt Junior landed here exactly. The restaurant was a a fisherman's house before the war. Then during the german occupation, it served as an office for the Todt Organisation and became the headquarters of the 1rst Engineer Brigade. Adjacent to the house, there was a bunker for the US Navy communications center. Both operated from june until november 1944. You will have the opportunity if possible to visit the private bunker with german and american equipments from the time. Inside the restaurant and bunker, hundreds of veteran autographs decorate the walls.

The visit continues on Utah Beach to pay tribute to the memory of the men of the engineers, the navy and the 4th and 90th infantry divisions. Then, you will admire in the Utah Landing Museum, a rich collection of objects, artifacts, vehicles, boats, materials among them, an original B26 bomber, one of the only six remaining examples of this airplane in worldwide.

Then your guide will drive through the countryside and the hedgerows to take you to Sainte-Mère-Eglise, made famous in the movie « The Longest Day » with an accidental drop of some paratroopers of the 82nd airborne division in the center of the village. Among them, John Steel stayed hanging at the church steeple for a few hours. The tour will end with the visit of that roman church with some military stained glass windows devoted to the 82nd airborne division.

M

ont-St-Michael


Ref Tour : # F3

Pick-up/Drop-off places : Caen at St Peter's church or Bayeux traint station
Pick-up time/Drop-off time : according to the calendar
Duration : 8 hours with 1 h for lunch time

Rates : 90€ for adult / 75€ under 18 years old

Inclusions
Lunch of the guide/driver
Entrance fees for museum

Exclusions
Gratuities for the driver/guide
Meals and drinks, unless specified
Personal insurance and expenses

Description

The village with the medieval streets - the abbey - St Peter's church - the bay

Explore this island with its medieval village and famous abbey overlooking the bay, whose foundations were laid in 708 by Bishop Aubert in honour of the Archangel St Michael.

In the 10th century, the Benedictines settled there and the place became both a major place of pilgrimage in the West and a centre of medieval culture with the writing of manuscripts by the monks.

The building of the abbey will be done over a period of 1300 years from the simple construction of a sanctuary through the periods of Romanesque and Gothic architecture punctuated by destruction and reconstruction following fires, collapses, military and political conflicts. The greatest technical feat of the period was the construction of the Marvel, a three-storey Gothic tower representing the three states: the third state, the clergy and the nobility.

From the 14th century onwards, successive conflicts during the Hundred Years' War between France and England made it necessary to build new powerful fortifications. The Mount was defended by knights sent by the King of France, who managed to resist the assaults of the English army for almost 30 years.

In the 17th century, the abbey tried to revive monastic life and pilgrimages. At the same time, the monks had to welcome prisoners sent by order of the king. The abbey was nicknamed the "Bastille of the Seas".

The Revolution will chase the monks off the island and the abbey will house refractory priests, common law or and political prisoners.

Closed in 1863, the prison closes but the monument is severely deteriorated. Under Napoleon III, tourism development involved the construction of a road dike and a tramway line at the dawn of the twentieth century.

In 1969, monks returned from the French Revolution. 10 years later, Mont-Saint-Michel and its bay are classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

In the village, you can stroll through the narrow, cobbled streets to visit the church of St Pierre, see half-timbered houses, the oldest of which dates back to the 15th century, or the house of one of the most famous knights, Bertrand Du Guesclin.