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Has anyone here visited the invasion beaches at Normandy?


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Two slightly contrary thoughts:

1) go - they are amazing/poignant places to visit

2) June 2014 (70th anniversary) will be a busy time

I've been several times, both to the beaches and to a couple of the museums. My interest is primarily Sword Beach, but I've also visited Pointe Du Hoc, and Omaha, plus Gold and Juno (haven't got as far as Utah Beach).

Away from the beaches, most of the major towns in Normandy have memorials and small museums. Unless you plan a whistlestop tour, don't expect to fit all the places of historical significance into one trip. Depending on whether you are travelling purely to visit the beaches or whether you will have a partner in tow, plan on visiting some of the other historic sites too - Bayeux, Mont St Michel, Falaise (the town rather than the 'pocket') and others too.

If you can, get hold of some of the original 'Bigot' maps used for the invasion (I know they are available for the British/Canadian beaches, so I presume somebody has reprinted the ones for the US beaches), along with some modern large scale maps for location finding and comparison - Michelin are best known but the Institute Geographic Nationale (IGN) 1:25000 scale maps for the beach areas are arguably better.

Whatever you decide to do, the beaches are worth visiting.

Regards,

John

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Definitely go, these are great places to see. The beaches and small museums around them are well worth seeing, the Caen museum not so much if you know anything about the period. It is very big but really aimed at the complete beginner: The local museums near the beaches are often run by enthusiastic amateurs who really know a lot about the events.

Arnaud

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We took a day tour from Paris. It hit the major sites but if you have your own car I might skip the Caen museum and hit the smaller ones. Pointe Du Hoc is worth hitting up. Much of the crater damage is still there to give you a sense of the bombardment that took place. There is also a German Cemetery there to get some perspective for the other side. We were not able to stop but would have liked too. We did stop at the American Cemetery. Very sobering. My biggest take-away was how surreal it was to be at the landing beaches when so much of how we view them relates to D Day. To visit them now in peacetime is very strange.

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Matt,

I have a kmz-file (for Google Earth), listing some of the museums, memorials and other points of interest in the Normandy area. It's not at all a complete listing, but it may be a start. Drop me a PM if interested.

Bjarne

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One of the guys in our club (Paul H) visited and took a lot of photos and they are posted here on ARC. Go to the Home Page, Click Odds&Ends and then Click Stories and it is posted there in 4 parts that you might find interesting. Paul was looking from a Canadian perspective but I believe he covered most of everything as he spent a couple of days there....

Cheers

Bruce

P.S.Sorry when I actually checked a few of the links I get a 404 error so they're not there. Don't know if they are lost on the site (this was put up when we could post directly I believe) and internal links down or the host site is gone. Maybe Steve can tell if he gets a chance....

Edited by RCAFFAN
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I went there last summer with my girlfriend and a couple of friends. One thing i can say, plan your trip carefully because there is much to see. If i were you, i would pass on a visit to "La memorial de Caen". It is a large museum but frankly it is boring. The "overlord" museum on the other hand is small but has alot of vehicles and is a feast for the eyes. "Pointe du hoc" is also very nice to see. You can't believe the power of bombs until you stand in one of the craters.

In "la batterie de merville" you have a nice C 47 parked and in the gift shop you can buy a 1/72 italeri C 47 and when checking out the saleslady suggested the small SNAFU decals which alow you to build the bird as it is parked there (which i of course did).

Also don't miss out on visiting Pegasus bridge and its museum. They have some very nice dioramas and cool vehicles. And in the "Utah beach museum" they have a B26 on display and sell the most beautiful posters.

Finally, if you want to change your view on life, don't pass on visiting the American and German graves. Seeing numbers is one thing, but knowing that behind every stone with a name goes a real person, most of them barely grown up, really puts you in your place.

One more tip, sometimes to keep the peace, you have to look the other way. We came across a guy who found it neccesary to pose topless for muscle shots inside the American cemetery. Talk about having no respect. Also, at the overlord museum parents kept letting their kids climb on the tanks even when there are multiples signs instructing people not to do so.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Pegasus bridge

Arromanches

Omaha beach

Longues Sur Mer Battery

Saint Laurent sur Mer

Colleville sur mer

Normandy US and German cemetery

Pointe Du Hoc

St.Mere Eglise

Went 5 days, great seaweed smell over there, nice mussels.

End of May is a good season.

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For my 60th birthday my wife booked a 4 day Leger Battlefield tour of Normandy, it was great we had a running commentary from an expert a comfortable coach and a nice hotel in Caen, it was very hectic and we did not see everything that I would have liked. The trip really showed the scale of the landings and the cost in human lives, we visited the following places though other sites were visited on our travels.

Pegasus Bridge

Merville Battery

Ouistreham Bunker

Hunters Bunker

Sword Beach

Canadian Cemetary at Bény-sur-Mer

Omaha Beach

Omaha Beach US Cemetary

St Mere Eglise

Utah Beach

La Cambe German Peace Garden Cemetary

Point Du hoc

Juno Beach

Gold Beach

ARROMANCHES museum

Longues battery

Monument 101 Airborne Le Grand Chemin next to the road leading to Brecourt Manor

British Cemetary at Bayeux

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