Glen and I just got back from a weekend jaunt from Normandy. Absolutely spectular.
The wealth of history is amazing. We did not spend enough time as it was only to get our "feet wet". But I chose to see the main points of interest. Omaha Beach (known as bloody Omaha, the landing site of American forces), Point du Hoc (225 U.S. Army Rangers scaled the bluffs on the morning on June 6, 44 under Col Rudder. Considered one of the most daring raids of all time), The Battery at Longues-sur-Mer (the only one that has it's original guns and known as the Atlantic Wall), the artificial Harbour at Arromanches (built by the Royal Engineers) and the VERY POIGNANT - the American Cemetery. Truly emotional and breath-taking.
We stayed at a hotel directly located on one of the landing beaches from WWII. Gold Beach in Arromanches. It's one trip as an American you should definitely not miss out on. It was quite emotional for my Dad being he was in the Navy and broke down at one point at the American Cemetery.
Here are a couple of sites if anyone is interested.
Le Memorial Caen Musee -
http://www.memorial-caen.fr/ This is where we did the one-day tour. If you cannot stay there long enough to soak in all the info. I really suggest this tour. The museum itself takes about 4-5 hours to tour (not including the off-site tour).
http://www.ww2tours.com/highlts.htm This is a tour site that is owned and operated by Americans, Ray and Cristy Pheiffer. I actually e-mailed them telling them the limited time I would be there and can they suggest a one-day tour. Hence, that's how I found out about the Caen Museum. You can sign up for tours with a specific twist - from an American point of view. This is one that I definitely want to do in the future.
http://www.arromanches360.com/htm2/index.htm It's a short film with no comentary. Just pictures. Pictures are worth a thousand words... Quite remarkable. This is located in Arromanches, Gold Beach.
http://www.normandy-tourism.org/ This is a great site to find out about the history, sites, D-day sites, where to stay. It has interactive maps to help you plan your itinerary. I used this to find our hotel because I wanted to stay as close to the landing beaches as possible and found one right on Gold Beach. It was not very fancy but it was clean and quaint with an ocean view to boot. The restaurant was horrible and I would not suggest eating there. Food was ok but service was non-existent. If you did not speak French it was very hard. But thanks to my honey that was covered. The next night we ate at a restaurant right around the corner from our hotel. WOW!!! Food was superb for half the price....
The best way to get there is the eurotunnel. Put your car on a train and viola you're in France. It's about a 3-hour drive from London (depending upon where you are of course) and I forget about the one-hour time difference so we lost an hour. But all-in-all it was one helluva memorable weekend trip.
We didn't even get to see Mont St. Michel (which is considered one of the 7 nature wonders of the world) or Sainte-Mère-Eglise (the First French town to be liberated by the American troops parachuted into the area on 5 June 1944.) Don't forget about the famous Bayeux tapestry masterpiece - we didn't even touch that. I would suggest a minimum of 5 to 7 days if you want to experience and appreciate the beauty and wealth of history Normandy has to offer.
Cheers...
