Arthur Brown Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 My son wants me to take him around the beaches of D day culminating in our presence at Pegasus bridge on the 6th June. has anyone done a six day tour? That is our time scale. Any comments appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Joe90 Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 Cannot see any problem with that time scale at all, take the ferry to Le Havre, and although very sad of course it is a credit to the French that you'll find yourself in one huge open air museum, relics and equipment preserved from the war crop up all over the place, Point De Hoc, Pegasus bridge complete with glider,astonishing,the Mulberry harbour, the cemeteries though again very poignant are magnificent. I could go on and on, but go for it, you'll will have an astonishing experience.......so much so that just reliving it now has me thinking of making a return visit very soon ;-) Plenty of Aires and sites to stay overnight in this area as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flicka Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 I'd go further than Joe's statement "an astonishing experience" going around the War Graves is an emotional experience, so pack plenty of tissues. Much will depend on how much time you want to spend at each of the various locations so research which have the most interest for you & concentrate your tour based on those. We found we spent much more time at locations than anticipated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geeco Posted December 18, 2014 Share Posted December 18, 2014 I agree with John's description and the advice to take plenty of tissues. I thought I was tough but after looking at the cliffs that were above the beaches then at the quantity of graves I shead more than one tear. I was also very impressed with the condition of the cemeteries. we have also visited the WW1 area around the Somme and that is also a must see. Both represent a sad waste of human life. While I understand the French/ English rivalry I was also impressed with the French obvious gratitude to the allies for their help during those two black times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lennyhb Posted December 18, 2014 Share Posted December 18, 2014 Go for it, you will only get round part of it in 6 days but there is so much to do and see absolutely a brilliant week. We did last year, this year & doing it again next year. Lots of towns provide Camping Car parking (free of course). You need to visit the tourist office in each area as they publicise their own areas, if something is going on in the next village and it's in different area there won't be any info on it. The Museum at Caen is well worth a visit but you need half a day there, we spent the evening in the car park with a group of Italian vans drinking & eating Italian wine & cheese very memorable. If you like 40's music and a dance (swing & jive) the Liberation Ball at Carentan is not to be missed usually nearest Saturday to the 6th, we will defiantly be there dancing the night away again next year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4cls Posted December 18, 2014 Share Posted December 18, 2014 We did this last year, went from Ouistreham, (Caen), though you dont say where you will land? We took the coast road, D514 that took us all along the 'D' Day beaches, but be prepared to be disappointed with Juno Beach, it is built up on the front with huge apartments and you get no feeling for what took place. Arromanches-les-Bains and Pont du Hoc were the best for us, the latter still has the shell holes from the artillery barrage and a lot of the German bunkers. A week will not be enough to see all and head inland to see more, the cemetery's are terrible on the emotions , we visited a Canadian one and the wife got very upset at such a loss of life, all for nothing as we are now ruled by those we defeated! HER words not mine.. There are many Aires and Camp Sites all along the coast road, As others have said, well worth the visit, enjoy Pegasus Bridge, we may see you there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tugga Posted December 18, 2014 Share Posted December 18, 2014 This year, we did the American beaches and cemetery. They are just as thought provoking and emotional, especially when we went to the Airborne Museum at St Mere Eglise and you realise that most of the young men landed in the swamps and died due to the amount of equipment they carried. The Museum itself is very 'Hollywood' but well worth visiting. If you are going to do the British bit, then end up in Arromanche on 6th June as they have a service there and then there is a celebration after. Everyone dresses up and brings out all the WW2 vehicles. We stumbled across a Battery at Grand Camp Maisie run by an Englishman. Very cheap to get in and you can roam everywhere and see what the German Bunkers were like - impressive. It is all well worth a visit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanS Posted December 18, 2014 Share Posted December 18, 2014 I would go along with all the previous comments and we thought that the museum at Pegasus Bridge was the best as it seemed very personal inasmuch a lot of the items on display contained many personal items and letters and truly brought home something that we have only been told about during our lifetime. Another place that is worthy of visit is the German war cemetery which is in a beautiful setting but very sombre with its black granite - we should not forget the enormous loss of life that their armed forces suffered and they too were so young. Alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lennyhb Posted December 18, 2014 Share Posted December 18, 2014 4cls - 2014-12-18 11:04 AM be prepared to be disappointed with Juno Beach, it is built up on the front with huge apartments and you get no feeling for what took place. Agree if short on time give Juno a miss, not very Camping car friendly either. Where we stopped last year now had "No Overnighting" signs, the French probably ignore them. Nearly every town has a very good firework display normally on different nights during the week leading up to the 6th. This year as it was the 70th anniversary they were all synced together on the 5th, brilliant not only the displays at the same time but the same displays from the top of the cliffs at Arromanches we could see 15 displays all in time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Peter James Posted December 18, 2014 Share Posted December 18, 2014 Geeco - 2014-12-18 1:51 AM I was also impressed with the French obvious gratitude to the allies for their help during those two black times. It wasn't universal. Caen suffered far more from Allied bombing than they did from the Germans, and knew they would have been better off if Britain had left Hitler and Stalin to annihilate each other a thousand miles away. All that was hushed up of course. Visiting the cemeteries I was surprised how everything seems so strangely fresh - as though it happened yesterday. I suppose thats because we are used to 70 year old graves looking 70 years old. Wheras these are so well maintained they look new. It was seeing the old lorries that reminded me of how long ago it was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arthur Brown Posted December 18, 2014 Author Share Posted December 18, 2014 Hi Guys Thanks for all your replies. It is obvious from you all that it will be a week to remember. Lenny, thanks for the photos. I have been to a number of the cemetries in both Belguim and France and Peter is right, they look brand new, very well kept and that must provide some comfort to family and friends back home from that period. I will re-hash my intended target visits as a result of what has already been said. Any further comments will be taken into consideration with a view to creating the best possible week. My son, (over 40) and myself (pensioner) intend to really enjoy, if enjoy is the right word, our week. From our age it is obvious we were not involved in the conflict but really appreciate the fact that those who paid the ultimate price did so to allow us to remain English. For that we are eternally greatful. Thanks again. Art Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GAVLAD Posted December 22, 2014 Share Posted December 22, 2014 Hi Arthur We visited Normandy a few years ago and went for six nights (7 including overnight ferry to Caen on way out). We travelled with our 1974 VW campervan. Stayed on the Bayeux municipal site for 4 nights and a private run 4 star site in Isigny for two nights. The BYeux site was within walking distance into the centre of town - you could either walk via the road route or walk down the river bank path. The site was excellent. Good value for money, quiet, very well kept (council gardeners were there every day planting and pruning) plus there was a large supermarket within half a mile plus petrol station. This site was a great base for looking around. We then moved on to Isigny. What a dump. Had I not prepaid for the stay, I'd have turned around the moment we arrived and the barrier was closed. Our pitch was at the side of a lake. That was the only nice thing about it. Pitch was heavily rutted, unkept, overgrown and litter strewn. Plus we had the family from hell on the next pitch who's 5000 kids played football Til midnight using my camper as a goal post whilst the two mums got sloshed and argued. Dads must have set up their pitch and gone home. Isigny looked like a nice town but we never stopped other than travel through it. There's other sites to consider in the area which will be better and will allow you to view the sites towards the American landing sectors. We sailed out of Cherbourg. So, my three pieces of advice are; Buy Major & Mrs Holt D day landings guide - it's pocket sized and includes lots of tour itineraries that you can drive on your own to include maps and descriptions of what to look for. My wife thought I was a historian as I'd stop at the side of the road and give her a reading of what happened at that particular point - otherwise you'd just drive past and not notice. Second is to plan what you want to see. There's so much to see and there's not enough time to do everything. Third is to pick two sites, one between Oustreham/Caen and Bayeux and the other between Bayeux and Cherbourg so you're not criss-crossing and see as much as possible. My wife isn't into second world war/history/D day etc but still to this day says how much she enjoyed visiting Normandy and seeing the sights. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Den Posted December 22, 2014 Share Posted December 22, 2014 We did Pegasus Bridge first, staying overnight in there car park. The information given there was very helpful with places to visit. All previous comments are correct, a very moving experience. I met 2 French men on Utah Beach, metal detecting. The one gave me a small fragment of a bomb and the other a spent cartridge and the and the nose of the bullet, undamaged. We only had 4 days, but will return with more information and more time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lennyhb Posted December 23, 2014 Share Posted December 23, 2014 Assuming you will go to Arromanches-les-Bains, don't got to the parking field on the west side of the town, you will see some Motorhomes in there but the field has a steep slope. If you go through the town up on top of the cliffs on the west side they open fields for Motorhomes that is where the vans are in my photo. Apart from around Juno area it is easy to find overnight parking, quite a few of the Super-U supermarkets in the area have Bornes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
myshell Posted December 23, 2014 Share Posted December 23, 2014 Arthur Have to agree with others re; Juno Beach not a very good location, better to go to the cliffs overlooking Gold Beach at Arromanches., if you use sat nav I`ll try to attach a couple of co-ordinates that may be of some use to you.LocationLatitudeLongitude 2.docx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StuartO Posted December 23, 2014 Share Posted December 23, 2014 Avoid the Aire in the Town of Arromanches, it's very, very tight and almost always crammed full or overflowing, mostly French MHs. Maybe because it's free! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lennyhb Posted December 23, 2014 Share Posted December 23, 2014 StuartO - 2014-12-23 6:41 PM Avoid the Aire in the Town of Arromanches, it's very, very tight and almost always crammed full or overflowing, mostly French MHs. Maybe because it's free! Good point forgot to mention that, this year there were cars parked in the service area. Much nicer on the cliff top. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arthur Brown Posted December 23, 2014 Author Share Posted December 23, 2014 Hi Thanks for the additional info. It mostly relates to the area we think we want to concentrate on so fantastic help. Will let you all know how we did after the event. Thanks again, Art Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barryd999 Posted December 24, 2014 Share Posted December 24, 2014 The American Cemetery at Coleville sur mer is well worth a few hours. The museum is superb and free. You can park overnight in the car park outside the museum not the one inside. Also a spot I really like is on the cliffs at Longues Sur Mer where you will find the most intact gun battery off the Atlantic wall (again free). The parking on the cliff tops about 200 yards beyond the battery is superb. Great sea views and view of the Mulberry harbour at Arromanches. The actual Aire at Arromanches is grim and always busy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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