We had to get up quite early as our tour started at 6:30am at the tourist centre on the other side of the Seine. We caught a taxi and walked into a cafe looking for a take away coffee. When the waiter found out we had to be ready by 15 minutes he had our coffee and croissants on the table in less than 3 minutes.
We had a very pleasant drive out of Paris and up to Normandy, with our first stop being a War Museum in Caen. This was a fascinating museum with a primary focus on D Day, but also a lot of displays of the history of the 20th Century leading into WWII. It was a very balanced view of the history of the times. We also had lunch at the museum, but all of us thought that the time that we stayed here was way too short.
From the museum we drove to Point Du Hoc. This was a cliff side spot where the Germans had a battery of six 155mm cannons which were certainly deemed to be a risk to the D Day invasion. As such, a group of about 250 US Rangers stormed the cliff to take out the guns. However, to protect them from Allied bombing they had been moved into a field. The Rangers managed to blow up the guns and then retreated from a German counterattack, holding out for 2 days with only 90 survivors. The site still has a number of craters from the bombing and a number of German bunkers. The site also gives one a good vision of the spread of the different invasion beaches, from Utah to Gold, Omaha, Juno and Sword.
Our next stop was Omaha Beach (the site for the movie “Saving Private Ryan”) and it is a bleak place. The beach is wide and flat and the troops had to cover about 300 metres before they had any form of cover from the Germans located on the hills overlooking the beach. It is quite easy to see why this was the site for the biggest number of casualties on the Allied side for the invasion. Just up from here was the site for the Cemetery, specifically for Omaha Beach. The site has been set up well, with immaculate grounds throughout and is kept spotless.
Our last spot was a visit to Juno Beach for the Canadians onboard, which was slightly disappointing as we simply drove past the British Beach, complete with the remains of the artificial harbour which was created to get most of the supplies necessary for the beachhead. There isn’t a lot at Juno, particularly with the shop being closed due to being a public holiday.
It was about a 3 hour drive back to Paris, with us arriving about 9pm. However, there are a number of cafes open until quite late around our hotel so dinner wasn’t a problem.