Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
If you've got wheels, you can follow the D514 along the D-Day coast and several
signposted circuits around the battle sites - look for signs for 'D-Day-Le Choc' in
the American sectors and 'Overlord-L'Assaut' in the British and Canadian sectors.
For details on D-Day and its context, see
www.normandiememoire.com
and
Tours
An organised minibus tour is an excellent way to get a sense of the D-Day beaches
and their place in history. The Bayeux tourist office can handle reservations.
NORMANDY SIGHTSEEING TOURS
( 02 31 51 70 52;
www.normandywebguide.com
)
From May to October (and on re-
quest the rest of the year), this experienced outfit offers morning (adult/child under
10 years €40/20) and afternoon (€55/35) tours of various beaches and cemeteries.
These can be combined into an all-day excursion (€85/45).
D-Day Tours
MÉMORIAL
( 02 31 06 06 45;
www.memorial-caen.fr
;
adult/child €75/59)
Conducts excellent
four- to five-hour minibus tours around the landing beaches. The price includes
entry to the Mémorial. You can book online or by telephone.
D-Day Tours
Arromanches
In order to be able to unload the vast quantities of cargo needed by the invasion
forces without having to capture - intact! - one of the heavily defended Channel
ports (a lesson learned in the 1942 Dieppe Raid), the Allies set up prefabricated
marinas, code-named
Mulberry Harbour
, off two of the landing beaches.
The harbour established at Omaha was completely destroyed by a ferocious gale
just two weeks after D-Day, but the remains of the second,
Port Winston
(named
after Churchill), can still be seen near Arromanches, 10km northeast of Bayeux.
Longues-sur-Mer
Part of the Nazis' Atlantic Wall, the massive casemates and 150mm German guns
near Longues-sur-Mer, 6km west of Arromanches, were designed to hit targets
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