Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
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Utah Beach Landing Museum (Musée du Débarquement)
This is the best museum located on the D-Day beaches, and worth the 45-minute drive
from Bayeux. For the Allied landings to succeed, many coordinated tasks had to be ac-
complished: Paratroopers had to be dropped inland, the resistance had to disable bridges
and cut communications, bombers had to deliver payloads on target and on time, the in-
fantry had to land safely on the beaches, and supplies had to follow the infantry closely.
This thorough yet manageable museum pieces those many parts together in a series of fas-
cinating exhibits and displays.
Cost and Hours:
€7.50, daily June-Sept 9:30-19:00, Oct-Nov and Feb-May
10:00-18:00, closed Dec-Jan, last entry one hour before closing, tel. 02 33 71 53 35,
www.utah-beach.com
.
Guided museum tours are sometimes offered—call ahead or ask
when you arrive (tours are free, tips appropriate).
Getting There:
From Bayeux, travel west toward Cherbourg on N-13 and take the
Utah Beach exit (D-913, two exits after passing Carentan). Turn right at the exit to reach
the museum. An American and French flag duo leads to the entry as you approach. The
road leaving the museum, the Route de la Liberté, runs all the way from Utah Beach to
Cherbourg, and on to Paris and Berlin, with every kilometer identified with road markers.
Visiting the Museum:
Built around the remains of a concrete German bunker, the
museum nestles in the sand dunes on Utah Beach, with floors above and below sea level.
Enter through the glass doors and learn about the American landings on Utah Beach, the
German defenses there (Rommel was displeased at what he found two weeks before the
invasion), and daily life before and after the occupation. Don't miss the display of objects
American soldiers brought to the French (chewing gum, Coke, Nescafé, and good cigar-
ettes).
The highlight of the museum are the exhibits of innovative invasion equipment and
videosdemonstratinghowitworked:theremote-controlledGoliathmine,theLVT-2Water
Buffalo and Duck amphibious vehicles, the wooden Higgins landing craft (named for the
NewOrleansmanwhoinventedit),andafullyrestoredB-26bomberwithitszebrastripes
and 11 menacing machine guns—without which the landings would not have been pos-
sible(theyellowbombiconsindicatethenumberofmissionsapilothadflown).Taketime
to enter the simulated briefing room and sense the pilots' nervous energy—would your
planefly
LOW
or
HIGH?
Listentothemanyvideosasveteransdescribehowtheytookthe
beach and rushed into the interior—including testimony from Richard Winters, the leader
of Easy Company in Stephen Ambrose's WWII classic
Band of Brothers
.
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