DAY 1: Paris - Memorial de Caen - 360 Circular Cinema - Normandy American Cemetery - Overlord Museum - Omaha Beach - Pointe du Hoc - Bayeux
07:30 Pick up and Departure to Caen
07:30 Pick up from Your hotel in Paris and departure destination Caen by our air conditioned comfortable Mercedes E220 business-class car by 2 people or by Mercedes minivan from 3 participants. It takes about 3 hours (240 km) to reach the Memorial of Caen. One stop at the rest area will be made. This trip is Live guided.
10:30 - 12:30 Visit of The Caen Memorial and Museum
10:30 - 12:00 Visit of The Caen Memorial and Museum, located in the British Sword Beach sector. Caen Museum is the best World War II museum in France. You will get an overview of the Battle of Normandy as well the sense of the personal lives of the people who took part in it. An excellent 19-minute film documents this battle with original historic footage.
12:00 Departure to Arromanches-les-Bains. It takes about 0,5 hour (30 km) on the national roads crossing beautiful countryside and small villages.
12:30 - 13:30 Lunch break in Arromanches-les-Bains
12:30 - 13:30 Lunch break and visit of Arromanches-les-Bains town. Arromanches is a small seaside town famous for its former artificial Mulberry Harbour. Located in the center of the British Gold Beach landing zone it played an invaluable role in the D-Day landings. The Allies built here an artificial temporary harbour for unloading of vehicles, materials, and people. Mulberry Harbour had, by June 12, 1944, helped bring 300,000 men, 54,000 vehicles, and 104,000 tons of supplies to Europe.
13:30 - 14:30 "360 Circular Cinema" visit
13:30 - 14:30 "360* Circular Cinema" visit. It is located on the top of the hill with the best Viewpoint over the bay of the former artificial harbour. You will watch a very impressive documentary bout 100 days of the Battle of Normandy learning in details Operation Overlord.
14:30 Departure to the Normandy American Cemetery & Visitor Center. It is just half an hour drive (20 km).
15:00 - 16:10 Normandy American Cemetery & Visitor Center in Colleville-sur-Mer
15:00 - 16:10 Arrival and Visit of the Normandy American Cemetery & Visitor Center, located in Colleville-sur-Mer and overlooking Omaha Beach. It contains 9,387 U.S. soldiers, most of whom were killed during the Normandy Landings and the Wall of the Missing with the names of 1,557 soldiers missing in action. The cliffs leading down to the beaches contain the remnants of the German defences, including concrete casemates with memorials to the soldiers.
At Normandy American Cemetery you’ll see as well the semicircular memorial colonnade with the sculpture “Spirit of American Youth Rising from the Waves” and large maps of military operations; and the most beautiful, idyllic spot on Planet Earth. At the Visitors Center You will find a very nice small Museum with a lot of informations about Battle of Normandy.
16:10 Departure to the close located Overlord Museum.
16:15 - 16:45 Overlord Museum visit.
16:15 - 16:45 Overlord Museum visit. Located just few hundred meters away from the Normandy American Cemetery this museum contains many WW2 artefacts and installations like tanks, weapons, guns, many military vehicles, V-1 missile, personal belongings and more. It gives You a personal feeling about D-Day.
16:45 Departure to Omaha Beaches. It takes just 5 to 10 minutes (5 km).
16:50 - 17:20 Omaha Beach Signal Monument
16:50 - 17:20 Arrival at Omaha Beaches Signal Monument. Learn about the huge sacrifice made by the 34 000 men who landed here on D-Day. Omaha Beach is the most popular travellers destination of the D-Day Beaches.
17:20 Departure to Pointe du Hoc. I takes 15 minutes (10 km).
17:30 - 18:30 Pointe du Hoc
17:30 - 18:30 Arrival at Pointe du Hoc, a prominent cliff between Utah and Omaha Beach. This point was important because it was the highest land between Omaha and Utah beaches and could thus fire upon both of them. The site was a gun battery, fortified with concrete casemates and gun pits, forming part of Hitler’s Atlantic Wall defences. Visiting the Pointe du Hoc You will learn about the 2nd Ranger battalion sacrifice to take this crucial gun battery on the cliffs of Omaha Beach on June 6th 1944. Many of the original fortifications and bunkers remain on the site and are open to the public, including the fire control casemate, on top of which there is a monument to the 2nd Ranger Battalion.
18:30 Departure to Baxeux. It takes about 0,5 hours (32 km).
19:00 Arrival in Bayeux
19:00 Arrival in Bayeux. Hotel accommodation and overnight at a 3*+/4* Hotel in Bayeux.
DAY 2: Bayeux - Utah Beach - Utah Beach Landing Museum - Sainte-Mere-Eglise - Airborne Museum - Paris
08:00 Departure from Bayeux to Church Saint-Come-et-Saint-Damien
08:00 Departure from Bayeux to Church Saint-Come-et-Saint-Damien in Angoville-au-Plain. It takes 40 minutes (50 km).
08:40 - 09:00 Stop at Church Saint-Come-et-Saint-Damien in Angoville-au-Plain
08:40 - 09:00 Short stop at Church Saint-Come-et-Saint-Damien in Angoville-au-Plain. During the D-Day two Medics Robert Wright and Kennith Moore from the 101st Airborne set up a field hospital in the little church. They provided medical assistance to 80 combatants of both sides and one child. They used the pews of the church as hospital beds and, incredibly there are still blood stains on the church pews. Several Germans stormed through the door of the church, but seeing that the medics were treating wounded from both sides they quietly left and marked the door with a Red Cross.
09:00 Departure to the Utah Beach Landing Museum. It takes about 10 minutes (10 km).
09:10 - 10:00 Utah Beach and its Monuments
09:10 - 10:00 Arrival at Utah Beach. Free time for learning on Utah Beach. Utah Beach is the next to Omaha Beach and the westernmost of the Five Normandy D-Day Beaches containing nowadays many museums, memorials and monuments. Utah Beach was the first beach to be stormed by 23,000 American soldiers on 6 June 1944 in order to capture the town of Cherbourg and its deep water port. Utah Beach casualties were relatively light with 197 (including 60 missing). The units that landed on Utah Beach include: 82nd Airborne Division, 101st Airborne Division, VII Corps, 4th Infantry Division, 90th Infantry Division, 4th Cavalry Regiment and 70th Tank Battalion.
Near the UTAH BEACH Landing Museum You can discover many important monuments. Normandy’s Utah Beaches are wide and clear and make it easy to imagine the events of 1944. You can spend here some time strolling the beach, thinking about the events of WW2. In the same general area at the Landing Museum you’ll find a collection of monuments:
1. Higgins Boat Monument. On D-Day, Americans landed in amphibious crafts used for all ladings and known as Higgins Boats, named for its inventor.
2. U.S. Navy Monument, the only outside the US consisting of three figures meant to represent: leadership, sailors, and combat units. Inscribed on the base of this statue are the names of the American ships that participated in Operation Overlord.
3. 90th Infantry Division Monument. After landing on Utah Beach, the 90th continued inland through Northern France, then onto Belgium, the Ardennes and helped liberating the Nazi concentration camp at Flossenbürg in Bavaria.
10:00 - 12:00 Utah Beach Landing Museum visit
10:00 - 12:00 Visit at Utah Beach Landing Museum, created atop a former German bunker. Having a big collection of historical artifacts, military vehicles and the original B26 bomber — one of only six left in existence.
12:00 Departure to Sainte-Mère-Église town and Airborne Museum. It takes just 20 minutes (13 km).
12:20 - 12:50 Short stop in Sainte-Mère-Église. Milestone of Freedom
12:20 - 12:50 Short stop in Sainte-Mère-Église in front of the Airborne Museum.
Sainte-Mère-Église is a small town in Normandy which played a significant part in the WW2 because of its position. In the early morning of 6 June 1944, mixed units of the U.S.82nd and U.S.101st Airborne Divisions occupied the town in Mission Boston, making it one of the first towns liberated in the invasion.
John Steele Story. You will learn here the story about paratrooper John Steele of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR) and other members of 82 Div. John Steele was this figure that inspired the film "The Longest Day", shot in the village in 1961. Thanks to this cult film starring John Wayne, Henry Fonda and Sean Connery, this moment has been immortalised. In tribute to this soldier, a mannequin is still in place on the church steeple.
Milestone of Freedom. The Borne 00 marks the spot where General Theodore Roosevelt Jr. landed and decided to lead the assault from.
12:50 - 13:50 Lunch break in Sainte-Mère-Église
12:50 - 13:50 Lunch break in Sainte-Mère-Église in front of the Airborne Museum.
14:00 - 15:30 Airborne Museum visit
14:00 - 15:30 Arrival at Airborne museum. This visitors of Normandy favourite museum is dedicated to the U.S. paratroopers of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions. The Airborne Museum comprises five separate buildings, two of which resemble open parachutes. Inside you’ll find an incredible collection of World War II aircraft and thanks to the touch pad You will experience the highlights of the Normandy landings.
The first WACO building of the Museum is dedicated to the gliders and presents the only copy of a WACO glider in France. You will join a dozen soldiers in the glider few moments before the take off. More than 500 gliders were deployed to carriy on About 4 400 soldiers, vehicles, ammunitions and other equipments.
The C-47 building with the original legendary C-47 aircraft sits proudly at the centre of a spectacular scenography made of deployed parachutes, suspended mannequins and realistic statues that question the visitor!
15:30 - 16:00 D-Day Experience Night Jumps of a C-47 aircraft at Airborne Museum
15:30 - 16:00 Experience D-Day Night Jumps of a C-47 aircraft as if you were there ! Through a hyperrealist museography You can join the nighttime embarkation of a C-47 aircraft in England, then drop into the square of Sainte-Mère-Eglise in the midst of the fighting and take part in the operations that followed. Finally you will discover an American reconnaissance plane: a Piper Cub.Get into the minds of the troopers and feel the intensity of the combat.
16:00 Departure Bayeux. It takes 40 minutes (55 km). One stop at the rest area will be made.
16:40 Arrival in Bayeux
16:40 Arrival in Bayeux. Overnight at a 3*+/4* Hotel in Bayeux
DAY 3: Bayeux - Mont Saint-Michel - Cabourg - Calvados - Paris
08:00 Departure from Bayeux to Mont Saint-Michel
08:00 Departure from Bayeux to Mont Saint-Michel. There are 130 km to drive on a highway from Paris to Mont Saint-Michel. It takes 1,5 hours.
09:30 - 12:30 Mont Saint-Michel. Abbey visit
09:30 - 12:30 Arrival at
Mont Saint-Michel. As a rule we manage to join the Guided visit organised by the Abbey itself. When ii is not possible we provide audio-guides for the Abbey's visit.
Our guide-driver bring you up the narrow streets of the medieval village toward the top to the Abbey. On the top of the Island, you can admire panoramic views of the Atlantic Ocean and bay. First settled by man in the year 709 it contains Medieval village & beautiful Abbey fortress dedicated to Saint Michael the Archangel. The construction of the Benedictine Abbey started in the 700’s and continued through the 1200s. It remains practically the same since the Middle Ages as it was the goal of pilgrims from all over the world. Mont Saint Michel remains the most visited site in France.
After the Abbey visit You'll have free time to enjoy Mont Saint-Michel city and time for Lunch.
12:30 - 13:30 Lunch break in Mont Saint-Michel
12:30 - 13:30 Lunch break in Mont Saint-Michel.
13:30 Departure to Cabourg. It takes 1 hour 45 minutes (160 km).
15:15 - 16:30 Arrival at Cabourg
15:15 - 16:30 Arrival at Cabourg.
16:30 Departure to Calvados Distillery. It takes 0,5 hour (35 km).
17:00 - 18:00 Calvados Pere Magloire L'Experience
17:00 - 18:00 Arrival at Calvados Pere Magloire L'Experience in Pont-L'Eveque. You will learn how Calvados has being made for centuries and have afterwords the Calvados tasting with explanations.
18:00 Departure to Paris. It takes 2,5 hours (200 km).
20:00 Coming back to Paris
20:00 Coming back to Paris. Drop off at Your hotel.