Hi Chaps

My mate and I are off to France on Wednesday for the Le Mans 24 hour race (3rd time for me 2nd for him). Previous trips have all been at warpspeed so this year in lieu of our 40th birthdays we wanted to take a slightly more leisurely trip and take in Normandy and all its history on the way (We land in Cherbourg and have an overnight planned in Caen).

Has anyone done the Normandy landings battlefield tours etc? If so what are the best places to take in?

Cheers

[Edited on 11/6/12 by kendo]

would be interested to see responses as we are doing exactly the same after the classic , hope you have a good time.

Paul

Took swmbo there for her birthday one year, we went to pointe du hoc, where us rangers scaled a cliff with Germans dropping grenades down on them, st mere eglise, where one of the us paras got caught on the church spire, Pegasus bridge, the us memorial, and the UK beach at avranche (i think), where you can see the remains of the mulberry harbours. Caen itself is nice, the castle is cool, the rest of the city was pretty much flattened by bombing. The peace museum at caen is good as well

It's difficult to imagine what the guys landing would have had to go through, but it does give you a good idea of the scale of the challenge they faced. Enjoy!

Thanks guys. So the plan so far is:

D-Day

Cherbourg to Sainte Mere Eglise (Airborne Museum)
Ste Mere Eglise to Pointe Du Hoc
Pointe Du Hoc to The American Cemetery
Cemetery to Longues Sur Mer Battery.
Longues Sur Mer to Arromanche
Arromanche to Caen

D +1 day

Hotel to Pegasus Bridge
Bridge to Merville Battery
then to Common Wealth Cemetery in Ranville
Then off to Le Mans.

On the way back may stop off in Bayeux to check out the needle work.

May change subject to how long we linger at each location and of course the weather.

Dont miss out Utah and Omaha beaches, there are bunkers remaining and a museum at utah. We did cherborg to caen in a day on the bikes, but ran out of time for a proper visit to Pegasus bridge. You have to go to de hoc and the us cemetry, you can spend hours at the information centre at the cemetry. Its an emotional trip and profoundly effected me