3 Days in Normandy - What are the must see places?

Monets garden. Bayeux tapestry. William the conquerors tomb in Caen. Harbour at Honfleur. Ride the Pont de Normandy. Rouen.
The region is overflowing with hotels and chambres d'hote. All will give a warm welcome to your Euros.
 
The stretch from Ouistreham to Ste Mere Eglise is a holiday resort. There is accommodation of every description all the way along. The easy availability of somewhere to rest ones head continues some way inland too.
If all else fails, Booking.com, or round the bigger towns, a chain hotel of some description.

We Brits used to have a holiday at Whitsun, which got changed - name and date - to Spring Bank holiday. The Dastardly French refused to fall in line, and maintain Pentecost instead as a Public holiday. Just be aware that holiday breaks which can fill all available rooms are not always the same on both sides of the Channel.

Main road, Pegasus Bridge to Ste Mere Eglise is 100kms ish. Lots of alternatives, as Wapping points out, not all are great riding as the area is comparatively flat until after Bayeux, then positively fen like around Carentan. The area is not however without a certain charm. More so when riding inquisitively.

There is interesting stuff all round, all over to be discovered.
 
Superb WW2 Memorial/Museum at Caen. Very, very moving.
 
Major and Mrs Holts Battlefield Guide as above is highly recommended.

East - west suggestions:

Ranville Cemetery - CWGC graveyard where you will find a large number of allied soldiers/Germans (and my uncle - no, he wasn't a German) and, on the outskirts of the actual church wall, many other men killed very early on (Don Brotheridge being the first to be killed on 6th June - look him up on Wiki).

Pegasus Bridge/museum which you will come across on the main road.

Le Grande Bunker at Ouisterham.

Arromanches (Mulberry harbour remains still there).

Bayeux cathedral as previously mentioned.

Pointe du Hoc.

St Mere Eglise.

American Cemetery at Utah - check closing times.

German cemetery at La Cambe.

You'll have plenty of time with 3 x days.
 
A night in the Mary celest pub in Arromanches


Be careful of the guys with handbags though.

The word is that 'Grumpy Pete', the expat who had owned the place for years, has sold up and moved on. Shame; it only ever opened up Thursday, Friday and Saturday night, but I have had many a riot of a night there.

The locals were always really friendly (even those with handbags), one year we had a massive darts match, mixed teams of men and women French and English .... We got wrecked, really wrecked. Some of the girls were, lovely really lovely, a mate stills lusts after Delphine even now! ....

At one stage the bastards made me throw my darts from the pavement on the other side of the road through the open door ..... just for laughs, just because I was that pissed. The local lads were very envious of our ability to be able to buy modern high value bikes, and be able to tour extensively throughout the year. Most were working within the local agriculture industry for low wages, Pete was quick to stand up for how hard they worked and what rotten rates of pay they made. I think he made us so guilty (and we were so pissed by then we stood a round for everyone). That went down well. Pete called a halt to it at about 2.30 am, there was a Gendarmerie station just up the road back then, closed now though.

Next morning I was fit for sweet FA! Even a shower and Karen's breakfast at Normandy Beach B&B couldn't revive me. At one stage she was making emergency preparations for us to stay another night. But early afternoon we managed to set off and ride back to blighty ..... Happy days and many fond memories. Be back again to Arromanche again next year to say hi to Karen and Adrian, and can only agree with all of the recommendations above of places to check out.

:thumb2
 
Thread Bump,
did any ever convert the itinerary's / tours listed in Major and Mrs Holts Normandy Battlefield Guide to a mapsource file, or are the routes not suitable for conversion?
I`ve looked at several different threads that Major and Mrs Holts Battlefield Guide and even bought a copy, but I don`t see any mention of the routes converted into a GPS file
 
Not that I know of.

It’s a nice job for someone; maybe you?

Umpteen bods on this site seem to go there every year, so I guess they must by now have pinpointed:

A. All the classic must do locations

B. All the lesser known ‘Secret’ places, only they know about.

If they could post them in this thread, someone could plonk them into BaseCamp and join them up, without too much difficulty.
 


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