Normandy Trip Oct 2025

Leaving Wednesday morning for Normandy. My 5th time.

 

Many thanks Graham. Just the sort of advice I was looking for.

 

Just to complete the circle......

Got back on Monday after a great 'week'. Drove down after taking the Tunnel and stayed at Etaples first night. Drove the remaining bit the next morning and then stayed at Ibis in Ouistreham for three nights. The room was good, location great, breakfast OK but food was dire. Overlooks the ferry terminal and many of the defences of Ouistreham within a short walk.
Then we moved on to Port En Bessin which was delightful working port with a great hotel - Hotel De La Marine. More expensive but my wife would have liked it so more than a place to crash!!!

Three good places to eat : Restaurant L'Ecailler in Port En Bessin with great seafood, Restaurant Floralie near Hill 112 at Evrecy, Restaurant Jo et Jack in Ouistreham. Loit of steak and frites elsewhere but hard to get vegetables!

Highlights:

Pegasus Bridge and Museum and Merville Battery and Museum were great with two good museums.
Le Grand Bunker Museum in Ouistreham - so different and climbing up the tower for the view of the beach was superb.
Hillman - not open outside summer but could still walk around it.
Hill 112 - you need to read up on it beforehand but trying to put yourself in the Wiltshire Regt units attacking from Baron was humbling.
Normandy British Memorial - so evocative with all the names of the casualties and overlooking Gold Beach.
Utah Beach D Day Experience Museum - really excellent set of displays with figures etc. The 'flight' into Utah in a C-47 was great!
Longues Sur Mer Battery
Musee du Debarquement at Utah Beach - so much in it and so well displayed. The creators collected equipment, weapons etc and it showed!
For 'concrete' fans: WN65 overlooking Omaha, Courseulles Sur Mer, StP 10 near French Memorial on Utah

Lowlights:
Carpiquet Museum - a collection of aviation debris!
Juno Beach Museum - a lot about Canada which was well presented but not much about the landings at Juno.
Omaha Beach - not sure if it was us but found it hard to engage with it and seems like long expanses with little to see compared to the other four beaches
Sainte Mere Eglise - tourist trap!

We could have spent the same time there again and didn't see many of the staples eg Point Du Hoc. Although I had a good general understanding of the invasion and following campaign the thing I come away with was the scale of it - 120,000 men across the beaches on D-Day itself, the width of the D-Day beaches, the endless fields of corn at Hill 112.

Hope this is useful for other 'newbies' planning the same trip.

 

Excellent Skoyen89!

Thank you so much for posting your report up, it is very much appreciated.

So pleased for you and your lady that the highs outnumbered the few lows.

"Le Grand Bunker Museum in Ouistreham - so different and climbing up the tower for the view of the beach was superb."

Glad to hear that it still can be, that access is still given (below, from over twenty-odd years ago, a dear dear friend, "mon collègue", since departed).





"We were soldiers once, and young"(er!).

Hope that you can visit the places that time didn't allow for you on current trip at some day in the not too distant future Skoyen89, and again, thanks for sharing.

Kind regards, smiles on the way up, easier going on the way down, sometimes!

Jim.

P.S. Keep chasing the légumes

 

"Ste Mere Eglise - tourist trap!"
Well possibly, but two places are well worth visiting there:
1. The church in the square - two beautiful US Airborne stained glass windows, plus some battle damage still visible.
2. The Airborne Museum (located where the burning house was) - especially the jump from the C47 and the stories of those who landed in the square.

Surprised you were underwhelmed by OMAHA - I thought the Vierville exit on DOG GREEN was a very impressive death trap.
If you want to get off the beaten track, then following EPSOM is worth considering (to the Odon bridges and back to Hill 112).

The Normandy British Memorial actually overlooks GOLD, not SWORD.

 

Thanks for the correction - I meant Gold but somehow typed Sword! I have edited it.

As you can guess from the wording it was meant to be my perspective and I understand others might not have the same views. Perhaps I will give Omaha another go if I go back.....