Blog

Many individuals have requested and maintain asking me: “What city would you advocate we keep in that’s near the Normandy D-DAY seashores we’re seeing, but quaint and has eating places….”

Listed below are all my solutions.

Over the previous few years, I’ve taken many US and worldwide guests to the Normandy D-Day Seashores.

When planning to go to these historic websites, logistics is the important thing, particularly if you happen to plan to get there throughout an Anniversary of the D-Day landings, just like the one we could have this yr, the eightieth Anniversary of D-Day.

It’s best to keep in Bayeux, a small city preserved from the bombardments of this horrible battle because of its neighborhood to Caen, which was utterly destroyed.

Associated learn: High Final Journeys in France, Excluding Paris

Right here is an summary:

The place to Keep in Bayeux?

I simply felt like sharing a few of my expertise with you now. In Bayeux, there are numerous charming lodges the place you could find an excellent deal.

An vital factor to recollect about these locations is that the vacationer season is from March to November.

From November to March, most tour guides and tourism professionals are in a form of “trip mode” after a really busy season.

The height season right here is basically mid-Might to late June. Costs can severely rise for lodges across the D-Day Anniversaries, and availability could be scarce if you happen to don’t e book properly upfront.

Associated learn: The Finest Seashores in Normandy, France

Listed below are a few of the finest lodges in Bayeux

Lodge Reine Mathilde

Lodge Villa Lara

Lodge Tardif Noble Visitor Home

La Cheneviere

Manoir de Crépon – Suite Directoire

Chateau de Bellefontaine

Chateau de Sully

Clos de la Croix

The right way to Get to Bayeux from Paris?

So as to get to Bayeux from Paris, you could have two choices:

By Automotive

Should you want a automotive and are okay to drive in France, it is best to take the A14 Freeway West to ROUEN, then the A13 heading to CAEN, and then you definately’ll see indicators to BAYEUX nearer to CAEN.

It ought to take about 2h30 – 3hrs drive to achieve your remaining vacation spot. You may at all times refill the tank on the French highways and get some snacks and meals. But, the gasoline value right here is sort of excessive, and the gasoline on the freeway is the costliest you could find in France. Many of the French individuals purchase from grocery store chains. It’s less expensive.

Should you select the automotive choice, bear in mind you may need to drive by Paris. That isn’t one thing to be completed by “Sunday drivers”, as visitors and the way in which Parisians drive is extra hectic than in NYC. Many scooters, bicycles, and pedestrians do respect the lights and stops.

Additionally, leaving Paris heart to Bayeux, you may need to cross the well-known Arc de Triomphe roundabout. The form of “black slope diamond” expertise.

Driving outdoors Paris and in the remainder of France could be very simple. Simply take note of your velocity. Most 130 km/h on the highways. In Bayeux, parking just isn’t an issue.

There are numerous parking spots, and all of the lodges have parking spots for his or her purchasers.

By Prepare

One other simpler solution to get to Bayeux is to get on the prepare. About 2 hours 20 minutes by prepare, direct prepare.

It’s best to head to Gare St Lazare. St Lazare prepare station. There may be a couple of prepare station in Paris, so make sure you get to this one when heading to Bayeux. St Lazare prepare station connects with northwestern France. It’s a few 10 minutes drive (when visitors is okay in Paris) from the Champs Elysées.

You may get your prepare tickets from this official web site from the US.

From different locations, go to this web site.

Like all of the prepare stations in Paris, St Lazare prepare station is a fairly huge one, so take a while forward of you to keep away from lacking your prepare.

Onboard the prepare, there are restrooms, however very not often are there snacks or cafes to purchase. The prepare firm gives free wifi and plugs to cost your units.

On the prepare station, you should buy something you need relating to meals & drinks.

Once you arrive at Bayeux prepare station, in case your information doesn’t meet you upon your arrival (a typical choice for a lot of vacationers who’ve simply sooner or later to go to the Normandy D-Day Seashores), you’ll discover taxis proper in entrance of the prepare station to get you safely to your lodge. You may pay by bank card on all of the taxis.

No Ubers right here, sorry.

By Aircraft

This airport, although worldwide, doesn’t function many flights every day, however you could find a connection to different main cities in France, within the UK, Spain, and Northern Africa.

Then, from the airport simply take a taxi to your lodge in Bayeux. There are at all times many taxis when planes land. It takes about 30mns drive and ought to be beneath 70EUR a technique.

Associated learn: High Ideas for Reserving Flights in Europe Throughout Summer time

The place to Eat in Bayeux?

Bayeux has an incredible selection of cafés and eating places.

When in Bayeux, you’ll really feel like in a bit ideally suited city of France, the place it feels good to stroll slowly and wander round by the water mill, the Cathedral, the Convent the place the superb Bayeux Tapestry is saved.

There’s a match for everybody from easy pizza and beers to extra fancy eating.

Right here is my shortlist of finest eating places:

La Maison Blanche
For many who wish to mix a extremely enjoyable night with scrumptious meals, all in a Cabaret environment, that is the place.
Le Pommier
Wonderful, conventional, excellent location and repair. E-book properly upfront.
L’Alchimie
Small restaurant, but the chef deserves an enormous Wow. Simply scrumptious contemporary native meals.
La Rapière
Merely the very best, so e book as quickly as you’ll be able to. You received’t be dissatisfied, consider me.

The right way to Get the Most of Your Day Visiting the Normandy D-Day Seashores

If I may give one good piece of recommendation as a tour information myself, it’s to e book your tour, whether or not group or Non-public, as quickly as you’ll be able to. One yr upfront just isn’t an issue in any respect. The perfect guides and firms get booked many months forward.

Additionally, learn the opinions about your information. TripAdvisor opinions, sadly, don’t at all times match what a information firm does, as rivals and even anybody can pit a assessment on a information on this platform.

I as soon as had a assessment for the Mont St Michel, saying that this place was not price it… I’m not the Mont St Michel. Some corporations like Excursions by Locals permit solely their purchasers to place opinions to guides that they had. I like to recommend this.

Try all excursions supplied by this tour information.

Group Tour vs Non-public Tour

Properly, there’s a actual bonus of getting a tour information only for the day, however it comes with a value. It’s actually price your cash, as a Non-public Tour will let you customise the day as you need, and also you’ll have a information only for you.

Group Excursions, particularly those of the Normandy D-Day Seashores, are typically fairly like “cattle herding,” and the standard of tour guides is clearly not the identical as for those doing principally Non-public Excursions.

Now, one other easy solution to get the information to be the very best is to recollect that he’s doing that just about year-round, so a smile, some questions, and a cheerful face assist rather a lot to interrupt the ice.

French persons are very delicate to conduct and politeness. Don’t forget it.

The Normandy Touchdown Seashores: Non-public tour

Marked by engraved headstones, battle-scarred landscapes, and the fading reminiscences of the heroic “Biggest Technology,” we’ll honor the courageous younger males who sacrificed their lives for our freedom. We should guarantee their unimaginable story is handed on from one era to the subsequent!

You’ll discover numerous matters reminiscent of:

The preparations for Operation Overlord
The daring assault of the primary Allied waves
The development of synthetic harbors
The implementation of Common Patton’s deception plan often known as Fortitude
Day by day life beneath German occupation
The connection between the liberators and French civilians.

As well as, you’ll cowl matters such because the involvement of French Resistance fighters, development particulars of the Atlantic Wall fortifications, and German positions, not forgetting vital elements such because the struggle effort of ladies or the contributions of minorities reminiscent of code talkers within the postal providers or balloon barrage battalions.

Each historic reality offered is supported by meticulously detailed navy maps and archives, in addition to pictures of each Allied and German forces.

Worth: from €740 per group (as much as 7)
Period: 8 hours
Cancelation: Free as much as 24 hours earlier than
Reserve now & pay later
Pickup supplied
Cellular ticket
Tour in English or French

Included are:

Lunch for driver/information
Lunch for members and entrance charges for paid websites/museums

Click on right here to e book your tour immediately with the tour operator.

What you’ll be able to anticipate

Omaha Seashore

Honor the courageous males on the American Cemetery, the place 10,000 American troopers are buried or lacking in motion. Cease at Omaha Seashore to discover a fortified place as a part of the Atlantic Wall.

Period: 2 hours | Entrance price: Free

Pointe du Hoc

Go to the German battery at La Pointe du Hoc, which nonetheless shows huge craters attributable to naval and aerial bombardment. Witness 225 Rangers fearlessly scaling the towering cliffs over 100 ft excessive. Achieve perception into the Atlantic Wall and German defenses.

Period: 1-hour | Admission: Free

Utah Seashore

Cease at Utah Seashore for lunch on the Roosevelt Café, constructed on prime of a bunker that served as a gathering place for veterans. Discover the location the place Brigadier Common Theodore Roosevelt Jr. led his troops of the 4th Infantry Division throughout the touchdown. Uncover monuments devoted to the U.S. Navy, together with a Higgins boat.

Period: 2 hours | Admission: Free

Utah Seashore (continued)

We are going to cross the well-known hedgerows that posed important challenges to the American forces and observe the coast of Utah Seashore, which connects Sainte-Marie-du-Mont to Sainte-Mère-l’Église – the primary liberated village within the American sector.

Period: 1 hour | Admission: Free

Sainte-Mère-l’Église

Take a second to go to Sainte-Mère-Église, made well-known within the film “The Longest Day” by Charlie Firm paratrooper John Steele, who landed on its steeple. Additionally admire two stained glass home windows created particularly for this church, commemorating its liberation by members of the esteemed 82nd Airborne Division on June 6, 1944.

Period: 1 hour | Admission: Free

Historic vehicles throughout the go to of the Normandy Touchdown Seashores – Non-public tour.

Lunch Break

There may be one good restaurant to your lunch break whereas visiting the Normandy D-Day Seashores, La Cremaillère in St Laurent sur Mer, run by Jessica Julienne.

It’s simply above the way in which right down to Omaha Seashore on the D3.

That is merely a Dinners like French café the place you’ll get for 17EUR an excellent lunch. Starter buffet, primary, and dessert. In the summertime, they’ve a BBQ. Loads of room in entrance for parking.

In case you have a tour information with you, keep in mind that he/she has no breaks from the second he/she meets you, so the lunch break (with you, his purchasers) is the one time throughout the day when he can chill out a bit in addition to get to know you higher. Take time to your lunch. French individuals take a protracted break. It’s an excellent event to have a chat and take a look at the scrumptious laborious cider.

In case you have simply sooner or later to your tour of the Normandy D-Day Seashores, you received’t have time to see all of the websites in sooner or later. That is simply unattainable.

Plan the Day

Relying on the place you could have began your day, you’ll give attention to:

Longues Sur Mer German WWII canons
Arromanches & the Mulberry Harbour
Brecourt Manor
Ste Mere Eglise
Utah Seashore
Omaha Seashore
Normandy American Cemetery & Customer Middle

Belief the expertise of the tour information for the itinerary. He/she lives right here and has completed it many instances already.

Igor exhibits the American Cemetery within the Normandy in Northern France.

Helpful Ideas Whereas in Bayeux

Grocery Shops

Should you want some groceries or a snack, there’s a small grocery store, Carrefour Metropolis, simply by the Churchill Lodge, 22 rue St Jean.
Opens from 7 AM until 9 PM, besides Sunday, 9 AM- 1 PM.

Laundry

Rue des Bouchers Open 7/7 7AM-9PM

Pharmacy

This pharmacy has employees who communicate English fairly properly, and so they know the equal of many US medication in French – which is beneficial.

15 Rue Saint-Patrice, 14400 Bayeux

Cafes

A really nice cafe is the one of many Reine Mathilde Lodge, Le Garde Manger.

Museum in Bayeux

Should you nonetheless have a while in Bayeux, I extremely advocate you go to the Bayeux Tapestry Museum. There, the Bayeux Tapestry depicts the fascinating historical past of the Conquest of England by William of Normandy, often known as William the Conqueror.

His spouse Mathilda and her pet girls handmade it between 1071 and 1085 between France and England. It’s the oldest tapestry on the planet and is exceptionally properly preserved.

After watching the tapestry on the floor stage with the audio guides, head to the primary ground, the place the museum provides you extra perception into the context of the Tapestry.

On the 2nd ground, the film in English provides you much more element in regards to the Bayeux Tapestry. It’s best to rely about 2 hours to have sufficient time to go to the Bayeux Tapestry.

Et voilà, you’re all set to have an incredible expertise visiting the Normandy D-Day Seashores.