Normandy ww2 sites

sak

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We are planning to go to Normandy and Brittany at the beginning of July and I wanted to look at some of the ww2 sites so I was wondering if anyone has been and for any tips.
 
Brittany

:wave: I stayed an aire at Point de Pen Hir. It is a large area, accommodation 60 vans in individually marked pitches, all divided by a planted border.
Just outside the aire were 143 stumpy megaliths known as the Alignments de Lagatjar. I picked quite a few mushrooms here.The Point de Pen Hir gives fabulous views of the peninsula’s coast line, - a natural amphitheatre of 70metre high cliffs over looking a scattering of rounded boulders in the sea, known as the Tas de Pois (Heap of Peas). On the cliff top remain 4 turrets of a house once owned by a poet.
From the aire, I walked to the Museum of the Battle of the Atlantic, situated inside a World War 2 German block house facing the sea. The position of the bunkers and trenches gave views of 2 bays, and from there they could block all shipping into, and out of, Brest. Unfortunately the museum was closed, but we were able to walk round the bunkers, trenches and accommodation blocks. The names of the French Merchant Navy Ships sunk in the area were listed on a monument consisting of a rudder and propeller. (There were hundreds of them).
It was a huge site, covering 500 meters maybe more, and much of it was underground in the granite cliff. Well worth a visit
 
lesley1829 said:
:wave: I stayed an aire at Point de Pen Hir. It is a large area, accommodation 60 vans in individually marked pitches, all divided by a planted border.
Just outside the aire were 143 stumpy megaliths known as the Alignments de Lagatjar. I picked quite a few mushrooms here.The Point de Pen Hir gives fabulous views of the peninsula’s coast line, - a natural amphitheatre of 70metre high cliffs over looking a scattering of rounded boulders in the sea, known as the Tas de Pois (Heap of Peas). On the cliff top remain 4 turrets of a house once owned by a poet.
From the aire, I walked to the Museum of the Battle of the Atlantic, situated inside a World War 2 German block house facing the sea. The position of the bunkers and trenches gave views of 2 bays, and from there they could block all shipping into, and out of, Brest. Unfortunately the museum was closed, but we were able to walk round the bunkers, trenches and accommodation blocks. The names of the French Merchant Navy Ships sunk in the area were listed on a monument consisting of a rudder and propeller. (There were hundreds of them).
It was a huge site, covering 500 meters maybe more, and much of it was underground in the granite cliff. Well worth a visit
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Thanks that is exactly the info I was after.
 
http://www.arromanches360.com/en/ A great experience and a wilding spot in the car park (2013). Arromanches town is an interesting place, some WW2 memorabilia shops, a good museum and they quite like the Brits!

If you visit the museum at Pegasus bridge, take a walk along the timeline, it's signposted in hours and really sets out the bravery of the souls involved.

A few miles inland from the beaches is a bit of agricultural France with not too many of us tourists.

Enjoy, but prepare to be humbled.
 
There is an aire in Arromanches next to the tennis courts, a couple of minutes walk to the beach, There was no charge when we were last there.
 
You can overnight in the car park opposite the American cemetery. Local farmer came around at night selling us eggs and cider.
 
Not exactly WW2 but if in the area we found the Bayeux Tapestry well worth a look at. Follow the guide around it to get the general gist of it then walk back and start again and you will follow the story a lot better and find it far more interesting.
 
Plenty of places to see and only the Arromanches 360 Experience was very very crowded, queuing to get in the car park so we didn`t bother.

I also believe they`ve stopped overnighting there as well.

If you get the chance call into the Longues-sur-Mer gun battery Longues-sur-Mer battery - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It`s in our POI`s CR Longues-sur-Mer.

The cliff edge was a bit too windy and way too busy for us so we stayed in the field behind the Information Office which is very sheltered.

It`s nice to have a wander once the coaches have stopped and then we had what was probably the quietest most peaceful night ever.

We spent the night there along with Ducato who`s a member on here as well and 2 other vans ( foreign ).
 
Kathy and I went last year, there's load to see and generally its free.
The American cemetery is worth a visit to give an idea of scale of the whole thing, its very humbling.
Parking was never really an issue apart from Arromanches was very busy, we parked on the road out of the town and walked in.
Kathy was brilliant at finding Aires and we always found somewhere to park, as mentioned above Bayeux is worth a visit, but if your following the "all the aires" book when it tells you to turn left at the traffic lights turn right instead, your 100yds away at that point but end up going miles around the one way system if you go left and then end up back at the traffic lights.
 
Another one is pointe du hoc ,it's where the Rangers scaled the cliffs to get to the battery plenty of parking there ,also try port en Bessin aire for an overnight nice cafes on the harbour
 
You don`t really need to plan too much, out of Calais turn right and keep going .. LOL, just make it up as you go along and talk to other along the route.

Some places you are in and out fairly quick and others deserve more time spent, you`ll know which when you get there.

We went over with a rough plan but on day 3 that went out of the window :wacko:

In the 17 days we spent along there we didn`t get as anywhere near as far as i`d liked to have got but, hey ho there`s always next time.
 
Fazerloz said:
We suffered museum overload. :have fun:
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We also suffered museum overload :tongue:
however we drove to all of the beaches and wild camped or used aires in 4 days Pegasus bridge is worth a couple of hours visit atb
 
cipro said:
We also suffered museum overload :tongue:
however we drove to all of the beaches and wild camped or used aires in 4 days Pegasus bridge is worth a couple of hours visit atb
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We got to Pegasus late morning and there was 3 coaches there and it was heaving :scared:

So we found a spot a little down Rue Major John Howard to park up and had a good look around the town first.

Had a bite to eat then went into the museum in the afternoon when it was quiet, possibly a dozen or so people looking round.

Spent the night where we was parked ( only us there ) as everyone else was crammed in by the river at the end.

They were packed in like sardines ...... :scared:
 
Have a look at "Walking Dday" by Paul Reed, its in the Battleground Europe series, one of the best guide books I think, you can buy it from Pen and Sword publishing or from good old Amazon !
We used it last year when we went over for the big one ! We even found a group of bunkers that we had been looking for, for a few years, Wn32 , thanks to this book.
A must visit is Gary Stearns excavations at Grand Camp Maisy, very raw and as it was, he has even put a few 88mm guns back in place. So much to see in Normandy, ive been there 4 times now each for 8 days and still havent seen it all !
 
Just found out that the Tour de France is on at the same time 9th 10th 11th July, I don't know much about it but I would think the fans etc. will keep moving every day or does anyone know different.
 
We stopped at a little aire behind the post office at Hermanville-sur-Mer.
From there you are 5 minutes cycle ride to Sword Beach. We cycled all the way along the beach & up the river to Pegasus Bridge.
The locals were extremely friendly & helpful to a couple of slightly tipsy Brits with a puncture on the bar-crawl back later that day.
 
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