Normandy D-Day sites

greasedscotsman
greasedscotsman Posts: 6,962
edited May 2019 in The cake stop
Going to be visiting Normandy in a couple of weeks. I know all about the obvious, well known places to go, such as Pegasus Bridge, Omaha, Point du Hoc, but where else is a good place to visit?

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  • surrey_commuter
    surrey_commuter Posts: 18,866
    greasedscotsman wrote:
    Going to be visiting Normandy in a couple of weeks. I know all about the obvious, well known places to go, such as Pegasus Bridge, Omaha, Point du Hoc, but where else is a good place to visit?

    Arromanches has a good museum and bits of Mulberry Harbour still visible. I found St Marine l’eglise exploitative but other views are available. If you have a good imagination then Falaise Gap.

    If you are travelling through the Pas de Calais then there is some awesome stuff there
  • figbat
    figbat Posts: 680
    Depends how far you want to go and how much time you have. The Montormel Memorial, at the site of the Falaise Pocket is worth a look - this is effectively where the Normandy invasion ended and the start of the end of WWII began.
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  • ddraver
    ddraver Posts: 26,388
    Unrelated, but Bayeux Cathedral is incredible and unlike a lot of the churches in big cities you can actually go in and just wander around so it still feels like a church rather than a tourist trap...

    The organist was practising when I was there and it was very special.

    The city itself is also very pleasant, and even the tapestry is worth a look. I was lucky with both though that it was out of season, late in the day (post ride) so I had them all to myself. The British cemetary is there too if you need to keep the D-day theme up.
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  • robert88
    robert88 Posts: 2,696
    Surrey Commuter wrote:
    greasedscotsman wrote:
    Going to be visiting Normandy in a couple of weeks. I know all about the obvious, well known places to go, such as Pegasus Bridge, Omaha, Point du Hoc, but where else is a good place to visit?

    Arromanches has a good museum and bits of Mulberry Harbour still visible. I found St Marine l’eglise exploitative but other views are available. If you have a good imagination then Falaise Gap.

    If you are travelling through the Pas de Calais then there is some awesome stuff there

    Yes D-day memorabilia is a real industry. I did visit St Marie Eglise a few years ago because we were running out of fuel. It's the only place I have ever seen a hippopotamus walking down the street.

    You could visit Hill 112. The top is (or was) a small field surrounded by trees and bushes. It was a forgotten battle for years and you could go there when they had ploughed the field and find many shards of steel, glass, Bakelite and bone fragments.
  • greasedscotsman
    greasedscotsman Posts: 6,962
    Thanks for the replies. I've found an app which should give me all the information I'm after. Maps with links to information about each of the sites.

    And I have been to Sainte-Mère-Église before. Wasn't quite sure what to make of the tank snow globe I saw in one of the gift shops.
  • schlepcycling
    schlepcycling Posts: 1,614
    greasedscotsman wrote:
    Thanks for the replies. I've found an app which should give me all the information I'm after. Maps with links to information about each of the sites.

    And I have been to Sainte-Mère-Église before. Wasn't quite sure what to make of the tank snow globe I saw in one of the gift shops.
    What's the name of the app as I'm thinking of taking a long overdue trip to see some of the sites.
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  • greasedscotsman
    greasedscotsman Posts: 6,962
    schlepcycling wrote:
    What's the name of the app as I'm thinking of taking a long overdue trip to see some of the sites.

    It's called Spot on Locations, Normandy.
  • secretsam
    secretsam Posts: 5,098
    Do they still have the tanks and landing craft on the beaches? Remember that from when I was a kid
    It's just a hill. Get over it.
  • greasedscotsman
    greasedscotsman Posts: 6,962
    SecretSam wrote:
    Do they still have the tanks and landing craft on the beaches? Remember that from when I was a kid

    Not sure there are any actually on the beaches, not that I saw anyway, but plenty of them around.

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