Bayeux, Caen Memorial museum, D Day beaches- which order?

To be clear about your constraints: you are limited to a single day and you must start and end in Caen? You're sleeping in Caen the night before or taking a train in from somewhere?

The Caen memorial is fantastic, but I would skip it unless you have time at the end. I would focus on the beaches and sites. I thought I understood that the trail from the American Cemetery down to Omaha beach is closed - I would check on that.

It was great to walk on Omaha beach and take some pictures...imagine what the onslaught must have been back in 1944 - wow! - but I think I spent more time at the cemetery above, which is really moving and amazing. I also really liked walking around Sainte-Mère-Église near Utah beach - you can see the paratrooper dummy up on the church showing where the real one landed the morning of the invasion! Neat stained glass inside the church too. But, you may not have time for everything.

I would skip breakfast, too, personally, unless you are just killing time because it's impossible to pick up the car before 10am. Grab some pastries or some breakfast bars you bought from home and get an early start!

Thanks for your reply. We are staying in Caen in an airbnb, so we can make breakfast there (but we may not have time the night before to get food. It depends on how late markets are open). We can't get the car until 10.

I am pretty sure there is a way to get a rental car in Caen before 10am. It might be an inconvenience or cost more (maybe you'll have to get up early), but if I had only one day to see all the D-Day stuff and wanted to make the most of it, that's what I would do. I'd get the car as early as practical and get out to the beaches really early then try to make it back in time to see the Memorial later in the day. Some car companies will let you pick up a rental car earlier for an extra fee. Some airport locations are open earlier hours.

I agree about getting the car earlier. Our reservation is to pick up at 10, but maybe we can go there earlier to see if they would let us have it. It's an American rental company so I'm sure they would (or I could just change the reservation)

Keep in mind, too, that picking up a rental car at 10:00 doesn't mean you drive away with it at 10:05 necessarily. You may not even be first in line, and there may be only one agent working. Filling out the paperwork, etc. always seems to take more time than you expect. Cars aren't always ready when they are supposed to be, etc.

Is the car reservation prepaid? If not, you can look elsewhere if need be and cancel the original.

no, it's not pre-paid. We just get a discount through my husband's work :) I'm pretty sure they will be flexible.

I vote that you skip the Caen memorial museum, which did not impress me at all. I much preferred the military museums at Pegasus Bridge and Bayeaux.

I agree with Elizabeth. I was underwhelmed with the Caen Peace Memorial Museum. It's got a small section on WWII, otherwise that's not it's focus. I know others love it but I really, really was moved by being at the actual sites where battles happened rather than a museum. I'd go with #3.

I thought Pegasus Bridge was really neat altho I did not have time to see the museum there. I liked the small museum at Arromanches which overlooks the remainders of the Mulberry Harbor.

If you have time, re-watch The Longest Day before you travel. The scene where German Major Pluskat allegedly looked out of his bunker and saw the whole Allied Fleet on the horizon was filmed at the Longues-sur-Mer bunker altho it didn't take place there. (This is guide-lore so may or may not be 100% true). The events portrayed at Pegasus Bridge I understand are more or less accurate. You will be shocked when you see how close the gliders landed to their target. Absolutely amazing. Have a beer at Cafe Gondree which bills itself as the first cafe and famille liberated on 6 June, 1944. Madame still ran her parent's cafe when I was there last year.

Spend time outside in this area. That is where things happened.

Add another vote against the Caen Memorial—despite RS frequent touting it. I finally went last September on my 7th visit to Normandy. I felt it was mostly a waste of time. You can do yourself a favor and learn all you can about D-day before you even leave (books, movies, etc.). That would free up a lot of time spent in a museum. The Bayeaux museum is much better if you must visit a museum in your limited time. I personally like the museum at Utah Beach even more, but if that isn't on your itinerary, that is pretty out of the way.

I also agree on getting on the road well before a 10:00 car reservation would allow (which puts you on the road mid-morning, missing a couple of prime hours). Yes, the main foot path from the American Normandy Cemetery to Omaha Beach is now closed. There is another path just outside of the cemetery to the East that brings you down past some memorials and German emplacements, but that is not really the center of Omaha Beach. The better part to visit would require driving from the cemetery, but it is well worth the visit, and there is plenty of parking along the beach.

BTW, I find Arromanches very interesting. It is on Gold Beach, which was a British landing area. It is a very wide beach with many remnants of the artificial harbor still strewn on the beach, and more visible farther out by the breakwater. There is an interesting museum there about the artificial harbor that wouldn't eat up much time too, plus a few places to eat. Whatever you do, enjoy your trip and try to plan a return trip. It is a very memorable place to visit.

Thank you so much for yor input-- it's been really helpful. So, what I'm hearing is Option 3 should be our Plan A. And, get the car rental sooner :)

I just tweaked our itinerary, so the following day (the day we're headed to Mont St Michel and Brittany) won't be so busy. That should give us a little time in the morning IF we want to wait and do Mont St Michel after 3:00 pm.

You’ve gotten good advice from the previous posters. Based on your only having one day I would suggest you do your research and pick one museum to visit and even then budget your time. There are so many great sights that I’d not give up seeing somewhere like Point du Hoc or Longues-sur-Mer to visit an additional museum.

Honestly, my strategy would be totally different: I'd take a full-day van tour out of Bayeux (mine was run by Overlord), then use the morning of the following day to see the tapestry and as much of the Bayeux museum as possible. The tour driver/guide knows where all the planned stops are and how to get to them efficiently, and he will provide much useful information. If I had just driven around myself, I wouldn't have gotten much out of it at all. One beach looks pretty much like another.

acraven, I'd love to do a tour, but there are four of us, so the cost gets really high. We'll just have to make do with what we have for this trip- maybe another one.