Free Day from Bayeux - ideas

When will you be there? There may be a nearby festival or event that we could help you discover.

You say you've visited Sainte-Mère-Église, but make sure you drive out of town to the La Fiére causeway. Further North is the dirigible hanger that dates from WWI. And a little to the West is the German cemetery at Orglandes. I prefer it to the one in La Cambe. Also, the little town of Saint-Marie-du-Mont between SME and Utah. And 5 minutes from there is the small church in Angoville-au-Plain, where two U.S. medics cared for combatants of both sides and civilians while the battle was waged back and forth right outside of the church.

Likewise you say you have visited Utah Beach, and I hope that included the museum there (the best in the area IMHO). A drive North from there along the coast for 10 minutes is nice too, with several pieces of the Atlantic Wall that you can walk in and around. Head back inland a little and you can see the Azeville Battery. There's a great audio guide is available there as you walk through the tunnels and rooms connecting the large German gun emplacements. Azeville is much better to see than than the nearby Crisbiq battery.

Grandcamp Maissey is a wonderful little French port town with lots of places to eat within view of the water. And the coastal road between there and the Beaches to the East hold many small, family-run Calvados distilleries if you're into that. To the East of Bayeux is the wonderful little Canadian cemetery—very contemplative, and a "must stop at" sight for me each time I go to Normandy. Further East is an interesting museum of German radar in the area.

We will be there September 10 - 18

Have you seen the tapestry in Bayeux? If no, you should!

In the town of Falaise there's a relatively new (and English-accessible) museum focusing on civilian life during WWII. The museum covers the activities of the Resistance as well. I found it very interesting.

I enjoyed the towns of Fougeres and Vitre in eastern Brittany, roughly south of Mont-St.-Michel. Both were surprisingly uncrowded for such picturesque places. Obviously, neuther would be a day-trip destination from Bayeux.

Here’s a link to some September in the department Normandy http://en.normandie-tourisme.fr/calendar-of-events/september-606-2.html

I’m assuming you have lodging booked for all of your days in Bayeux but if not, you could go further out to Brittany and then work your way back to your next base near St. Malo.