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Mont St. Michel and D-Day beaches tour comany for people with limited mobility?

Anyone know of some good, reputable Normandy tour companies that can do tours of Mont St. Michel and the D-Day beaches for people with limited mobility? My wife suffers from chronic lower back pain and has limited mobility; difficulty with steep inclines, lots of steps, walking very long distances, etc. She doesn't necessarily need a wheelchair, but it can be slow-going at times.

Posted by
1230 posts

Neither of those places lend themselves to people with limited mobility—especially Mont-Saint-Michel. You could do a car tour of the Normandy battle areas and just skip things like Pointe-du-hoc and some of the gun batteries that require lots of walking. Maybe that would save your/her legs for walking the cemeteries to some degree. But MSM has one steep, cobble-stoned road leading up to the abbey and lots of walking in the abbey itself. The alternate route is the heavily staired ramparts around the perimeter. Wish I had better news, but I have seen otherwise fit, young couples having difficulty on that MSM road (especially with those dragging wheeled pieces of luggage that are often seen in airports).

Posted by
2452 posts

We used HQ Company tours last September and we are using them again with our family this spring. I used my walker and our guide was certain to drop me off at the closest location to the beaches as possible. Yannick was our guide and he knew where there were benches and the least amount of walking possible. Hope this helps. We did not go to MSM though. Our tour was an eight hour day with a pick up and drop off at our B&B.

Posted by
8570 posts

I am in the 'do something else' camp here. Seeing a beach at a distance seems not very satisfyiing and while seeing MSM at a distance is amazing, the Mont itself is all stairs and steep climbs. With so many wonderful places in France that are more friendly to people with limited mobility, this seems unnecessarily punishing.

Posted by
940 posts

In April, we took an Overlord Tour out of Bayeux for WW2 sites. The day before our tour my husband had seriously injured his foot that required medical attention. We had reserved a full day tour. I called them to see if we should cancel or perhaps do a half day tour; as I was concerned being in a van all day with a recent injury might not be a great idea.

They were kind enough to provide us with a wheelchair and find availability on a half day tour. Now, in reality the wheelchair would only be useful at the American Cemetery. (You are on your own to explore and then meet back up at specified time.) At our stop at Omaha Beach, we were parked very close to the sand; so if you can assist your wife out to the sand not all too far then it would likely be doable. The place that simply wouldn't work for her is Pointe du Hoc. It's way too far to walk. Our tour didn't get to get out at Omaha Beach Memorial but saw it from the van, and were told some interesting stories while we looked at it.

Would a full day tour be better...sure in an ideal situation. Did we thoroughly enjoy a beautiful remarkable half day tour. Absolutely. It may be a great solution. Our van held 7 passengers and the tour guide/driver; so it's not like you're holding up some large group of people. Time is the limitation. We were us with a bad foot, a young couple with their exceptionally well behaved 4 year old who was the most agile of all of us; and a couple who we discovered were practically next door neighbor's to our friend's aunt.

Hard to imagine a MSM tour that can accommodate limited mobility. We had to take a pass unfortunately, but as others suggested we drove around to different vantage points to take it in with our rental car.