Normandy with kids- itinerary input needed

Laura: Both museums are great. The Arromanches museum provides a wonderful but generally technical overview of the Mulberry harbor aspect of the invasion while the Airborne museum is geared towards the airborne assaults--I think the Airborne museum would likely be of more interest to your kids but you know them best. If you do decide to do the Airborne museum, please watch the movie "The Longest Day" with your kids before traveling to Normandy. I also recommend visiting the Bayeux tapestry museum while in Bayeux. Enjoy your trip!

~Darrel

Everything Darren said. I would add that my favorite museum in the area is the one right at Utah Beach. It gives a good overview of the entire battle—particularly from the United States' perspective, and also has very good exhibits on the civilian population during occupation. There is also a complete B-26 bomber inside and a landing craft and a couple of tanks outside. Also, if you walk or drive North up Utah Beach from the museum, there are many concrete gun emplacements and ruins along the shore and the dunes above the beach. There are several that kids can clamber around in which may be good for exploration and burning off energy after a museum.

The Arromanches museum at least used to concentrate heavily on the artificial harbors. And you can see the ruins of them right off shore from the museum. You can even walk among some of them if the tides are right. So those are good visuals. But there isn't much beyond that last I knew (they reopened after an overhaul a year or so ago).

The Airborne Museum predictably concentrates on the U.S. Airborne operations in that area. But there is a somewhat interactive part where you are on the plane and exit (wind in your face) and look down at the town being bombed with model paratroopers hung up on models of buildings under the plexiglass floor. And of course, right outside of the museum is the town square of Sainte-Mère-Église—complete with we mannequin of a paratrooper hanging from the church steeple (during the season).

The D-day Experience museum right down the road has an even better interactive exhibit where you sit in a mock-up of a C-47 plane with images outside of the "windows," and "Sensurround" style seat movement for take-off. But unlike the other three, there isn't much right outside of the museum to put all these things in perspective IMHO. For a more educational and analytical museum without the kid-factor, the museum in Bayeux gives the best overview of D-day and the Battle of Normandy in my opinion. But it may be a bit dry for kids.

I will add that I do not have any kids of my own (regretfully), but I do go to Normandy every other year, and know the area fairly well. So please reach out if you want any additional information. I also applaud you for letting your kids experience this and learn from it.

You have a full day visiting Utah Beach, taking a jeep ride and going to Omaha. The museum complex in St Mere Eglise and/or the Utah Beach museum are more than adequate for a museum stop.

Cute towns and farms abound in Normandie (I know, I live in one) No castles per se in the region you’re in but chateaus in abundance. Can’t speak to cidery visits but there are some near the beaches.

Candidly April is sort of a shoulder month so with an early start from your origin you can be on and off Mint St Michel by late morning/early afternoon. When we take or send visitors to MSM it’s always an early start.

Good Luck

I live in Normandie as well (Manche) and I would disagree that there are no castles.

Ones that spring to mind are le Château de Guillaume-le-Conquérant in Falaise, which has kid-friendly video projections in several rooms explaining some of the complexity of the history of the area.

There's also un Château de Guillaume-le-Conquérant in Caen, which I think most people would consider a castle.

And then there's le Château de Pirou on the Cotentin Peninsula, which is open seasonally so check before visiting.

There's also the ruined Château de Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte, also on the Cotentin Peninsula, which looks like a castle to me.

I'm sure there's more, but those are the ones that spring to mind.