Hello, looking for some advice for a day trip to Normandy. We will be coming in from Rennes and we plan on leaving there by about 7 am and want to get as much time as possible touring D-Day sites on our own. We have a car and will be spending the night between Le Havre and Etretat. What are the must see sites that we can get in on a single full day?
Thank you in advance for any help and advice.
If you're even thinking about having a guide, book one today. I found it difficult to find a guide two months ahead of our scheduled arrival.
Also, we stayed overnight - prior to the tour, and found it to be helpful since the tour we took began at 8:00... (Simply because of the day we booked the tour, the tide conditions were as they were on D-Day, which made an even more significant impression on me regarding the horrific danger of the beach assault at low tide.) As with you, I wanted to spend as much time as possible visiting the area.
I recommend a guided tour. I'd consider myself above average regarding the history of the assault. You let someone else drive, and you don't have to worry about directions or parking... Plus, our guide - and evidently most other guides - are very, very knowledgeable about the armies involved, the locals, and the event. One his off days, our guide hikes the region with a metal detector looking for items left behind by both sides.
My one very modest disappointment about the beaches overall was the relative commercialism related to D-Day. For example, the name of a hair salon was "Hairborne 101."
That said, there were some places that the locals have a reverence about and those spots made the visit.
Again, get a guide -- ASAP.
I always recommend more than one day. That being the case, you can certainly see some key sights if you have a car. Although I will add that to appreciate the sights, do your homework ahead of time, so you know the history and lay of the land. Reading books and researching online won't cost you valuable vacation days, but will immensely improve your appreciation of what you will see.
I'm going to make the assumption that you are American and hence are more interested in the American areas of D-day. As such, here are some key "must sees:"
The American Normandy Cemetery. It overlooks Omaha Beach, and has a wonderful, if sobering visitors' center.
Omaha Beach. Drive the length from Vierville-sur-Mar West as far as the road will take you. Walk out as far as the tides will allow, and look back to try to imagine what those debarking on this beach had to overcome. Again, very sobering—even more so if you read up on the battle ahead of time. In Vierville-sue-Mer, there is a wonderful little restaurant/hotel called Hôtel-du-Casino. Form their deck, you can enjoy a bite and look out over the deadliest section of Omaha Beach.
Point-du-Hoc. Again, the more you know ahead of time, the more you will appreciate this place where U.S. Rangers scaled a sheer cliff to assault and take a German gun emplacement.
Longues-sur-Mer. A German gun emplacement on a huge bluff overlooking the coast, including a couple of beaches of D-day. This will give you an appreciation of what the Allies faced when trying to liberate the immediate beach area.
Arromanches. This was "Gold Beach," which was an area of British assault. But after D-day it was transformed into a man-made harbor where tons of men and material were brought ashore in the weeks following D-day. You can wander the beach and see the remains of this harbor right on the beach, and off in the distant ocean.
You could see all of these things in a very busy day, and it will be very memorable. If I had one day, I would forego visiting a museum. Much of what you will learn from them you can learn ahead of time. And you're better of seeing the real sights in such a limited time. Having just one day, you will unfortunately have to give up many other sights such as Utah Beach (the best museum in the area IMHO), Sainte-Mère-Église (center of the U.S. Airborne operations), other cemeteries (British, Canadian, German, etc.), Pegasus Bridge, La Fiére Causeway, and many others. But hopefully you will find a way to return. I went once to "check it off my list" in 2008. I have returned six times since (5 on the anniversary of D-day), and will be there this June for the 75th anniversary of D-day.
I did my first visit with a rental car but found I didn't know enough about the layout etc. to really get maximum sight-seeing value on my own. In a subsequent visit I used Overlord Tours and they were a better solution. Best to sleep in Bayeux the night before the tour.
I, too ,took an Overlord tour. Not being an expert on the subject, I knew that was the right decision for me ne. By myself, aside from getting lost and moving around very inefficiently, I would have just felt I was looking at a bunch of sand and concrete.
As the others have mentioned, using a local guide is highly recommended. While you can certainly drive around and look at the various sites, you'll learn far more with a guide and your visit will be much more interesting and memorable. The guides know where all the significant sites are located and can get you to each one much quicker than wandering about on your own. Unless you do a lot of homework, you may not know what you're looking at when you arrive at some sites. That seems like a much more efficient use of time, especially as you only have one very short day.
As you have a car, one option you could consider is to contact Chris Emery at http://www.visitdday.com/ . You could also park your car in Bayeux and take a tour from Overlord or one of the other firms. As others have mentioned, if you decide on a tour you'll need to book this as soon as possible!
