B&B's

Jane, Hopefully one of the sights you'll visit with Dale will be the Abbaye d'Ardenne, which is a significant location for Canadians. I found that standing in the garden where the "events" took place was both sombre and a bit "eery". Some other sites to visit (not necessarily all Canadian): > WW-II Museum in Bayeux > Gun Batteries at Longues sur Mer > Pegasus Bridge Museum (original bridge now on the grounds of the Museum). You'll note that the "GummiPuppen" look different than shown in the movie The Longest Day. A set of Bill Millen's Bagpipes are also on display (Lord Lovat's Piper). > Canadian Cemetery at Beny sur Mer > Juno Beach Centre (although not all of the content is concerned with D-Day history). > Towns - LOTS to visit: Authie, Bretteville-l'Orgueilleuse, Norrey-En-Bessin, Berniere sur Mer (landing beaches),Varaville, Le Menil Patry, Ranville. I've toured with Dale in the past - he's an outstanding Guide! You're going to have a great tour! Although it's not concerned with Canadian history, if you happen to be in the area, ask Dale to show you the small Church at Angoville-au-Plain. Two Medics from the 101st (Band of Brothers) performed exemplary service there, and there's an interesting story behind it. Happy travels!

Thanks so much Ken. It's reassurring to have the recommendation of someone whose been on one of the tours. We are looking forward to the two tours we have booked; the full day Canadian tour as well as a full day Falaise tour. From what we understand, our tours will include a number of non-military related sites as well, so hopefully the Abbaye d'Ardenne will be one of them. We were planning on visiting the Bretteville-Sur-Laise Canadian War Cemetery where a large number of the 22nd Armoured Regiment, Canadian Grenadier Guards are buried, as well as Bergen-Op-Zoom in Belgium. Thanks again!

I totally agree with Ken's recommendations. Dale Booth's tour was a major highlight for us - probably one of the best things we've done in 20 years of travel. Have fun!

Thanks Sharon. These recommendations mean a lot. If there is one thing we've learned in our research, over the course of the past year, it's that it would take many years to learn it all. We are reassured in knowing that we will have a tour guide with the knowlege and expertise to bring it all together for us. Thanks for your input!

Jane, You're very welcome! I'm sure you'll enjoy the tour with Dale. He'll probably bring his book along with "then & now" photos, and it's interesting to see what the place you're standing on looked like during the war. If you subscribe to History Channel, you may have seen a program listed called "Dig WW-2". I was watching one of the episodes earlier this week which covered the Guns destroyed by the Band of Brothers during the invasion. The film crew was using the services of a local history expert, who turned out to be Paul Woodage, Dale's former employer at BattleBus. He was wearing his "D-Day Historian" ball cap, advertising the name of his new tour company. I've also toured with him and he too is an outstanding Guide! Cheers!

Jane,
There is a great WWII War Museum at Groosebeck (Netherlands) dedicted to Operation Market Garden, the Airborne attempt to cross the Rhine at Arnhem in September 1944. A short distance away is a military cemetary for the men who lost their lives in the Operation. There are many Canadians (as well as British, Polish, and Americans) buried there. That town is between Nijmejgen and Arnhem, and is a fairly easy daytip from Amsterdam. There are many trains going each way daily for the 75 to 90 minute journey.

Thanks Jack. Sounds like another to add to our growing list. Thanks!

Thanks Ken: When we began our research, I will readily admit that the Google searches we did pertaining to Normandy Tours, had us somewhat overwhelmed with the choice of companies to use, the tours to take. It was in one of your earlier posts in which you recommended a number of companies, including Dale's that gave us the confidence we needed to go with them. Even at this early stage, from the communications that we have had with Dale and Debbie, we are so happy that we did. They are enthusiastic and most helpful, and we look forward to our tours with them, as well as our stay at their B&B. We have scaled our trip down from our original plan of 6 weeks, including Italy, due to cost and logistics, as well as the desire to be able to take our time and enjoy the trip, without feeling rushed to travel the extra distance. We are hoping that we can do Italy in a few years time. Regarding the episode of the History Channel that you refer to, I have not seen that one, but it is our favourite channel, so perhaps it will be re-broadcast at some point. Thanks again for all your excellent advice Ken. As the saying goes; "You are a scholar and a gentleman" :-)

Jane, I know your plan is to follow basically the route of the Canadian Grenadier Guards but after going through Normandie and before going into northern France (Somme and Nord Pas-de-Calais area), you might to want to see the Canadian Memorial at Dieppe because what took place in 1942. In the centre ville of Arras (Nord Pas-de-Calais) there's is a memorial plaque tacked on the side of a building dedicated to the Guards Regiment (Welsh ?) which was the last to pull out (in 1940) and the first to reenter for the liberation in 1944. Since you'll be in Vimy, Arras is nearby, ca. 10-15 mins by car. If you want to include seeing poignant WW I sites in Arras, they're to be found within the city limits.

Thanks for your response Fred. Dieppe is on our list as well as the Vimy Memorial. While the purpose of our trip is to follow the path of my father-in-law's unit in WW2, we certainly don't want to do it in isolation of the experience and contribution of all the great men and women who served and sacrificed so much, in both WW1 and WW2 - British, Poles, American and others. Time and distance restraints require that we focus on the CGG, but we are hoping to be gain a broad overview as well. There is just so much to see and do, and so little time to do it. Thank you for this.

In terms of locating B&Bs and small hotels, we've used Hotels de Charme before and liked the selections, thought it looks like they may have been purchased by another entity.

We've had good luck finding B&B's on Trip Advisor. Depending on the size of the town you're searching in, B&B's might have their own separate tab, or may be grouped together following the hotel listings.

Thanks Lexma and Charlene. Will definitely check them out.

Here is a link to the Canadian museum at Juneau Beach http://junobeach.org/Centre/index.html As a previous poster indicated, it concerns itself with military history before and after the WWII invasion as well. It is not operated by Canadian governments. To some extent, I guess, it is something of an alternative to the national war museum in Ottawa. Your guided tour probably will go there so you can make up your own mind.

We visited a very impressive and moving Canadian WW1 War Memorial near Beaumont Hamel in the Somme - Newfoundland Memorial Park. Young Canadians volunteer their time at the memorial.

If in Brussels, check out the Royal Museum of Military History. Although a relatively uninteresting collection of Belgian military uniforms and weapons occurpies about half the museum, the other half contains a massive trove of material from both world wars. You can see uniforms and equipment from virtually every combatant nation that participated in the two wars.

Thanks so much everyone!