We had some French friends drive us 3 hours each way to Normandie to see Pont du Hoc (very moving to see), some German gun implacements, the mulberry harbor and museum. But like visiting Germany, many of the famous battles ended up flattening much of the city, so you are not seeing much of what is left. The American graveyard is definitely a moving experience but it does not give any hint of the actual battles that occurred there. You can barely see the beach at all from this carefully manicured yard.
A few other ideas for WWI & WWII :
- One of the most moving locations in all of France is Oradour-sur-Glane near Limoges, where the Waffen SS killed every man, woman and child in this small town. Charles de Gaulle ordered it be left in its original state. Thats about as real as it gets.
In and near Colmar there are American Sherman tanks sitting next to roads to this day. During the battle of the bulge further north
the Germans attempted to distract the US with Operation Nordwind. Quite a few American tanks were destroyed in the "Colmar Pocket". There is one tank right in Colmar parked on corner, and then another on the side of the road between two of the pretty beau villages just outside Colmar
Strasbourg is a lovely Alsatian city where the men were forced into the German army. The city square Place d' Kleber was renamed Place du Hitler during the German occupation where the best Xmas market in France now happens.
In Lyon, there is a museum to the French resistance. Lyon was a hotbed of resistance activity, and famously the head the of Maqui was captured and tortured to death in Lyon by the "butcher of Lyon" Klaus Barbie. Its also the scene where American spy Virginia Hall (the Gestapo called her "the most dangerous of all Allied spies") was operating before she barely escaped with her life climbing the mountains into Spain during winter with only one leg.
WWI Stuff : The giant monument to the dead at Verdun. The Maginot line - haven't been there but I believe you can enter and roam around. Rheims (go to the cathedral and see pictures of the Germans in WWI using that same cathedral as a hospital)
Metz (where Patton's men were called the Iron men of Metz after they eventually won a protracted siege of entrenched Germans)
Vichy near Clermont - Ferrand where the Vichy (Nazi-friendly puppet) government was held. I believe it's a spa town now.
Luxembourg where Patton is buried after his car accident. (There is a Patton museum in the CA desert too which is worth a visit)
Near Bastogne there are various other little towns involved in the battle of the bulge - including the location where US POW's were machined gunned in cold blood by Task Force Piper's Panzer group.
For Medieval History
.... why not go see a castle actually being constructed at Guédelon near Auxerre I believe.
The Hundreds year war gave rise to numerous castles and fortified towns in Dordogne (Castelnaud, Beynac, Montpelier, etc, etc.) and there are famous battle sites like Agincourt, Crecy, etc.
There is Orleans near Paris ... where Joan of Arc famously intervened to bring the French to victory.
There is Tours where Charles Martel defeated the Islamic army coming up from Spain and kept northern France from become Islamic.
The whole Cathar area of Carcasonne, Bezier, etc
Ancient History
In the most famous battle of Gallic wars 2000, Ceasar defeated a Gallic force of 250,000 lead by Vercingetorix at Alesia. The modern French have built a history park where the believe the pivotal battle took place.
Ceasars most trusted legion was Legio X Equestrus. One of their most famous battles was over the Germanic tribes near modern Strasbourg. After these men won him many battles, they went into retirement in the area of modern Narbonne.
