Canadian perspective at D-Day sights?

Battlebus does a Canadian Experience tour. We are hoping to go and take this tour some day as we found the 2 day American Experience tour to be so outstanding.

we were hoping to make this a day trip, or an overnight at the most considering Paris to Caen is only 2 hours by train - but it seems to get a full US experience and still have time to see the Canadian and/or German sites, it's looking more and more like a three day thing.. would it be best to get off at Caen or Bayeux?

DK There is a website (www.junobeach.org/centre) with information & photos of the Canadian Museum & centre at Courseullles-sur-mer. If you are driving, every little town in that area has a tourist information centre and you can get maps showing where the Canadian Military cemeteries are.

If you can read French (or can just guess at it) google "Chemin des Canadiens, Normandie" and you will find many small towns & villages in Normandy with a rue des Canadiens, avenue des Canadiens, chemin des Canadiens, indicating the route of the Canadian soldiers as they fought their way to Caen.

DK,

I would highly recommend the Canadian tour from BattleBus! It covers some of the main sites where Canadians fought during the D-Day landings (the Canadians supposedly advanced farther on the first day than any of the other forces, except for some British Pathfinders). There were some significant battles between the 12th S/S and the Winnipeg Rifles & Regina Rifles in Authie, Bretteville l'Orgueilleuse, Putot-En-Bessin and other small towns in the area, and the details are both horrific and inspiring. Visiting the garden of the Abbaye d'Ardenne was especially moving, considering the events that took place there.

The BattleBus Guides are extremely knowledgeable and passionate about the history, and I've found that a tour provides a much more rewarding and interesting experience than going on my own. The Canadian tour also visits the Juno Beach Centre and of course Juno Beach.

In order to take a BattleBus tour, you'll need to stay in Bayeux for at least one night. The tours leave first thing in the morning from Bayeux. Reservations for the tour are highly advisable, as they're often fully booked.

Happy travels!

The Canadian Cemeteries are at Beny-sur-Mer and Cintheaux.Here are websites for some tours offered by professionals, these are the ones recommended by Rick and some of these (as noted above) have Canadian tours:www.battlebus.fr (from Bayeux only)www.victorytours.com (from Bayeux only)www.memorial-caen.fr (from Caen only)www.ddaybattletours.comwww.overlordtour.com (based in Bayeux)

Hey DK,

I took the train into Bayeux and then took the public bus out to Juno beach. The info booth in town is used to having North Americans asking around, and they were very helpful with pointing out the bus and giving me a schedule.

At the Juno beach centre, which was partially established by the Government of Canada and the Royal Canadian Legion, all the guides are fluently bilingual Canadians. The museum itself is excellent, and I highly recommend the guided tour of the beach as it really brings out the history of the site.

I am afraid that I cannot comment on the Battlebus as I was there briefly and cheaply, but if you just travel to Juno beach on your own you will find the experience to be excellent, and entirely from a Canadian perspective (though the information is not tailored just for Canadians to see).

For more information go to the Juno Beach Centre Website and also check out the Visitor Information to look at guided beach tour times if you are interested.

The only caveat is that although they list the "Juno Park" tour times on the website, they do not tell you if that tour time is in English or French. When I showed up for the last one of the day, it was in French and I managed, but if you would need an English tour it might be best to email in advance to see when the English tours start.

thank you to everyone, you've been a great help :)

There are also some significant Canadian War Cemeteries near Caen

These are at

Reviers north of Caen with 2000 graves:

http://www.normandie44lamemoire.com/fichesvilles/reviers.html

and at Cintheaux 15km south of Caen, en route to Argentan/Alençon with almost 3000 graves, including that of the youngest Canadian combatant (he was under age, having lied to join up).

http://www.normandie44lamemoire.com/fichesvilles/cintheaux.html

If you have the time, a trip north into Belgium to see the Canadian memorial and cemetery at Vimy Ridge would be worthwhile. This is where some of the fiercest fighting of World War I took place, in what was called the Ypres Salient.

Jeff