We had the distinct pleasure of booking Bertrand Saudrais at [email protected] for our family's personal Normandy D-Day Tour on May 27th, 2023. We could not sing enough of Bertrand's praises, from his personal style to his wealth of knowledge about D-Day, to his at-ease personality that fit us perfectly.
To start, we found Bertrand by looking at his website (executived-daytours.com). He was very prompt in getting back to us, and immediately gave us suggestions for things to read and watch in preparation for our tour. This recommendation was extremely helpful because it got our kids involved in the tour before we even arrived. He continued to work with us to tailor the tour to what we wanted to see, bringing us to important locations for the 101st and 1st ID at our request. His tour is not canned; he will ensure that he meets your needs across the entire D-Day front. He even took us to the Normandy American Cemetery for the flag-lowering, for which we were immensely grateful.
Bertrand's deep knowledge of June 6th, 1944, as well as the events that preceded it and happened because of it, was amazing. It was obvious that Bertrand is well-read on the landings, able to pull data from numerous different books and interviews off the top of his head having to do with whatever topic we were discussing at each location he took us to. He was able to take us off the beaten path to different locations we would not even have thought of (1LT Meehan's of E/2/506 plane crash location, for example). He had an answer for all the questions we asked, and even had props to show us, such as old pictures, maps, and quotations. We could not have asked for a better person to deep dive the landings for us.
The last reason that we would recommend Bertrand to anyone (large family, small family, or individual) is his personality. He immediately put us at ease when we met him in St. Mere Eglise. He was not overbearing, was very respectful, and was extremely patient. We have a lot of young kids who could be distractions, but he engaged each one of them, and was patient with us whenever one would start acting up. Bertrand was extremely professional and nice throughout the 9-hour tour. It was a long and eventful day that Bertrand made better.
We cannot recommend Bertrand Saudrais enough to our friends and family for personal D-Day tours in Normandy. We plan on going back to Normandy again, and when we do, we will ensure that we coordinate with Bertrand so he can be our personal guide. He is the best there is!