Normandy, France – D-Day 2024

Day 1 and 2 – Port-en-Bessin

I have had a desire to be part of these 80th anniversary celebrations of the D-Day landings in WWII for many years. I have long been fascinated by the planning and success of “Operation Overlord” and of the courage and sacrifice made by so many. And we found out very early in our planning that we weren’t the only ones ! As Adrienne began looking at accommodation options, it became very clear that we hadn’t started our plans early enough – some places had been booked out over 3 years ago !

In the end we have split our visit into two locations – more from the point of where we could get accommodation rather than any real choice. Our first two nights are on Port-en-Bessin, quite near the Omaha Beach coast. This must have been a canellation as Adrienne had first booked closer to Bayeux, having scouted many, many options. At that stage there was nothing in cooee of any of the beaches. And getting 4 nights in one spot was harder – or out of the question based on price – so the next 2 nights are further out at Barnville-Carteret.

But first we were in Paris overnight in the Novotel hotal near Charles de Gaulle airport. With our flight arriving late we decided this was the simplest option as it would allow us to then pick up our car from the airport nexr morning. We had a nice meal in the hotel restaurant then collapsed into bed with our body clocks thinking it was about 3am after our long flight.

We left Paris about 9.30am after a bit of a wait at the Europcar counter. But we caught a first glimpse of those on their way to Normandy – a WWII Veteran from the UK proudly displaying his medals on his coat lapel and a guy obviously part of one of the parachute jumps.

We have an Opel Astra for this part of the tour. Our first stop was Giverny to have another go at seeing Monet’s Garden. We had tried to visit it on our 2011 tour however we were very short on time then and the long queue at the ticket office meant we would have even more delay so we decided we would try another time. Well here we are back again. We arrived just before 11am and when we reached the queue we wondered whether we might have another long delay. However the line moved pretty quickly and we were inside the garden in about 20 minutes.

There were lots of people already in the garden including a couple of school groups. We walked through the main garden and made our way through the tunnel under the road to get to the famed water lily garden. Forget about trying to get a shot of the famous painting – the little bridge across the pond – there are just so many people around and the bridge is packed ! The gardens are beautiful though, no question.

After our visit to the gardens we started walking back to the car and found a courtyard cafe open which didn’t seem too busy so we ventured in to find some lunch. We ordered a delicious meats and cheese platter and sat in the courtyard enjoying the sun. While we waited a gentleman in the queue asked were we from Australia. Turns out he was originally from Brisbane and now lived outside Paris. He was heading a group tour to Normandy and when we explained we had to split our accommodation between two locations he said he had also had to adjust his plans this year compared to normal.

Lunch complete, we made our way to Normandy and our first stop. This was supposed to be to the American Cemetery to see a group of bagpipers performing but as we expected we were already finding our first need for a backup plan as the traffic in the area was showing “bedlam” on Google. Instead we made our way to the Omaha Beach Memorial.

Whilst driving toward Normandy on the highway we passed a number of jeeps and other military vehicles heading our way and as we approached closer to the beaches they seemed to be everywhere already. Jeeps, troop transport trucks, motorcycles, motorcycles with sidecars and various other replica military vehicles were evident everywhere and many full of participants in full military outfits.

Not to be outdone, the French gendarmarie on motorcycles were also everywhere. They seemed to be coming and going every which way and wherever you managed to stop there were big groups of 5 or 10 waiting.

As we approached the main road leading to Omaha Beach we saw a car coming out of a parking spot so we grabbed it. We still had a walk of about a kilometre to get to the beach but thought a parking spot is like gold so were happy to walk. Also keeping the gendarme busy were lots of black vans transporting various presumably important people around. We didn’t know who they were – perhaps some top army brass, or elderly veterans – but they were everywhere, usually accompanied by a troop of gendarme on motorcycles.

When we got to Omaha Beach, the main carpark area was being turned into an ampitheatre for the actual offical D-Day ceremony for this year. So here, as well as the gendarmerie, were vast numbers of guys with black suits and mobile phones. We did manage to get onto the beach which was very low tide. As we made our way back, the traffic was bedlam – military vehicles, tour buses, tourists all jockeying for somewhere to go on these tiny French roads.

We made our way back to our car and then on to Port-en-Bessin. We stopped at the local supermarket to pick up some provisions for our stay and the supermarket carpark was half full of military vehicles and associated re-enactors also doing their shopping ! It was then not far to our little flat for the next two nights.

Our flat is part of a small apartment block, independent but connected to the Mercure Hotel, which is also right next to the golf course. The flat is pretty basic – a bit like a bed sit room – and that typical French “aged look”. However it is very comforatble and well priced ! It has a little hedged courtyard at the back where we had our drinks before a dinner of quiche and caeser salad.

We haven’t got used to the long hours of day light yet – we starting feeling very tired about 9.30pm but it was still light out ! But we went to bed pretty happy with our first day’s activities.

Next day we woke pretty early – about 5.30am – as the light started to appear. We had our breakfast and got a few things organised and started off to try and beat some of the crowds. First stop was Arromanches which is the location of the famous Mulberry harbour – the artificial habour built and floated across the English Channel on D-Day to allow for supplies and re-inforcements to flood in following the invasion. If you would like to read more detail about these here is a link . Mulberry “B” is just off Arromanches and part of the remains are visible just off the coast. We visited the D-Day Museum which tells the story of the invasion and the building of the harbour.

We had parked in a parking lot overlooking Arromanches and walked down to the Museum. It was a parking / campervan lot and whilst the overnight campervans were wall to wall, we were about the first car in the carpark. However by the time we got back a couple of hours later it was bedlam ! As we tried to get out, there was a campervan parked in the main access which meant it was difficult for even small cars to pass either in or out and at this point a stream of military vehicles were also trying to get in. Working out they couldn’t, they then tried to turn around but other traffic had followed them in and chaos pursued. Things sorted themselves out eventually and we next moved on to the British Normandy Memorial.

This is at Gold Beach. This memorial didn’t exist when we were last here in 2011. It is quite extensive and sits on a ridge above the beach. As part of the commemorations a group called Standing with Giants have installed 1,475 silhouettes across the wild meadow fields of the British Normandy Memorial called ‘For Your Tomorrow’. The 1,475 giants reflect the number of servicemen who died serving under British command on D-Day itself.

Again there was a lot of activity going on setting up for a ceremony in the coming days. And as was the case everywhere else there were numerous re-enactors and military vehicles around every corner!

We next set our sights on Pegasus Bridge, famous for the raid by British gliders to capture the bridge in the early stages of the invasion. As we approached the nearby town of Ranville the traffic came to a complete stop. We waited a while with the only movement being cars doing u-turns. Google Maps was showing the whole area ahead of us as red. So we decided to join the u-turners and come up with another plan.

Not far back we had seen a sign for a museum at “Radar 44”, one of the main radar stations for the German forces at Normandy. Some of the bunker rooms had been recreated and it was quite an extensive installation – and not crowded ! After spending a little time here we decided to go back to the main part of Port-en-Bessin where we walked around the town and had lunch from a boulangerie. As we left, there was a fly past of C-47 planes – one of many we would be seeing over the ensuing days.