D-Day Road Trip

Having our new 12 on 12 off rota set out for the season meant we could plan our time off this year to include some holidays. Not used to being able to have holidays during the summer it was quite a novelty planning where and when we could go. We decided on a road trip in Vinny to Normandy in May. As it was the 80th D-Day Anniversary in June we hoped to avoid the masses but still get a feeling for the celebrations being planned. We had 10 days between shifts in which to experience this iconic stretch of French coastline.

We left Warwick on handover day and headed down to the Brighton site for an overnight stay before boarding the DFDS ferry from Newhaven the following morning. It was a very clam crossing and after 4 hours onboard in a lovely reclining seat area we arrived in Dieppe. Our first stop over was located south of Dieppe near Etretat, a small coastal town with white pebbled beaches and a rock formation similar to Durdle Door in Dorset. The site was called L’Aiguille Creuse in Les Loges, it had a small shop, restaurant, takeaway, swimming pool and was a short walk to the village with shops, a market and the bus stop to Etretat.

After two nights there we headed south west towards Mont St Michel, somewhere that had been on my bucket list for a number of years. Stopping off at Honfleur on the way we strolled around the picturesque old port and winding cobbled streets, it was a very pretty town with plenty to see.

Our campsite for the next 2 nights was Camping Haliotis in Pontorson. This was also a very convenient few minutes stroll to a large supermarket and the bus stop to Mont St Michel. The site had large lush grassy pitches surrounded by hedging as is the usual European way, a swimming pool and cafe area. Next day the weather was forecast good until afternoon so we hopped on the bus early and arrived at Mont St Michel before the main crowds. Later in the morning the crowds and parties of school children increased so we were glad of an early start. Wandering around the little alleyways and looking out across the seascapes the views were all I had hoped for, and it felt very magical aswell as satisfying that I had finally made it there.

Our next stops were ones to be ticked off Steve’s bucket list. He is an avid reader and has for many years read alot about D-Day so had a long list of places to visit on his wish list. We made our way north to Sainte Mere- Eglise a small town where the American Airbourne Divisions parachuted in, landing in the early morning of 6th June 1944. The Airbourne Museum is fascinating to visit and very informative, the town has an abundance of WW2 memorabilia shops and themed cafes. The church has a reconstruction of the paratrooper John Steele hanging from the spire where his parachute had got caught, he had then pretended to be dead for several hours before he was finally cut down and captured by the Germans.

After leaving there we headed to our final campsite destination back along the Northern coastline of Normandy. We were staying at Le Point Du Jour at Merville-Franceville-Plage for 5 nights and from there planned to visit the famous beaches and other iconic landmarks relating to D-Day. The road networks are a dream to drive, we mostly did pay for toll roads just so we could get to our planned destinations in the least amount of time so allowing us more time to be at the actual landmarks. If we hadn’t got such a tight timescale we would perhaps have travelled the more scenic roads and villages as Normandy is a very pretty region. The campsite was a great location adjacent to a beautiful sandy beach which you could take a short walk along to get to the town. Here there were food shops, restaurants, hotels and plenty of bars with spectacular views of the beach and sunsets. The pitches were a little tight for bigger vehicles but the Europeans don’t tend to be bothered about the closeness of their neighbour, and as Vinny was only short we tucked into our pitch nicely. The site had a swimming pool, 2 shower blocks and a small restaurant and takeaway.

The following day we headed out to visit Utah beach, La Pointe du Hoc, Omaha Beach and the American Military Cemetery. The beaches are so vast, so quiet, so deserted, it is hard to imagine the massacres that occurred on them on 6th June 1944. The Utah Landing Museum tells the story of more than 23,000 American soldiers who landed on the beach that morning their mission to protect the city of Cherbourg and its port from German invasion. There is also Le Roosevelt Cafe, a building and adjacent bunker that was originally a simple fishermans house in the dunes before the German army invaded the area when it then became their telephone exchange. Following the American Allied landings it was a communications centre for the American Navy, and is now decked out in memorabilia where it is very interesting to read the walls which have been signed and written on both by visiting celebrities, relatives of veterans and the Allied soldiers themselves from 80 years ago. There are huge free parking areas and also an overnight camping area further down the road.

La Pointe du Hoc is a headland bearing the battle scars of its role as the strategic German defence on the coast. Rangers climbed the steep cliffs using ropes under the fire of German soldiers who lay in wait at the top. It has mostly been left for nature to take over the deep craters left by the battle that ensued and for you to use your own imagination when you look around this windswept and now peaceful site. There is a museum and ample free parking as always.

Moving on to Omaha Beach we visited the Normandy American Cemetery. A key memorial site it contains the perfectly aligned headstones of 9,387 soldiers who fell in combat, aswell as the 1,557 who’s names are engraved in the Garden of the Missing. There are graves of 45 sets of brothers who are mostly buried together including Robert and Preston Niland who’s story inspired the film ‘Saving Private Ryan’ There is also a chapel, memorial area and a visitors centre with an exhibition. The site is vast, very quiet and respectful and has the most immaculate grass and landscaping we have ever seen. There are lovely views looking down onto Omaha Beach through the pine trees and plenty of benches to sit and reflect on the sacrifice and enormity of what happened here. It had been a very emotive and quite draining day so after this we headed back to the campsite to recharge our emotional batteries as there was plenty more still to see and do the following day.

Although the weather wasn’t hot and sunny all the time thankfully it was still dry and actually if it had been any hotter during the day it wouldn’t have been comfortable to be sightseeing outside all the time. Back at the campsites we did seem to be spending more time sitting inside Vinny than we thought we would as it wasn’t warm enough to eat or sit outside in the evenings. This then got us thinking about future time away – see blog Catch Up no2 2024.

The next day we set off for Longues- sur -Mer German Gun Battery, Arromanches and the British Memorial in Ver- sur- Mer. The gun battery is situated between Gold and Omaha Beaches at the top of a cliff overlooking the Channel and played a strategic role in the D-Day landings when the Germans spied the ships and craft heading towards the Normandy coast. It has a self guided tour on large information boards and explanatory signs.

Arromanches is pretty upmarket little coastal town with plenty of eating and drinking options in the town and along its beachfront promenade. The beach stretches out as far as the eye can see and is the location of the Mulberry Harbours. These are huge floating concrete blocks, having been towed across the Channel from England were then assembled to form walls and piers creating an artificial port used to land vehicles and supplies for the Allied troops. Meant to last for no more than 6 months the harbours can still be seen in situ today. On the clifftop overlooking Gold Beach is the 360 circular cinema showing a documentary film ‘The 100 days of the Battle of Normandy’ which bombards you from all sides with footage of the liberation of the region before the Allies moved on to free the rest of Europe from Nazi occupation. There is also the D-Day 75 Memorial Garden with its lifesize figures of soldiers made from metal washers welded together. The location is a spectacular viewpoint.

Travelling east along the coast we arrived at the British Memorial of Ver-sur-Mer. It overlooks Gold Beach where many of the British landed but most strangely its access road is through a housing estate! The site comprises of a large three sided monument with cream stone pillars leading off in a large rectangle surrounded by green lawns. It was inaugurated in June 2021 and pays tribute to 22,442 soldiers under British command who played their part in the landings and subsequent Battle of Normandy, their names are engraved on the walls and pillars of the Memorial. It was here we had a surprise discovery on seeing the Standing with Giants silhouettes displayed that we had previously seen at Fort Nelson in Portsmouth last year. The art installation was there as part of the D-Day 80 commemorations due to take place from the Memorial on 6th June.

Heading back towards the campsite we crossed Pegasus Bridge at Benouville, one of the first points that Allied soldiers set foot on Normandy soil. The original bridge is now located in the Pegasus Memorial Museum nearby having been sold to the museum for 1 franc in 1994 when it was replaced by a new more substantial bridge. On the west side of the bridge the Cafe Gondree was reputed to be the first building to be liberated in France and is still run today by the then owners daughter who was living there as a small child in 1944. It is now a popular meeting point for re-enactors and their period vehicles with its walls adorned with WW2 memorabilia.

Our final day before heading home was spent visiting Deauville, a smart seaside town that has attracted the wealthy and famous since the 1800’s. It is known for its grand casino, golf courses, horse races and American Film Festival. Its wide sandy beach is backed by a 1920’s boardwalk with bathing cabins that are named after the stars of stage and screen. The town has lovely half timbered buildings and every branded boutique you could name has a prime spot on its many chic shopping avenues.

On our last morning we departed Merville and headed to Dieppe for the crossing back to Newhaven. The sea was calm, the sun was shining and we reminisced as we sailed home from an unforgettable 10 days in Normandy. It has a stunning coastline, flower filled traditional villages and history around every corner.We agreed that it had been an emotional rollercoaster of a holiday, very heart-rending from the stories we had read, the harrowing scenes we then pictured and at the loss of so many lives from all sides. It is a time in history that will both be celebrated and mourned forever and a place that we will most definitely return to very soon. There is so much more to see and do there relating to D-Day and we haven’t even touched on the fact that Normandy itself has so many pretty towns,villages and countryside to explore.

A Bientot Normandie