Follow The Road To Liberty.
Written: Oct 23 '05 (Updated Oct 23 '05)
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Pros: Lots to see connected to WWII, pleasant countryside and friendly people.
Cons: In my experience I needed another week to fit everything in I wanted to see.
The Bottom Line: I would recommend visiting Normandy to anyone. Although the weather can be unpredictable it doesn't detract from your stay.
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| marylou2u's Full Review: Normandy Region - France |
When reading travelogues or reviews about areas I am visiting it's nice to get an overall picture of the area, places to visit, restaurants and such things.
My motive for visiting Normandy was specific in visiting places connected to WWII. Obviously such recent history cannot be avoided (or should be) when visiting Normandy so there are lots of places to visit, see and learn about.
Our gite (cottage) was in lower Normandy (Basse-Normandie) about 100 kms from the landing beaches of Omaha and Utah but that didn't stop us travelling up there on two separate days within the week to see them.
UTAH
If you only want to visit one war related museum on your trip I would recommend the Utah Beach museum which is situated in Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, opposite the beach itself. Entry for an adult is around 5 euros and children aged 4-12 cost 2 euros. Particularly if you have children this museum has more to look at in terms of talking points and educational items, there are scaled reconstructions of the landing and everything is immaculately laid out and labelled. Most impressive was the Tobrouk bunker now installed within the museum along with a 75mm gun. Of all the items on display I was pleased to actually see a US Willis Jeep at long last.
Utah beach was pleasant enough for a stroll along the sand dunes although the beach and surrounding vista is bland and uninteresting.
Placed at Utah beach is the first milestone of The Road to Liberty, the final milestone ends in Bastogne, Belgium.
JUNO
A close second to Utah museum is definitely Juno, dedicated and built on the exact spot where the Canadian troops came ashore at Courseulles-Sur-Mer. Built in the same modern style as the Utah museum and with similar entry fees, Juno museum is entirely a different experience with a more focused look at Canada itself pre-war and during the war. A contemporary look at Canadian society is weaved through the whole experience. I found this museum more forward-looking than the others due to the modern outlook and the gadgets provided to accompany the history of the soldiers who fought. This was the only museum I visited where the guides were from the country the museum represented therefore you felt a real sense of pride from the Canadian guides who were extremely helpful and accommodating.
OMAHA
This museum was the one I was looking forward to most but unfortunately I found it the most disappointing. A family of four will pay 12.60 euros to enter. The building itself is small in size and quite depressing compared to Juno and Utah. The exhibits are interesting enough with lots of personal details from individual soldiers and a fascinating display of photographs; in all fairness that's what you are paying to see, not how pretty the building is, however, I feel that the museum didn't do the exhibits and artefacts on display any justice. In truth I was quite annoyed at the way such important documents and memorabilia were displayed and I thought it deserved more than the museum was offering. In spite of this I would still recommend a look around if you are visiting Omaha beach as it is located just along the road from the beach itself.
Omaha beach is a very pleasant beach to visit with fine soft sand, the day we visited was warm and sunny so the beach was dotted with families enjoying the sun. Out of all the beaches, perversely, Omaha was the most pleasant, of course I imagine anyone who visits Omaha beach will have the images immortalised by Saving Private Ryan in their thoughts. The beach at low tide brings forth the feat the soldiers faced; high steep cliffs overlooked the beach where the Germans placed their bunkers with devastating effect.
I felt more awe-inspired and emotional at Omaha than any other purely because I saw for myself the terrain the soldiers faced to reach their objectives.
CRISBECQ GERMAN BATTERY AT SAINT-MARCOUF
We decided to visit the largest of the coastal batteries. Crisbecq was a formidable battery built to repel landings on the Cotentin east coast thereby protecting Cherbourg. This battery would have decimated the troops of Utah beach had they landed in their correct position but fortunately the Americans misjudged and landed 2.5 kms further south than they should, making them out of range of the guns.
We visited on a miserable, grey wet day and most of the 1 km battery system was to be seen by walking outside with various underground blockhouses to explore. In fact the weather only added to how it would have felt for the German garrison who were based there, miserable, damp and cramped. The dioramas that are recreated in the blockhouses are authentic and very interesting, showing what the infirmary, mess room and ammunition bunkers would have been like.
The Germans cleared out on D-Day 6 after immense fire from American Destroyers; you can see the effect of their barrage on the gun placements. Even after such a battering Crisbecq was build so solidly that a lot of the original underground blockhouses are still accessible, although some blockhouses were damaged and destroyed when the Americans tested their bombs in the concrete bunkers after they took the position.
Overall there was a lot to see at Crisbecq and not at all the pile of rubble I was expecting; testimony indeed to German engineering.
After taking in the various museums along the coast we decided to visit individual towns over a number of days, with no particular route in mind, we started at AVRANCHES, where our gite was situated.
Located in the south west of Normandy Avranches is a pleasant, busy small town, Avranches itself saw fierce fighting in World War II when Patton's Third Army outflanked the Germans to take the town, there is a Patton Place in the centre of town to remember this event. The town is situated on high ground so in places can command amazing views, especially from the Jardin des Plantes, the views looking west towards the Baie du Mont-St-Michel are fantastic and I wish I'd brought some binoculars as there were a few people wanting to use the telescope placed there. One thing I must say about French parks, wherever we went, was the immaculate displays of flowers and attention to detail, Avranches was no exception.
Travelling northwards we took the coastal route of the D911 road towards GRANVILLE which is a pleasant traditional seaside town, not on par with Blackpool but it does have a beachfront casino. Granville is also well known for its fishing trade. On the beach there is a large outdoor pool built from the rocks which we didn't have time to use as we were too busy collecting mussels alongside the locals; when we got back to the gite I cooked the mussels with some garlic (of course) and white wine and can testify that they were delicious.
The market started at 6pm selling the local delicacies; Poma (a local apple based aperitif), jams, honey and hams. It was a lovely evening and a band set themselves up to entertain us shoppers. Granville was the only place we visited without any direct connections to our World War II quest and it was a welcome break to our rather haphazard itinerary.
Again we neared the landing beaches when we visited CARENTAN which is about 15 kms below Utah beach. Carentan, during the war, was a major objective for the US 101st Airborne Division to enable Utah forces to link up with Omaha. Carentan today is a quaint little town with the market square in the centre being the hub of activity. Although Carentan is pleasant to visit I doubt it will have much appeal to tourists uninterested in the wartime history. There are plans underway to build a museum at 'Dead Man's Corner', at the intersection between Carentan and St-Come-du-Mont, housing artefacts directly relating to the historic location.
Travelling from Carentan on the N13 for 20 kms or so we reached STE-MERE-EGLISE, in effect the first town to be liberated in France when the 82nd Airborne parachuted in, one young parachutist was left hanging from the church steeple while the battle raged below him. Today the village still celebrate the occasion every summer by hanging a parachute and mannequin from the steeple.
Near the church you will find the American Airborne Museum which was an interesting excursion, plenty to see inside from the actual C-47 glider that was used on the 5/6th June 1944 to land in Normandy to items found in nearby fields, such as helmets, weapons and personal items.
I thoroughly enjoyed our half day spent at Ste-Mere-Eglise as the village seems to have retained an old fashioned charm despite being a very popular area to visit.
And so ended our tour of Normandy, I think I drove around 400 miles within the Normandy Manche region to see all the places I was interested in. Not only the museums and towns but the more unknown roads where certain events happened nearby, for example; leading into Carentan from the north Lt Col Cole won his Medal of Honor leading a bayonet charge against a fortified position, an American company held out on a small hill for days lacking supplies and reinforcements; one soldier mentioned he had a great view of Mont-St-Michel so they could have been between Montviron and Lolif.
Searching for these famous and not so famous locations was truly a dream come true for me after reading, studying and being interested to actually going to where it all happened was quite an emotional and exciting rollercoaster of feelings.
I would recommend anyone visiting Normandy to visit even one of the places I have mentioned to appreciate how we today can enjoy a relatively peaceful life because of the actions of the men that fought.
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Families
Best Time to Travel Here: Jun - Aug
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Epinions.com ID:
marylou2u
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Location: Northumberland, England
Reviews written: 3
Trusted by: 1 member
About Me:
New to Epinions. Posting some of my UK based Ciao reviews and some new stuff.
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