This historic section of northern France encompasses 360 miles of dramatic coastline along the English Channel, and was the site of the largest military landing in history, D-Day, June 6, 1944.
In addition to the famous battle sites from World War II, Normandy is home to many charming towns and villages steeped in history. The visitor to this battle scarred region can step back in time to remembrances of the intense fighting of World War II, or all the way back to 1030, when the village of Dieppe was center point to a major battle during the Hundred Years’ War.
The D-Day Landing Beaches
In Colleville Saint Laurent there are many places to visit which bring to life the violence and tragedy that struck the Allied forces during World War II. They are commemorated in the American Cemetery, where 9,386 marble crosses march like soldiers across the landscape, atop a bluff overlooking Omaha Beach.
Pointe du Hoc lies just west of Omaha Beach, where American Rangers fought through intense enemy gunfire to gain this important piece of strategic ground. Bunkers remain on the beach, although nowadays there are children laughing and playing on them, a stark contrast to the tragedies created there which are still visible in a landscape that remains pitted from heavy shelling.
Le Havre
This seaside port is one of the most popular ports for those with the financial freedom to travel the area by cruise ship. After suffering over 170 air strikes during World War II – mostly by the English – the town was almost completely destroyed. Now it is a thriving city on the north coast of France, and a convenient jumping-off point for other areas of this beautiful country. Paris is two and-a-half hours away by train, just 131 miles down the Seine.
Bayeux
A short distance from Omaha Beach and Gold Beach, Bayeux was spared damage during World War II, although it was captured by the Allies on June 7, 1944.
Bayeux was originally captured by the Viking Rollo in 880, becoming a stronghold for the Normans in that region. The town was plundered many times, including by Henry I of England in 1106 and during the Hundred Years’ War from 1562 to 1598.
The world’s most famous embroidery, the Bayeux Tapestry, hangs in the Musee de la Reine Mathilde. It serves as a piece of art as well as a piece of history, since its images depict the Norman conquest of England in 1066. It is immense, made of one seamless 231-foot-long piece of linen, and truly an amazing sight to behold.
Mont St. Michel
This abbey dates back to 1144 and sits perched atop a 264-foot cliff, and is surrounded by a sea whose tide can rise as much as 45 feet in a very short period of time. Visitors sometimes need to be reminded to move their cars as the tide begins rolling in, lest they become submerged. When the tides move out and expose the flats, they become grazing land for the world’s only herd of salt water plant eating sheep. Even today, monks work and live in the great church, and hold a daily public mass just after noon.
This one of a kind region situated on the shores of the English Channel provides a moving and thought-provoking travel experience to anyone who has an affinity for history, arts, and culture.
