Place de Québec & Bayeux Train Station

Place de Québec is situated just around the corner from The Bayeux Tourist Information Office. We pick up here Mon – Fri at 08:50 for a 09:00 departure and drive to Bayeux’s tiny Train Station (5 mins), where we make a short 10-minute pitstop to collect clients arriving on the morning train from Paris. There are toilet facilities both in Place de Québec and at the station, as well as a cafe nearby for passengers who wish a quick coffee prior to departure. The train arrives just next to our parked minibus and Bayeux-based passengers are free to remain on board browsing their courtesy D-Day maps! For passengers already based in Bayeux a 09:30 departure from the station is an alternative. Parking is also available here.

1. Angoville-au-Plain: 101st Airborne

Angoville-au-Plain is home to a church that was used by two US Army Medics as an aide station during the Battle of Normandy. It was in this church that Robert Wright and Ken Moore of the 101st Airborne treated 80 injured American and German wounded Soldiers and a young child, Paul Langeard. During this visit you’ll find out more about the events of that day, you’ll see inside the beautiful church and you’ll learn about Robert and Ken’s heroism in the face of certain death – and of the poignant end to this rarely-told miraculous story.

2. Sainte-Marie-du-Mont: 101st Airborne

Paratroopers from largely dispersed 101st US Airborne were greeted in this village square on D-Day + 1 by a jubilant group of villagers. The village’s gothic bell tower was a key reference point for the 101st Airborne and its commander, General Maxwell Taylor, who had landed in the early hours of the Invasion and spent the night regrouping misdropped soldiers. At this stop you’ll find out about how German snipers hiding in French steeples posed an enormous threat to Allied soldiers everywhere in France.

3. Richard Winters Monument

Along the causeway to Utah Beach stands a monument to combat leadership. It was erected June 7th 2012 in memory of Maj. Richard Winters, who led paratroopers from the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, during the D-Day landings. During this stop you’ll learn of the exploits & bravery of Easy Company’s servicemen, about their intensive training at Camp Toccoa and of ‘The Currahee’ Mountain in Stephens County which was so important to each and every one of them.

4. Utah Beach

Utah Beach is one of the two American landing zones in Normandy. Along with Sword Beach it was added to the Beaches of Omaha, Juno & Gold by British General Montgomery during the later stages in the planning of Operation Overlord. The amphibious assault, primarily by the US 4th Infantry Division and 70th Tank Battalion, was supported by airborne landings of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Division. During this visit you’ll learn all about the successful Utah landing on D-Day, led by Theodore Roosevelt Jr.

5. La Fière

The against-all-odds capture and defense of the vital La Fière Bridge over the Merderet River by the 82nd US Airborne Division during the first three days of the Normandy invasion is now captured in the movie “No Better Place to Die”. At La Fière you will learn of the gripping true story of human strength, self-sacrifice, and camaraderie which focuses on a handful of paratroopers who understood the importance of their mission and refused to let anything – not confusion, fog of war, nor intense pressure from the enemy – keep them from accomplishing a mission which seemed impossible. It was one of the bloodiest and most fiercely fought small unit battles in modern military history. It’s said that this pivotal battle essentially saved D-Day by barring enemy forces from counterattacking the beach landings.

6. Sainte-Mère-Eglise

This quintessential French Town played a significant part in the World War II Normandy landings. It stood right in the middle of route N13, which the Germans would have most likely used on any significant counterattack on the troops landing on Utah and Omaha Beaches. In the early morning of 6 June 1944, mixed units of 101st and 82nd US Airborne Divisions occupied the town in ‘Mission Boston’, giving it the claim to be one of the first towns liberated in the invasion. Come and find out about the events surrounding the largely botched landings and the paratrooper whose effigy still hangs off the church roof today.

7. Sainte-Mère-Eglise : Airborne Museum (lunchbreak option)

The Airborne Museum is dedicated to the memory of the paratroopers of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions of the United States Army who parachuted into Normandy on the night of June 5–6, 1944. Opened in 1964 with the help of donations from both residents and veterans, the museum houses an authentic Waco CG-4 glider (the only example in France) and a Douglas C-47 Skytrain aircraft, which was actually involved in D-Day air-drop operations. On our visit find out about the ill-fated drop; about the Robert Murphy ‘incident’ famously depicted in the movie ‘The longest Day’ and about paratrooper sergeant John P. Ray of the 505th P.I.R, who with his last breath saved the life of paratrooper John Steele, whose own parachute had snagged on the belfry of the church (and which – to help preserve the memory of the 101st & 82nd US paratrooper’s heroic parachute jump – remains there to this day.

8. Pointe-du-Hoc

Pointe-du-Hoc, a 100ft promontory cliff overlooking the English Channel on the coast of Normandy in northern France was heavily fortified with concrete casemates and gun pits and protected by the German 352nd Infantry Division. On D-Day the United States Army Ranger Assault Group under lieutenant colonel James E. Rudder assaulted and captured Pointe du Hoc after scaling the cliffs. Disabling the six 155mm guns there was crucial to the successful completion of the Allied Land Invasion. There was however a cruel surprise in store for Colonel Rudder’s men…

9. Vierville-sur-Mer {‘Saving Private Ryan}

On D-Day at 06:30, the U.S. Army’s 116th Infantry Regiment of the 29th Infantry Division, along with units of the 2nd and 5th Ranger Battalions,  landed on Omaha Beach, below Vierville-sur-Mer. The 29th Division & The Rangers suffered extremely heavy losses in the very first few minutes. On this stop you’ll find out how the courageous soldiers persevered on ‘Bloody Omaha’, and how in the face of all odds and at the prospect of certain death, they finally cut through the formidable German defenses.

10. Normandy Colleville American Cemetery

On June 8, 1944, the U.S. First Army established the temporary cemetery, the first American cemetery on European soil in World War II. After the war, the present-day cemetery was established a short distance to the east of the original site. Come and honour the graves of our fallen Heroes, discover the gold-embossed gravestones of the three Medal of Honour recipients – listen to some stories from their lives – and peruse the wall of the missing upon which are engraved the names of 1557 servicemen never recovered…

11. Omaha Beach + WN 62

Omaha Beach, was the code name for one of the five sectors of the Allied invasion of German-occupied France in the Normandy landings on June 6, 1944. Taking Omaha was to be the responsibility of United States Army troops of the First Division nicknamed ‘The Big Red One’. However faced with the 12,020 experienced combat troops of the German 352nd Infantry Division, the battle-hardened 1st Infantry Division had its work cut out. During this memorable visit you’ll find out why nothing here went according to plan on D-Day. Thus we shall discover how ‘Bloody Omaha’ earned its name…

Bayeux Train Station 18:00

As we will have clients on board the bus who are Paris-bound on the 18:35 Mon-Fri Bayeux to Paris train (via Caen), it is absolutely imperative that we depart our last stop on schedule at 17:30 and so we ask all clients to be mindful of this when regrouping at the end of the final site visit. During our relaxing drive back to the station you will have 20 minutes to reflect on the day’s touring and have a casual chat with your Guide. We always appreciate feedback about your D-Day experience and welcome any last-minute questions. Please do not hesitate to let your driver know if we can be of any further assistance. Thank you for choosing NormandyONtour.