Notable Normandy

Visiting the Normandy region of France for the first time, we plotted a two day itinerary which was perfect. Here are our highlights for this lovely and historical area of France.

Rouen – We took a train into Rouen and picked up our rental car at Sixt to drive down into Bayeux. On our return two days later, we dropped the car and wandered the town.

 

La Couronne – This Michelin restaurant has operated since 1345 on the same square in this half timbered building. Julia Child tasted her first French food here.

31 Place du Vieux Marche

 

Joan of Arc Statue – Joan of Arc’s storied history ended in this Plaza in 1431. But her heroism bolstered the French who firmly defeated the English after her death at the stake.

Place du Vieux Marche

 

Chateau de Damigny – We adored this B&B just outside Bayeux! With plates of crepes and jars of homemade jams, we were treated to a sumptuous breakfast each morning that also included eggs and bacon. The 300 year old building is surrounded by woods and is a quiet respite from the world. And it’s minutes from Bayeux and the sites of Normandy we visited.

chateaudamigny.fr

 

Bayeux – This delightful village boasts an impressive cathedral built in 1037, half timbered buildings, and a massive sycamore tree!

 

 

Normandy American Cemetery – Our first stop this morning was the 170 acre resting place for 9,388 soldiers who attempted the Normandy landing on D Day. Located on a bluff above Omaha Beach, the sobering white marble crosses gave us goosebumps. What these boys endured as they departed their vessels that morning! There is a 2 pm free tour which we returned to take. Make sure you sit on the benches and remember the fearlessness and bravery of these souls who changed the course of the world.

 

Omaha Beach – We drove up D514 and followed signs for Omaha Beach. Parking, you can walk in the sand of the beach where the boys landed and gaze up at the hills where the Germans were waiting to gun them down.

 

Pointe du Hoc – Continue driving up D514 and walk amongst the blown out shelters and massive bomb holes created in the earth. Stand at the cliffs where Lt. Col James Earl Rudder climbed with 200 of his Rangers on that fateful day. Rudder, who later became president of Texas A&M University, determined that Rudder Tower on the Texas A&M campus should be 210 feet tall. The exact height of the cliffs of Normandy that he and his Rangers climbed on that invasion day in 1944.

 

There are numerous museums along D514 that are of interest. The French are very effusive about their love of Americans and how we as a country liberated them from a very different outcome in 1945.