We spend a week in Normandy, the Cotentin peninsula, and Jersey, during the 75th D-Day anniversary.
In June 2019, we were lucky enough to get invited to a family celebration on Jersey, one of the channel islands off the French coast. We planned to drive there, and booked a ferry from Saint Malo to Saint Helier – the latter town being the one on the island.
Around Le Havre
To break up this journey, we decided to add a couple of days to visit Normandy, where we (well, Heather) booked 2 different places. The first was the Eklo Hotel in Le Havre, which is a hotel in the Easy Hotel style – basic, small, clean, cheap and pay extra for anything but the bare necessities. We went for this because when we were booking, we found the prices for all hotels in the region to be quite high – we’d later learn why.
Le Havre gave a scruffy impression, had a motorcycle gang dwelling the streets as we arrived, and generally felt like a place you want to spend as little time as possible. It’s odd to think that as little as 10 minutes outside of this city, there are very nice, quaint little village all along the coastline.
Also close to Le Havre, but towards the south, is Honfleur, which was absolutely scorching hot when we visited. Like
In between these 2 coastal towns, we also spent some time in what remains of the Abbaye De Jumièges, located along the river Seine. The abbey has a rich history, but was sacked during the French Revolution and hence only ruins remain. There is enough left of the buildings to imagine what the place would have looked like in its heyday however.
75 years since D-Day
For the rest of the Norman leg of this holiday, we were based in a lovely gite, owned by a very friendly English couple near Condé-sur-Vire. As we made our way there, it started to dawn on us why we had had such difficulties finding accommodation in the Normandy area – there were people dressed up in WW2 uniforms, driving around in 1940’s army jeeps, trucks, motorcycles and even the odd half-track. We had unwittingly ventured to Normandy on the 75th anniversary of the D-day landings, and since we were planning on visiting several WW2-related sites anyway, this was a lucky coincidence.
I had already been to Normandy somewhere in 2008, but the area has so many things to see that we could come back several more times and not have seen every museum or site.
Anyway, onto the places we stuck our heads in.
- Longues-sur-Mer battery is one of a few places that still has its original artillery guns. The site is still largely intact, with 4 big bunkers housing the guns a bit away from the shore, and a big command post bunker right on the cliff edge.
- Arromanches-les-Bains would have been a small, quiet village by the Normandy coast that few people had heard of, if it wasn’t for the fact that the allies elected it as on the of the 2 sites to build a Mulberry Harbour. This harbour was constructed to land men and material to keep the invasion going as long as the allies didn’t have a proper port. Big parts of the harbour have withstood the test of time and can still be seen today, particularly at low tide.
- The Airborne Museum at Sainte-Mère-Église which we found one of the best in the area. It seems to be able to provide a lot of detail without going over the top, and has a few interesting exhibits that make it all a bit more tangible. It’s fairly big, but well worth the entrance fee. The town itself is also worth poking around – especially when there’s a ton of people in 1940’s battle dress around.
- Dead Man’s Corner Museum (or D-Day Experience) left us with mixed feelings. The entry ticket actually gets you a few things. Firstly, entry to the house on the road towards Carentan, that once served as the HQ for German paratroopers in the area, and later for American paratroopers. It is now mainly focused on what went on in the house during the last days that it served as a German HQ, which makes it quite interesting since the German side of the story naturally gets a bit less attention in this area.
Secondly, there is a new museum in the building that was constructed next to the old HQ. This focuses on a specific lieutenant from one of the American airborne companies that made the jump over the Carentan area during the night before D-day.
Third, entry to the cinema where (at the time we were there) you got to see 2 short 3D movies. They’re well done, the first showing the general history of D-day, and the second zooming in on the events in and around Carentan.
Lastly, you get to sit in a life-size troop transport C-47, which attempts to make you experience what it was like to sit in one of those while getting shot at with AA guns, before having to jump into enemy territory.
Unfortunately, that fake plane ride made it feel a bit like an amusement park. - Barfleur. Not immediately WW2 related, this quiet little seaside town used to be one of the main ports from which to make the crossing to England. It is from this harbour that William, Duke of Normandy set off in 1066 for the battle of Hastings and the subsequent conquering of England. Close to the town is one of the tallest traditional lighthouses in the world, La Phare de GatteVille.
Towards Jersey
We’d booked the car ferry to Jersey, which leaves from Saint-Malo. On our way there, we did make one more stop: Mont Saint-Michel. It is an abbey/village built on a tidal island, meaning you can only get to it at low tide. At least, that was the case until a bridge was built, which now keeps this UNESCO world heritage site accessible 24/7. Being one of France’s most visited sites, it was the busiest and most touristy place we visited on this trip. The parking lot is quite far away from the island, and comes with a hefty price tag at 14 EUR, but this includes a shuttle bus so it’s not all bad. We do recommend walking to the island and only taking the shuttle bus on the return if you can because it gets you much better views as you make your approach.
Once you’re on the island, you can slowly make your way through the small, winding streets or on top of the ramparts. It’s a beautiful place, but every building in every street seems to be either a restaurant, a hotel, or a souvenir shop, and I personally preferred admiring it from a distance to being in it. We had already visited St Michael’s Mount in Cornwall, which is also a tidal island with an abbey on it, and that seems to have retained a bit more of its authenticity.
The ferry we’d booked was fairly early in the morning, so we opted to book a night in Saint-Malo, which turned out to be a beautiful place in its own right. Surrounded by a high wall and beaches, the historic town which once made its fortune with piracy, is now a popular tourist destination in the summer months.
After a short ferry ride, we disembarked onto British soil. I still find it odd that the channel islands, despite being so close to France, still have traffic on the left, use UK power plugs, pay in GBP, and pronounce all of the clearly French place names in an English way. Although there are times when you’d easily forget that you’re so close to western Europe – especially when hiking around coast. Some of the views are stunning, and you could make yourself think that you’re on a Mediterranean island. That is, until you come across one of the massive bunkers that were built on the islands during WW2. The islands were occupied for just under 5 years, during which Operation Todt constructed roads, railways, coastal defences, observation outposts and radar posts using (mostly) imported forced labour. I read somewhere that up to one fifth of all the concrete poured in the Atlantic Wall was poured in the channel islands. That was all in vain as the channel islands were only liberated after the Germans capitulated.