REMEMBRANCE TOURISM GUIDE 2020


the museum’s 3D cinema. www.dday-experience.com/en


Normandy Victory Museum Previously housing the Normandy Tank Museum, this exhibition space is now home to a collection focusing on the battle for the bocage – the landscape characterising this part of France, which proved so costly to the Allies. Here items belonging to civilians reveal what life was like under the Occupation, plus there are 17 fascinating life-sized dioramas – including a scene showing American GIs guarding a group of captured German soldiers. www.normandy-victory-museum. com


Memorial Museum of Bloody Gulch


The area around Donville Manor in Méautis, in the Cotentin marshland, was the site of ferocious fighting between German and 101st Airborne US soldiers from June 12 to 17, 1944. Many relics remained buried in the ground or hidden in homes for over 65 years. Now visitors can discover what was left by soldiers and hear the testimony of civilians who survived the battle. https://museebloodygulch.com


Memorial Museum of the 19th August 1942


Not a D-Day memorial, but an homage to the 5,000 Canadians who played a part in the failed raid on German-occupied Dieppe in 1942. Memorabilia is housed on the town’s Place Camille Saint-Saëns near the beachfront, on the site of the former theatre. The raid’s failings provided valuable lessons for D-Day preparations two years later. www.dieppe-operationjubilee- 19aout1942.fr


Pegasus Memorial Museum The Pegasus Memorial Museum in Bénouville, home to the first liberated bridge in 1944, pays tribute to the British 6th Airborne Division, which not only captured the bridge


Manche www.manche-tourism.com Baie de Cotentin www.ot-baieducotentin.fr Dunkirk www.dunkirk-tourism.com


PLACES TO STAY Contact the local tourist board for places to stay when you come to visit the various Second World War sites, museums, battlefields and memorials. Here are some to get you started:


M M Park is an extensive museum just on the outskirts of Strasbourg


(renamed Pegasus after the war) thanks to daring glider landings, but held the eastern flank of the landing beaches for 80 days despite heavy losses. In the shadow of the bridge is Café Gondrée, liberated by three soldiers at 6.20am on June 6. https://musee.memorial-pegasus. com/en/


M M Park You’ll find this extensive museum on the outskirts of Strasbourg. It’s home to military vehicles from WWII from the US, Canada, Belgium, France, Great Britain, Germany, and the Soviet Union – there are Soviet tanks, including a rare T-26 tank, plus aircraft. Also on show are over 190 WWII uniforms, a replica of a German U-Boat’s sail, a German patrol boat, and a ‘Biber’ German midget submarine. www.mmpark.fr


Musée le Grand Blockhaus Discover the story of the pocket of Saint-Nazaire – the last region of France to be liberated on May 11, 1945 – at this fascinating museum. Once a command post on the Atlantic Wall, there are striking diaramas and poignant testimonies from those who were there that will take you right to the heart of the action. www.grand-blockhaus.com


Longues-sur-Mer Battery The only German coastal defence battery classified as an historic monument on the D-Day Landing


beaches. It was finished in April 1944 to protect the Gold and Omaha beaches, and consists of four 152-mm navy guns (each protected by a large concrete casemate), a command post, shelters for personnel and ammunition and several defensive machine-gun emplacements.


GETTING THERE FROM THE UK BY FERRY: Brittany Ferries, Portsmouth to Le Havre: daily sailings all year round – ‘no frills’ economy service; Portsmouth to Caen: daily cruise-ferry sailings all year round – up to three sailings a day in each direction; Portsmouth to Cherbourg – fast-craft service taking just three hours; Poole to Cherbourg – daily cruise-ferry service all year round. www.brittany-ferries.co.uk


DFDS Seaways from Newhaven to Dieppe, Dover to Calais and Dover to Dunkirk – regular sailings all year round. www.dfds.com


BY AIR: With Flybe now in administration, flights from London Southend to Caen-Carpiquet are suspended but other flights from the UK and around the world are available into Paris CDG and Paris Orly airports.


TOURISM CONTACTS Normandy www.normandie-tourisme.fr Calvados www.calvados-tourisme.co.uk


Château de Tocqueville Tocqueville, Manche www.chateaudetocqueville.com/


Domaine de Bayeux Bayeux, Calvados www.domaine-de-bayeux.com


Hotel d’Argouges Bayeux, Calvados www.hotel-dargouges.com/en/


WORLD WAR I MUSEUMS


Musée de la Grande Guerre Located in Meaux, Seine-et- Marne, the Musée de la Grande Guerre offers one of the most comprehensive overviews of the Great War you can find. Covering the build-up to war, the four years of the conflict and its legacy, a visit to this museum can easily fill an afternoon. Reconstructed trenches, film clips and audio guides take you on a journey through the war from the perspective of all the nations involved. www.museedelagrandeguerre.eu


Musée du Fort de la Pompelle Constructed in the wake of the Franco-Prussian War, this fort in Puisieulx became of vital importance to the defence of Reims in the Great War, and came under heavy bombardment from the German offensive of 1914. In the 1950s, it was converted into a museum. Displaying artillery equipment and preserved troops’ living quarters, the museum’s chief attraction is its collection of 560 helmets and caps worn by


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IMAGE © M M PARK


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