Summer holiday driving: Normandy

[BDZ]

Have booked to go off down to France on a bit of a driving holiday this summer and SWMBO has agreed to incorporate a mini-tour of the Normandy battlefields into the schedule.

Has anyone done one of these before, and if so which are the best places to visit (I'll only have 24-48 hours there altogether max) and will they be rammed with people/charge to park etc?

[DHE]

In my experience, most the battlefields will be busy rather than packed in the summer. Parking is usually fairly easy, most of the larger sites will have decent car parks close by.

Personally I would put Pegasus Bridge & the Arromanches musuem high on the list of attractions. Arromanches gives you a real taste of the d-day landings, some parts of the Mulberry harbour are still visible on the shore. http://www.musee-arromanches.fr/accueil/index.php

Have a read up on Pegasus Bridge before going, there are plaques in the car park of the Pegasus Bridge museum showing were the gliders managed to land. The cafe is still there and operational.

The landing beaches themselves are worthy of a visit as are the memorials. All are well signposted.

Sometimes just having a walk around an area will reveal a lot of history. Had a few hours to kill at the port of Caen once and found the Caen bunker, situated in a residential area. Also some of the properties on the sea front still bare the scars of the battles that took place.