France Travel Guide

Best Places to Visit in Normandy France

 
2-Day Normandy, Saint Malo and Mont St Michel Tour from Paris
From Viator Tours

This peaceful looking coastline at Point du Hoc was the site of one of the deadliest battles on D-Day

Background for Touring the Invasion Beaches

Although the Normandy region of France is blessed with a large number of historically important and interesting attractions, the majority of tourists come to see the World War II invasion beaches (Les Plages du Débarquement -The Invasion Beaches) that were memorialized with the invasion of Europe on D-Day, June 6, 1944. D-Day signaled the beginning of the end of the Third Reich but during the early hours of the invasion, the outcome was not as clear as it is in hindsight.

The Normandy area is an open-air classroom focused on the opening of the European Front during World War II.  There is much to see, do and think about.  The once violent battlefields of Normandy are today, eerily quite and pastoral.  It is hard to image the death and destruction that occurred across this now idyllic countryside. 

If you are intent on visiting the invasion beaches and want to familiarize yourself with this important aspect of history, plan on spending three days wandering the many sites that commemorate D-Day. Visiting the invasion beaches is a hauntingly sad but vitally interesting trip. However, consider mixing in local flavor by visiting the other locations in Normandy that are recommended on the menu at the lower  left. 

If you have entered our Normandy Guide on this page, we suggest you take some time to read our Normandy Overview and familiarize yourself with the geography of this interesting area  of France.

 If you have read that information,  Continue to the next page

Read our blog  for information on a terrific, highly-detailed guide book for  touring the Normandy D-day Invasion Beaches.

The guns at Longues-sur-Mer were positioned to shell Omaha Beach and Gold Beach on the Normandy coastline.

Best Places to Visit in France

Looking toward Omaha Beach from the inside of a German bunker

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