WW2 D Day sites of Normandy.
This route is all about the sites to visit rather than the ride itself, although there are still plenty of things to feed your eyes in between the stops. Normandy is a great area to visit and is full of interesting things to see and do. This is a circle route starting from the stunningly beautiful harbour town of Honfleur. The architecture of half timbered houses, the magnificent views of the Pont de Normandie, the seafood restaurants, bars and shops make Honfleur a good base for exploring the area. There is a good choice for accommodation and I have started and ended this route from the Ibis budget Honfleur Centre Ville hotel. There is a link for this hotel and other attractions below this review.

This route, like most of my routes, starts with fuel close to the start. The route is 132 miles and will take a little over 4hrs of actual riding time but with all of the stops and things to see, we took 12 hrs, so an early start is advised.

When we visited the Batteries du Mont Canisy, it was looking a little overgrown but it is still interesting and it is free. Situated on the highest ground in Normandy overlooking the mouth of the River Seine and the harbour of Le Harve. The battery has been an important defensive site since the middle ages and following the fall of France the position was occupied by the Germans and upgraded to eventually form part of the Atlantic Wall Defences. The Germans placed four 155mm guns on the site, initially in open emplacements with a 306 degree traverse. These were later updated to be housed in concrete casemates pointed towards the coast to protect the guns from air attack.
Today the site allows you to see the casemates, gun emplacements and fortified constructions linked by a 250 meter subterranean gallery. The surface is now a nature reserve which is open to the public all year but the subterranean features and free guided tours are only run on selected dates. I believe they have guided tours on Mondays.

We now go along the coast past the Greenwich Meridian Line marker and past the Batterie de Houlgate which is on private ground, to the:
Batterie de Merville, this is a must see site and is very well kept, hence there is a small fee €9.50 and free parking. A Dakota C-47 SNAFU special parked outside dominates your arrival. SNAFU is a military acronym for the C -47 - Situation normal: all f@cked up. Used to describe a dangerous situation, and in this instance seeing the green light on board signalled it was time to jump!
There is a sound and light show in one of the bunkers which gives you a fully immersive experience.  A total refurbishment of pillbox 1, which had been restored to its original state as at dawn on 6 June, and in which, thanks to odour spreaders, light effects and a highly sophisticated audio system providing spatial sound effects, you can relive the minutes that preceded the neutralisation of the battery.

Next we visit the most iconic of of the D-Day sites - the Pegasus Memorial Museum and Pegasus Bridge. I don't think I need to write much about these, once again they are a must see on your list. It costs €9 to enter, money well spent in my opinion. The museum is full of personal effects of the brave men that fought, seeing these made it feel real. There is a full size replica Horsa Glider in the grounds as well as several sections from original Horsa Gliders. The original bridge is in the grounds too after it was replaced with a wider a stronger one in 1994. The Café Gondrée stands on the northern bank of the canal, near Pegasus Bridge. It was the first house to be freed on D-Day and was listed as a Historical Monument in 1987.  

It's a short ride to the next site, Sword Beach, the most easterly of the D-Day beaches, stretching from Ouistreham to Saint Aubin-sur-Mer. It is the only beach upon which French troops landed, led by Commandant Kieffer, 177 French soldiers from the 1e Battalion de Fusiliers Marins Commandos, along with British troops from the 3rd Infantry Division. British and French commandos encountered tough resistance in Ouistreham but were able to clear it of enemy strongpoints.

Next is the Hillman fort, a German command post. Hillman was the regimental headquarters and command post for the coastal defence in the area and commanded by Colonel Ludwig Krug. The bunkers housed approximately 150 officers and men of 736 Grenadier Regiment. It was attacked on 6 June 1944 by the Suffolk Regiment and the fortress finally surrendered the following morning. It is hardly visible from the road as most of it is underground. It is free to see and worth a visit.

We had a late lunch at Courseulles sur Mer at a very nice hotel/bistro called Au P'tit Mousse where we dined on Moules frites for €12 yum yum. Juno Beach is close by, and I would recommend visiting the Juno Beach Centre, Canada’s Second World War museum and cultural centre. The Centre pays homage to the 45,000 Canadians who lost their lives during the War, of which 5,500 were killed during the Battle of Normandy and 381 on D-Day alone.

The British Normandy Memorial is just a short ride and looks over Gold Beach.
The memorial records the names of the 22,442 servicemen and women under British command who fell on D-Day and during the Battle of Normandy in the summer of 1944. This includes people from more than 30 different countries. Inscribed in stone, their names have never, until now, been brought together. The site also includes a French Memorial, dedicated to the memory of French civilians who died during this time.

Along the coast now and past Gold Beach, and onto the 360° cinema at Arromanches and the Mulberry Harbour, nicknamed Port Winston. The cinema show lasts for about 15 mins and costs €7. You are surrounded by 9 giant screens all playing simultaneously with a thundering soundtrack. We all felt a little tearful as we left.
There are great views of the Mulberry Harbour from here too.
Just down the hill at Arromanches Beach, there are plenty of places to eat or have a coffee, we found it to be quite arty too.

The Longues sur Mer gun battery is impressive and free to see. The Atlantic Wall fortifications had a key position in Longues-sur-Mer with a gun battery consisting of a large command bunker and four gun positions with concrete casemates. There were also smaller machine gun emplacements and shelters for personnel, but the star attractions were definitely the 152mm navy guns with their steel enclosures. Disabling this gun battery that was overlooking the landing beaches Omaha and Gold was a major task of the D-Day operation.

Into the city of Bayeux next for the Bayeux War Cemetery and Bayeux Museum. To be honest, we didn't have enough time to visit the museum. The cemetery contains 4,648 burials, mostly of the invasion of Normandy. Opposite this cemetery stands the Bayeux Memorial which commemorates more than 1,800 casualties of the Commonwealth forces who died in Normandy and have no known grave.

From here, the route travels through the city of Caen past the Carpique Airfield. On June 6, 1944, the Allies commenced a second front in Normandy, and both Caen and Carpiquet Airport became objectives for the British and Canadian units landing on Sword and Juno Beaches. The complexity and magnitude of the Carpiquet defenses by early July are worth noting. In a one-square-mile area around the village and the wheat fields that spread around the airport, the Germans had an estimated six 75mm cannons in turrets of concrete and steel as well as twelve anti-aircraft guns, some of which were the formidable 88mm. After many bloody battles, the aerodrome fell completely and definitively into the hands of Canadian forces on July 9 during Operation Charnwood (launched by the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division the previous day). This final assault on Caen followed a massive bombardment by 450 Royal Air Force bombers causing considerable damage to the city.

From here we go onto the lovely medieval village of Beaumont en Auge, this is a great place to stop for a coffee and admire the old architecture before returning to Honfleur.

As with all MRA routes, this one can be adapted to suit your needs. Once you have chosen a route and added it to your library, you may wish to change the start and finish positions or add extra waypoints, or even reverse or split the route. This is easily done when you have a Gold membership of MyRoute-app and then by using the Gold Toolkit.