D-Day sites day tour from Paris

When we were in Paris for a week in early April ’04, we wanted to tour the D-Day battlefields in one day. We were staying at the Marriott on the Champs-Élysées, and tours from the hotel would be expensive, so I went online before we left and found Battlebus Tours under a “D-Day” search.

Battlebus Tours conducts longer tours for people staying in Normandy, but they do have a “Paris-Link Tour” that is designed to meet scheduled trains out of Paris. Their tours normally run May through September, but because the 60th anniversary of D-Day is this year they started in April.

The cost was €50 per person (or about $130 for my husband and me). I arranged the tour over the Internet and they required no payment until we started the tour, and then they only took cash. When we arrived in Paris we called to confirm our tour, which was to start promptly at 10:30 a.m. two days later.

We needed to take the train to the town of Caen and transfer to Bayeux, where the tour started. The train trip lasted about two hours. We had a France ’n Switzerland Pass and had checked the train schedule in the States. We thought the train for Caen left at 7:12 a.m., but when we arrived early at about 6:30 a.m. at Paris’ Gare St-Lazare the train was ready to leave, so we just made it. (Check the schedule in Paris.)

We arrived in Bayeux with time to get sandwiches and drinks for the picnic lunch we would have at noon. With instructions off the Internet, we found the small, white Battlebus van and driver in a nearby parking lot. We were the only people on the tour that day. For this abbreviated tour, the guide spoke minimal English, but we were provided with detailed written and illustrated guides that worked well for us.

We stopped at the Pegasus Bridge, where the gliders of the British Airborne troops were the first to set foot in occupied France. We visited the various beaches the Allies had entered (including Juno, Gold, Longues-sur-Mer and Omaha) and where thousands lost their lives. These beaches seem so tranquil now, except for the remaining bunkers dotting the landscape. The tour included the beaches that the U.S., Canadian and British troops stormed on D-Day, as tourists using Battlebus frequently come from these countries. We also stopped at the Colleville U.S. Cemetery — an emotional experience for most who go there.

We ended about 4 p.m., which left a short time to visit the impressive Musée Memorial de la Bataille de Normandie in Bayeux; unfortunately, it was too little time to see much. However, we had a museum pass in Paris and spent time at the Hotel des Invalides, the war museum, which has a wing of three floors devoted to World War II and is well worth the visit.

We were impressed with Battlebus and look forward to taking one of their longer Normandy tours; we were told guides on those speak English and are very knowledgeable.

MYRNA & MARTY PLOST
Rancho Palos Verdes, CA