Normandy - (Fall 2025) - Day 3

*A great way to start the day with some ham, butter, & baguette (also with some coffee of course)*

*Grabbed a snack in the car before heading out to some more D-Day sites*

Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy American Cemetery

The first stop of the day was to the American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer which overlooks Omaha Beach. There is a small museum at the entrance before you go into the cemetery itself. Being the off-season, we were fortunate to get the English speaking docent to ourselves as she guided us through the history of the place at the cemetery as well as about the D-Day landings.

She explained how the landings took place at low tide to avoid the German obstacles but caused the troops to traverse more land and being exposed to gunfire. She also explained that a large portion of the troops buried here were officers who wanted to be buried with their comrades. Many of the soldiers buried here didn’t die on D-Day but in the days following during the battle for Normandy.

They rope off some sections now to prevent the wear and tear of too many visitors so there are only certain sections where you can walk freely among the graves. There is a wall for the soldiers that were not found.

Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer, Omaha Beach

Here was the site of the bloodiest day of fighting on D-Day. It looks so peaceful now. It is nice that the countryside here has not changed that much since the war. You can still get the feel of what it was like back then as the beach is not full of high-rise condos and the land is still pretty much small farmland.

There are a few memorials on the beach but other than that you can still just appreciate more or less what the landscape looked like when the troops landed years ago.

There is a big memorial to the 1st Infantry Division which landed here along with an art installation behind it on the beach.

Creperie la Falaise

The little crepe stand I was looking for was not open since this was the off-season so we found this place instead on Omaha Beach. We were lucky enough to squeeze into some seats in the back of the small restaurant and get some mid-day snacks to hold us over for more sightseeing.

Vierville-sur-Mer, West End of Omaha Beach

On the west side of Omaha Beach there is a monument to the 29th Infantry Division. This was the section of the beach that was depicted in Saving Private Ryan. There is still a German gun sitting in the bunker at the beach just beneath the memorial.

There is also a large fairly intact section of the Mulberry Harbor tracks that were laid on the American landing area on display just up the road by the beach.

La Pointe du Hoc

To the west of Omaha Beach, the area around Pointe du Hoc is still littered with impact craters from the aerial bombardment prior to the invasion. Despite all of the bombs hitting this area, the main bunker still survived pretty intact and can still step inside to tour it.

There are a few small displays and a video in the visitor center when you enter and then you walk a long a trail through the crater field until you get to the cliffs. The Rangers scaled these cliffs on D-Day to take out some German guns that were supposed to be mounted here but they were moved prior to the invasion and not in use that day.

Le Montmartre

Back in Bayeux, this wine bar was very popular and was usually packed with locals. You can also get beer and of course pastis since this is France. They had outside seating also but if was a bit cold to be outside. It’s a great place to have a light snack with drinks. We wound up coming back here later in the trip. The locals loved the charcuterie platters here.