On Two Towns in Normandy

One of the reasons we selected the cruise itinerary we did is this one stopped in Normandy France as we wanted to visited the sights of the D-Day: 6, June 1944. Because we also prefer to book off-ship tours, we selected OverlordTours for our day. (Previous post about Omaha Beach)

Overlord picked up numerous passengers at the Le Havre cruise terminal. After visiting Omaha Beach and the American cemetery, we didn’t realize what a pleasure the rest of the day would be.

Beside the beautiful countryside, the area is also well-known for Calvados: an apple brandy the GIs loved. (Calvados is similar to Applejack and Somerset Cider Brandy.

First Stop: Bayeux

• Town center has a medieval flare of architecture and cobbled streets
• The first city liberated in the WW II Battle of Normandy
• Home to the Bayeux Tapestry, a 15th century embroidery detailing events leading to the Norman Conquest 224+ ft. (68.4 m) by 1.6 ft. (0.5 m). Click for more information

The town exhibits an Old World charm …

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… but the massive and impressive Bayeux Cathedral (The Lady of Bayeux) dominates the town center.

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Second Stop: Honfleur

• Located on the estuary where the Seine River meets the English Channel
• It’s old harbor area is surrounded by Old World architecture
• St. Catherine’s Church is composed of all wood
• Point of departure for New World explores as Samuel Champlain and Binot Paulmier de Gonneville
• Popular with tourists

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For those wanting to see more, here are short video tours of each: Bayeux and Honfleur.

Given their experience in dealing with cruise ships, Overlord returned us to the dock with time to spare. We recommend Overlord Tours for those visiting the area.

As we departed Le Havre, we realized our British Isles cruise was over. Simply a fabulous itinerary. In the morning we would be up early for our transfer to Heathrow. On the plus side, our vacation wasn’t over as we would deplane in Reykjavik for 3 days in Iceland – but I’m going to give you a break from the vacation by returning to other topics. I will post about Iceland later.

For other posts about our time in the British Isles, click here. Thanks for coming along!