53304NOR
Arromanches, Bayeux, Caen Memorial, Giverny, Honfluer, Mont ST Michel. Pointe du Hoc, Rouen, St Laurent Cemetery, ST Malo
Routes
Opening days/times, entrance fees, etc. listed on Yellow Pages.
This section includes:
Arromanches (inc 360° cinema)
Bayeux
Caen Memorial
Giverny
Honfleur
Mont St Michel
Pointe du Hoc
Rouen
St Laurent Cemetery
St Malo
Plus driving times to/from all of these plus Dinard and Paris
Arromanches (inc 360° cinema)
Remember to call in advance and book visit at 360° cinema. Your Voucher may have a reserved time – this is amendable.
If you have a scheduled visit in Arromanches (rather than just a lunch stop), you take the group to the 360º cinema (film and sound of original footage plus recent filming. 20 mins).
There is also a Musée du Débarquement (guided visit 1hr15) in the village which is a bit long winded for student groups but which they could visit over lunch time if interested (they pay). Their film concentrates specifically on the Arromanches harbour construction.
Since there is also a visitors’ centre at the American Cemetery some groups may like to spend more time there.
Cinema; do the visit before going down to Arromanches. Lead group into the cinema and pay entrances. There are free toilets before the film at the back of the small exhibition. Try to use toilets after as this could cause missing the beginning of the film. The film lasts 20 mins and afterwards you exit through a very good shop (books, videos etc.) and toilets.
You can take the path down to the town on foot from the cinema if the weather is good. Leave from the Gift shop and take the path which you see down to the left.
Arrange to contact your bus driver if there is any doubt about whole group walking down to the village i.e. if it is raining. If this is the case because of weather or group agility he should wait to bring part or all of the group down to the village and drop them at the Arromanches Musée.
If some of the group have ridden the bus, meet them at the bus parking lot by the Debarquement Museum. Arrange same place for pick up with driver. In case of big crowds and many buses, you want to call your driver only when your whole group is ready to be picked up so he can be there in 5 minutes.
Arromanches 360 Parking & Pick Up at Debarquement Museum:
There are several good places for lunch and ice cream along the main street, a great boulangerie end just past the end on the left, a few snack places around the main square, and the possibility to go down on to the beach right by the main square/flags. Speciality foods to look out for are Moules and Galette (savoury) Crepes.
Public toilets are in the row of shops opposite the bus stop. Also an ATM by the toilets at the post office.
Arromanches is a good place to pick up balls/boules for petanque on the beach in Dinard, and Bayeaux Tapestry souvenirs if not going there.
Bayeux
Set down in the coach park (see map). Lead the group down the path, past the free, public toilets. There are more to the left of the ticket office in the building that houses the Tapestry). Turn right onto rue de Nesmond, then first left. The Tapestry complex is on your right hand side.
Bayeux Tapestry Bus Parking:
Lead the group into the grounds. Rendezvous here for 10 minutes prior to departure to lead the group back to the bus. The shop exit is over to your right.
Exchange voucher for tickets including headphones and direct them straight to the Tapestry.
To get to the Tapestry, go past the ticket office, ignoring the steps on your left, and straight through the door in front of you. Pick up the headphones and continue into a small, dark room to see the Tapestry. Get the group to enter 4 by 4. Staff may assist with this and let them in group by group. Headsets switch on automatically as they go in. This way each small group can see the tapestry panels at the same pace as the commentary. Should take the whole group around 30 mins to complete.
After the tapestry there is an exhibition upstairs and film on the making of it. Well worth it particularly for adults. Not as interesting for students.
Access to the gift shop is from the Tapestry. The shop exit is beyond the tills.
After the visit if you have free time to explore, they could head towards the Cathedral. City spared WW2 bomb damage. Some small gift stores and cafes used by the GIs during the war.
CAEN
The Caen Memorial is located on the Caen ring road (N13). Set down in the bus park beyond the museum and make a rendezvous for departure. Lead the group into the museum (toilets to the left of bookshop) and swap voucher for tickets at the cashier desk after registering at the desk as you enter on the right. You will have a timed visit booked by the Paris office. Double check that the voucher is correct and amend numbers if necessary.
Caen Memorial Bus Parking:
You will be given a time for the cinema presentation across the main entrance hallway (highly impressive) and they will issue stickers for the group participants (everyone must enter the cinema presentation together). The entrance to the cinema is to your right across the reception area on entering the museum. Please note that group exit from a different door so worth telling them this. Try to do film last so that group is ready all to leave together.
Although you need a reservation, the visit is not guided. You should allow AT LEAST 1hr30/2hr in the Museum, which is divided into three sections:
- An exhibition charting the breakdown of peace between 1918 and 1944 (beyond the ticket desk to your left – visit if you have to wait for the cinema presentation)
- There are two cinemas/two films. Paris Office will have probably booked both with the idea you choose one. Most appropriate is the ‘1944: Sauver l’Europe’ film (the old one!), otherwise there is the new ‘L’Europe; Notre Histoire’ production. Check with GL, which they prefer.
- A gallery of Nobel Peace Prize winners (straight on beyond the ticket desk
and café)
If time is short, be sure that the group at least sees the cinema Battle for Normandy presentation or finishes the museum after the timed film. The movie lasts 15 minutes and is silent. It is an excellent split-screen presentation of the Normandy landings from both Allied and German perspectives. On exiting the cinema, the landings and allies´ advance are documented on huge maps. There is also a section of the museum dedicated to the Cold War and the passageway from the timed film leads this way. You will not normally have time for the gallery of Nobel Peace Prizewinners. Students identify well with a lot of the exhibits and explanations.
There is a snack bar on the first floor and a lounge.
GIVERNY
- You will have a timed reservation at Giverny. Out of season, when Giverny is closed, a visit to the Musée d’ Orsay will be substituted
- Allow 1 hr 15 – 1hr 30 minutes for the visit (including the gift shop)
Set down in the bus park on the right as you enter the village (before you come to Monet’s house). Take the underpass. On the other side of the underpass are some toilets if needs dictate. Turn right and lead the group 150m along the pavement to the group entrance which will be on your left.
Giverny Bus Parking:
At the group entrance buy and distribute tickets. Tell the group they need their ticket to enter the house.
Be sure that they understand that they will be exiting the complex through the gift shop not through the group entrance. Arrange to meet the group at the GIFT SHOP. This is at the top of the garden next to the House and Toilets.
The group should visit the water garden first (go under the tunnel by the entrance), then return to the main gardens to visit the Clos Normand, Monet’s house (which can get very crowded and only small numbers are allowed in at a time) and finally the gift shop. They need to show their tickets. No photos inside.
Warn groups to leave enough time for the gift shop. It is very popular and service can be incredibly slow. Once they have exited through the gift shop they will not be allowed back in.
Toilets are located between the house and the gift shop on the left.
On exiting at the gift shop exit down to the far left they can buy drinks/sandwiches to take away. There is also a tea shop (“Les Nymphéas”) that is quite expensive but does good cakes! Toilets (small charge) are located beside the tea shop. There is also a popular gift shop with seeds for sale and decorative arty gifts. And on the other side, that is on the right after you exit the gardens, a Crêperie/Brasserie/Restaurant 3 minutes walk away, which has a big terrace and a garden, you enter through a house.
It is now possible to pre-order a picnic lunch from the Café Les Nymphéas,
minimum 20 pax.
It includes:
– Sandwich Parisien (pain, beurre, jambon blanc, gruyère, salade)
– an apple/other fruit
– a packet of crisps
– water or juice
Call in advance with choices etc. 02 32 21 20 31
Meet your group at the exit and walk them past/after the tea shop Les Nympheas back to the bus via the first lane which runs down to the left
Monet is buried in Giverny. If they ask, the graveyard is a good 10 minutes’ walk from the exit to the complex (on exiting turn left and keep going straight until you reach the church). This really is worth it if the group is keen – the village is stunning and quaint with some art shops along the way. It all depends on the day, weather, and how much time you budgeted. Fit adults especially like this.
HONFLEUR
A Picturesque favourite! Set down either at hotel or in big car park on right by water as you enter the centre opposite Mercure hotel.
Walk group past public toilets along water front on the left. There is a lovely tree lined path straight on which takes you along beside the water to the carousel and harbour. You can see the wooden church of Ste Catherine up to your left and the rest of Honfleur stretches out behind the port (cafes, art dealers, gift shops, boutiques, carousel etc).
Walk your group up to the wooden church and then give free time. Local fare includes the Galette Crêpes, apple products, Galette cookies as gifts. Great Glaces!! Fabulous Market on Saturday am.
The Eugene Boudin Museum is very popular. Sometimes closed at lunchtime.
MONT SAINT MICHEL
Access to Mont St Michel HAS CHANGED quite radically since 2013 for it to remain an island. Recommend you arrive a minimum of 60 mins prior to timed entrance to Abbey. The bus will drop you off in a designated bus park 2,5km from the island and then you take a shuttle bus (ca. 10 mins journey time). There can often be quite a queue for this. Shuttles come every 5 minutes so it is never too long. From the drop off, you have a 5-10 min walk to get into the Mount proper. Count at least 30 mins to get to the Abbey from the time enter the Mount defence walls and therefore 30 mins to get back. V. busy at Easter and June/July. TM pays for parking after visit at machines opposite toilets at Bus Parking Visitor Centre. Take photo/mental note of parking bay so you can locate on return.
Mont St Michel Visitors Centre Bus Parking:
It is best to do the visit first, then give free time for lunch. However, if your group is very keen to eat first, allow 1 hour for lunch and explain to the group how to meet you at the ticket checkpoint for the Abbey (i.e. straight up the street and all the steps until you can go no further than the last terrace.) The group waits here. When you have gone up under the archway to get the tickets, come back and bring them up past the giant fireplace to show tickets and start visit inside.
If not lunching first, lead the group inside the walls, stop by the Tourist Office/public toilets and arrange a rendezvous for after the visit/lunch at this point or at the return bus stop. Inside walls easier – the only exit and easier to locate any missing pax.
There is an ATM at the post office just inside the main entrance. Students can also send a postcard from here stamped Mont St Michel.
There is only one street (ahead of you) and it’s usually very crowded. If rushed, it is better to go up onto the ramparts (take the first stairway to the right just after the portcullis near to the point you enter/exit the mount and then left at the top of the stairs through a narrow doorway) and follow the ramparts up the hill. This affords lovely views over the tidal surroundings and the group can visit shops in their own time on the way back down.
Bring your group or send them as far as is possible to climb stairs before you can go no further without tickets. Ask them to wait there while you get their tickets. Climb the staircase. You turn to your right and go to the office
Buy tickets, pick up green English walking tour leaflets (do not distribute) and come back to the group waiting for you at the terrace then show them back up the staircase to the person at the metal gate ticket checkpoint. You need to count your group through. Distribute leaflets here. Lead the group straight ahead up a final flight of stairs. At the top you have the Abbey and toilets on your right and views of the bay on your left. Lead the group onto the terrace.
Once out on the terrace ask them to repeat rendezvous place and time. They then enter the Abbey and follow all arrows for direction through the Mont St. Michel, spiralling down though the construction until they arrive with all the other visitors at the gift shop. Route is well marked. Toilets at the back of the gift shop.
They will pass all the shops/ lunch places on their way back down the hill.
Mont St Michel Shuttle Bus Pick-Up/Drop Off:
Biscuiterie: if your driver knows of a good biscuiterie (selling butter biscuits) you can do a stop. There are several in the area. The best one for the group is the Biscuiterie de l’ Abbaye. There are free biscuit samples (palets, galettes etc) and no obligation to buy (the biscuits are cheaper than those being sold on the mount). Regional produce is also on sale (cider, pommeau, poireau, butter sweets etc.). There is also a free toilet.
Best to stop after your visit to the Mount (allow about 30 minutes for sampling/toilet/purchases).
Audioguides:
These cost 3€ each and stops 90 minutes before the closure of the monument, that is to say 30 minutes before the closure of the ticket office. Pax return these at exit into gift shop.
4:30pm when the abbey closes at 6:00pm
5:30pm when the abbey closes at 7:00 pm
Most groups, particularly students, fine with leaflets.
- Routes from Mont St Michel to Dinard/St Malo
If you visit Mont St Michel over lunchtime/early afternoon and are spending the night in Dinard, you may want to include one of the following; a brief stop in St Malo (add 1 ½ to your timings) (see St Malo Excursion for details); on a nice day it is well worth going to the Pointe du Grouin and/or Cancale, where you can try oysters!
NB Make sure you discuss these options with the group as they may prefer to go straight to Dinard and relax (most groups complain that they never spend enough time here)
POINTE DU HOC
Although time is often very tight when visiting the D-Day beaches, a visit to the Pointe du Hoc is always a highlight. THIS IS the point the American troops initially claimed. There is a stone monument commemorating this moment. It is a site overlooking Omaha cliffs which has been left untouched as a memorial to the soldiers who fought here and suffered some of the worst D-Day losses.
Be strict about timings – it is easy to get behind schedule on this day. It is free to visit and there are free toilets. No shop.
Set down in the bus park and lead to free toilets down a path to the right of set down – New information office with plans to hand out to the group. Map/plan shows circular route which starts by the info office and takes you counter clockwise around 40 minutes back to bus.
Pointe du Hoc Bus Parking:
Groups make their own way around a one way system on the fields on paths. There are viewing platforms, bunkers, remains of tank emplacements etc. all of which they may explore.
The views to sea and Utah beach beyond are spectacular and give a good idea of the 100-foot high cliffs that the American soldiers had to scale before their battle began.
LONGUES – SUR – MER
On the way from Arromanches to Colleville-sur-mer, the German Gun Battery is really well worth a stop. There are 4 casements each with 150mm guns still intact and clearly marked with allied bullet attack holes.
From the small set down bus park, walk straight ahead past some informative panels. Give the group 20 minutes here. But it is also well worth if they are interested, to give it another 20 minutes and go all the way around, making a circle and seeing the bunker where the Germans hid their ammunition. Great Coastal views. More toilets by the bus.
ROUEN
Rouen city sightseeing should include:
- The Aitre Saint Maclou
- The Cathedral
- Rue du Gros Horloge
- Palais de Justice
- Place du Vieux Marché & Joan of Arc Memorial Church’
Set down on Place de la Haute Vielle Tour (see map) and make a rendezvous for 2 ½ hours’ time.
Lead the group through the parking lot, up Rue de l´Epicerie, turn right at the cathedral and continue past the Saint Maclou church and continue on to the Aitre Saint Maclou (entrance on the left – hard to find but worth it for the dead incarcerated cat!).
Rouen Bus Drop Off:
Return by rue St Romain – artisanal ceramic shops and the new Joan of Arc Museum Historical Museum on the way to the Cathedral. Give some time to visit the interior before continuing along the pedestrian Rue du Gros Horloge (full of shops and cafés). Turn right down the rue Thouret to point out the Palais de Justice.
Return to the rue du Gros Horloge and explain the incredible clock you see in front of you. Go under the clock and continue ahead into the Place du Vieux Marché (mixture of modern architecture and half-timbered houses). The modern Memorial church to Joan of Arc is on your right (worth a quick look inside if it’s open), designed in the shape of the helmet Joan of Arc was wearing. A tall aluminium cross in the garden marks the exact site of the stake where she was burned.
Give free time for lunch/exploring. Arrange to meet the group back at the Cathedral to return to the coach after lunch back at Place de la Haute Vielle Tour. There are free public toilets in Place du Vieux Marché as well as Place Calende.
Musee Des Beaux Arts – Fabulous – not on itineraries. Good Collection of Impressionist Art. Some temporary exhibitions. Call in case of closure. Entrance fee. Good café on ground floor. Needs 1 hour.
Marche Saint Marc – pl. St Marc, great farmers market Fri-Sat and Tues, 6am – 6pm. Sun 6 till 1.30pm. Great selection of Normand delicacies.
OMAHA – St. Laurent / Colleville-Sur-Mer CEMETERY
Set down in the bus park. Take the path which leads towards the visitor’s centre – large grey building. Needs an extra 30 minutes – security lines can also be lengthy. Ask group to leave bags on bus. Point out the free toilets (smaller building to the left).
American Cemetery Bus Parking & Beach Access
If you have time for the Visitor Centre, the entrance to the cemetery can only be accessed exiting via the exhibition. You enter upstairs through a security check into a room where leaflets are available in English with a map of the cemetery. If not visiting the VC, it is still worth distributing these to those going directly to the cemetery.
Downstairs is an exhibition room with several different displays (some interactive) focusing on the American soldiers who fought in the D-Day landings. There is also a 150-seat cinema which shows a 15-minute film every 30 minutes (no need to reserve). The title and theme of the film is “Letters”.
After visiting the visitor centre (keep an eye on the time), the group leaves through the small hall of remembrance on the bottom level and there is a path that leads to the left directly into the cemetery. They will see an orientation plaque which looks out to sea.
The path down to the beach has been closed. The bus driver can stop along Omaha beach between Cemetery and Point du Hoc for sand if the group wants to collect samples. In nice weather, this is a good picnic spot – remember, no food or drink permitted at Cemetery.
Tell them to look out for the memorial and chapel which are located within the cemetery. If some need to find a relative buried here, they can use computers in the visitors’ center to find the exact location.
There are chimes every hour, and a short ceremony for the lowering of the American flag at sundown. There are several paths which lead back to the bus park.
If time is limited, the group can access the cemetery directly without passing through the visitor centre by taking a path to the left of the toilets. It leads over to a small building and two gates which are the old entrance to the cemetery.
Time allowing, some drivers will take the group along the sea front from Omaha memorial past German Atlantic Wall remains, and the sight where the first mass grave existed for American casualties.
St Malo
Set down as near as possible to the tourist information booth opposite the Porte St Vincent. Lead your group inside the big arch and you will be in the centre of the action.
St Malo Bus Drop Off:
To your right (behind the Hotel France et Chateaubriand) are steps leading up on to the ramparts (30-45 mins to walk all the way round), toilets at the bottom of those steps; straight ahead are roads leading towards the cathedral and all around you are streets of shops and cafes.
To access the (low tide huge, high tide non-existent) beach, go back out of the arch and turn left. Very soon you will come to some steps that lead down to the beach (during low tide you can cross the sand to the fortress ruins)
St Malo intramuros is an interesting labyrinth of cobbled, mostly pedestrian streets with some delicious food, oysters, ice cream cafes, boutiques and corsair history.
For Canadian groups: this is the hometown of Jacques Cartier, the founder of the Newfoundland. He set off from here and is buried in the Cathedral.