Normandy, France

A week along the coast of Normandy, from Mont Saint-Michel, up to Cap de La Hague at the northwestern tip of the Cotentin peninsula, down to Sainte-Mère-Église and the beaches of the D-Day invasion where ongoing events celebrated the 70th Anniversary of the Battle of Normandy. Then eastward towards Cabourg, Deauville, Honfleur, Pont de Normandie, and Etretat.




One of the original Marauders, also known as the Widowmaker because of its poor performances at low speed, which lead to many accidents during takeoff and landing.
293 of these B-26 planes accurately dropped their bombs on enemy targets a few hours before the invasion.


Pointe du Hoc is the highest point between Utah and Omaha beach. It was a German heavily fortified stronghold and was a major concern for the Allied Forces regarding the success of Operation Overlord.
On D-Day, a small group of american soldiers, the Ranger Assault Group, landed by sea at the foot of the cliffs, climbed the cliffs with ropes while under enemy fire, and managed to capture Pointe du Hoc and destroy the german guns.
A few hours earlier, the site had been heavily bombarded by the Allied Airforce. 70 years later, one can witness how seriously cratered Pointe du Hoc still is and how intense and violent the operation must have been.
It's viewed from the sky that it is particularly impressive. Below is the Google Maps image of Pointe du Hoc .

An artificial harbor was built in Arromanches with 600 000 tons of reinforced concrete caissons known as Phoenix breakwaters. They were towed accross the channel from England, and then sunk near the shore to build the structure of the artificial harbor made of 33 jetties and 15 kilometers of roadway.
Two and a half million men and 500 000 vehicles landed on this artificial military harbor during the ten months following the D-Day invasion, delivering 4 million tons of supply to the forces on the ground.



Cabourg is an artificial town invented in the mid nineteen century. It's pretty quiet and easy to visit on foot or on a bike thanks to its many bike lanes.
As someone said over there, 'Cabourg is about traditions. Deauville is more about People Magazine. Then, further away, Honfleur is also about traditions.'

Honfleur provides a sudden contrast with the artificial towns of Cabourg and Deauville.
Being a thousand years old, a long history has shaped its culture, its port, its houses and streets.
Many artists and painters have come or lived here.
The town is famous for its wooden church, the Church Saint-Catherine built right after the Hundred Years War. The original stone church had been destroyed, and with the limited resources left on site, the town inhabitants rebuilt it with the wood from the local forests.
Used to build boats, the builders were also only familiar with naval construction, hence the upside-down ship's hull structure of the nave.


The Absinthe Hotel is perfectly located, right onto the old port of Honfleur, a short walk away from the restaurants and shops.
It's a 3-star hotel and feels like it's underrated considering the quality and comfort of it all.
There are double doors to all rooms. The beds are excellent. It's perfectly insulated, cozy and very quiet.
The rooms are all very spacious, especially of course the top floor suite, room 12. Free wifi and bottled water are also good to mention.
At the reception the team is welcoming and very accommodating. Breakfasts are also excellent and generous.



Except for the area near Sainte-Mere-Eglise where some D-Day event at Utah Beach had all the hotels fully booked, it was fairly easy to follow the map of the trip below without making any hotel reservation ahead of time.