Honfleur, France | Normandy Excursions

[Stumblefoot]

Recently, some wonderful folks have posted their feedback about the Normandy region of France in a different topic. Silversea provides access to this region through the port at Honfleur, France.

 

For future visitors to the Silversea message board, I thought it might be helpful to post these responses in a separate topic for easier searching within Cruise Critic. Personally, as I think about my family's first visit to this region in 2013, I know this thread will be immensely valuable to us. I hope others agree.

 

A special "Thank You" to dusababy, Seafairer, and newlondon for their first hand input.

 

Colleville-sur-Mer

The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial is located here.

... A visit to the American cemetery at Normandy is one of the memorable moments of our travel life. It is majestic in simplicity yet overpowering in emotion. The only sound is the wind whispering in the trees. Get there if you can.

 

There is no way any cruise sponsored tour will give you the time and the opportunity to get the best experience in the time available. DW and I have now been twice and would go again if we get the chance. Our first tour was a private tour but at that point the interactive and historical experience at Colleville-sur-Mer had not been activated, it has now and is at least imo a 2-3 hr experience, not available on a cruise tour, no matter who.

 

Pointe du Hoc

4 miles (6.4 km) west of Omaha Beach, this is where American soldiers first scaled the 100 ft (30 m) tall cliffs overlooking the sea.

There's a marker there, so you can stand on the heights and try in some small way to grasp the immense challenges they faced. Depressions from bombs are still clearly visible in the adjacent field, and you can walk into the German pillboxes that faced the incoming troops from the sea.

 

Point de Hoc is amazing. To truly understand the bravery of the Rangers you need at least 1+ hrs to tour the site, understand why the carpet bombing didn't work, and examine the conditions for the German soldiers; pretty bad.

 

Arromanches-les-Bains

The town lies along the stretch of coastline designated as Gold Beach during the D-Day landings.[/size]

The nearby town of Arromanche was a major landing site for tanks, supplies, materiel that had to be brought ashore to support the troops. Photos in their small museum show the section of town that was demolished to create a wide road for transport; the buildings that weren't touched still stand today. The museum also has a fascinating model of the temporary "portable" floating docks that were built to offload the incoming shipments; the area experiences huge tides, and the model moves up and down to show how this marvelous engineering feat worked under difficult conditions. An amazing, amazing undertaking.

 

Arromanche is so interesting; if you arrive at lowtide and at Omaha that is the ONLY way to understand it. The Mulberries are still there and you will see them no matter what; but If you get to Omaha at high tide you just can't understand how the carnage could have happened.

[WesW]

+1 Stumblefoot, thanks for starting this wonderful thread.

 

We plan on doing the Normandy Landings tour below May 2014, during voyage 4410 (Southhampton to Stockholm). Also, found some more Honflour info on the Silversea Honflour port page, pls see below:

 

SS infomation Normandy:

 

Port information:

 

http://www.silversea.com/destinations/find-a-port/?port=HOF&voyage=

 

Port Map and Fodor's description of Honflour:

 

http://www.silversea.com/uploadedimages/Silverseacom/Destinations/Ports/HON.pdf

 

Normandy Landings tour description:

 

http://www.silversea.com/destinations/find-a-port/?port=HOF&excursion=HOF-B&type=Tour

[RachelG]

Honfleur is a really cute little town in its own right. We had a great lunch of mussels and white wine on the waterfront there. It was like one of those pictures, with the boats and water on one side and restaurants with lots of colorful flowers in boxes on the edge of the pier. And of course, a cat or two looking for a handout.

[gdlamberth]

When we were in Honfleur in 2006, on Regent; I knew where I wanted to visit so we used these folks:

 

http://www.normandywebguide.com

 

Won't even swear they're still in business:o

 

That said I told them what I wanted to see and how much time we had and they offered a couple of opportunities. One of the things we did NOT want to do was take time for a long leisurly lunch at a nice cafe. Two other couples joined us on the tour and the driver met us with a Mercedes Van and off we went. We visited the following:

 

Pegasus Bridge - (to me this was the highlight especially since no one with us even knew of Pegasus Bridge before our tour)

 

Point du Hoc- In the parking lot (prior to getting out of the van) the driver asked us for our sandwich choices and he called in an order to a small roadside shop on what was Omaha Beach.

 

Drove through Vierville Draw (west end of Dog Green) and down onto the beach road. Stopped for a minute to pick up sandwiches at the shop (on Baguettes, far and away best ham and cheese I've ever had!). Stopped on the beach below the American Cemetary for a few minutes to point out how Point du Hoc overlooked Omaha and then up to the American Cemetary.

 

Then we went via Ouistreham (French Commando landing site) to the Longues sur Mer(German Coastal Defense Battery portrayed in the movie The Longest Day).

 

Then back to the ship in plenty of time. I think everyone had a great time and the tour guide was able to accommodate almost all my requests. Time and distance prevented us from seeing anything over on the Utah Beach side.

 

 

As an aside, in 2010, my wife ( a Navy reservist) had been recalled to active duty and was stationed at Landstuhl in Germany. She was able to attend the dedication of the Navy Memorial over on Utah Beach. :)

[WesW]

Hi gdlamberth/Greg, thanks very much for that outstanding private Normandy tour recommendation. Website is hot now, and chock full of useful Normandy private tour information. Maybe within a year of our 4409/4410 saildate (next May) we can recruit a few couples to join us on a private Normandy tour of D-Day landing beaches. Greg we're scheduled to dock in Honfleur from 7a.m-6p.m, believe we will have at least eight-nine hours to coord a private tour, how long did your Normandy sighseeing tour last considering transport time?

[gdlamberth]

Hi gdlamberth/Greg, thanks very much for that outstanding private Normandy tour recommendation. Website is hot now, and chock full of useful Normandy private tour information. Maybe within a year of our 4409/4410 saildate (next May) we can recruit a few couples to join us on a private Normandy tour of D-Day landing beaches. Greg we're scheduled to dock in Honfleur from 7a.m-6p.m, believe we will have at least eight-nine hours to coord a private tour, how long did your Normandy sighseeing tour last considering transport time?

 

Wes,

My recollection is we were docked 0800-1800, and the tour I described fit in nicely (no angst on drive back to ship or anything like that). Here's a couple of bits trivia for you; both from the movie The Longest Day:

 

-Major John Howard (led assault on Pegasus Bridge) was portrayed in the movie by Richard Todd. Irony is that in 1944, Richard Todd was an officer in the 7th Battalion (LI) The Parachute Regiment. On D-Day this Battalion made contact with Major Howard at the Pegasus Bridge. Todd was the officer who made contact.

 

- In the movie Lord Lovat (portrayed by Peter Lawford) leads 1st Special Service BDE ashore at Sword. In the scene Lovat is accompanied by his piper. In the movie the piper is portrayed by Bill Millin. On June 6, 1944, the piper that went ashore with Lord Lovat was the same Bill Millen who portrayed himself 28 years later. His pipes are in the Scottish War Museum.

[Goldens4]

Thank you so much, gdlamberth.

[jures]

We did this in 2005 with Ss, one of the best excursions we have ever been on, especially if you knew someone that was there when they were passing out lead instead of champaign. This was a full day tour and the ship had to be held an extra hour because traffic was awful.

[newlondon]

Stumblefoot, Thanks for your appreciation of my post. I could go on for a long time but imo everyone needs to experience for themselves.

Wes, Seriously consider a private tour; given your background.

Btw, to all, the battery at Longes-sur-Mer, is the only still existing German gun position with the original artillery; amazing to see.

[Seafairer]

Thank you for starting this as a new thread, Stumblefoot. Excellent idea.

 

It also brings something else to mind. As our bus neared Arromanches, we could look down and see the closely-knit hedgerows that lined the road. So, so thick and twisted. It suddenly became very real how difficult it was for the tanks to plow through them.

 

Interesting question about a private excursion vs. Silversea's. We took Silversea's full-day tour and felt we had a good amount of time in each location, not rushed at all. But since this is an important, once-in-a-lifetime experience for many people, it probably makes sense to figure out where you want to go, how much time you need in each place, and do some comparison shopping. Silversea probably doesn't get that specific in their tour description, but they can certainly connect you to their tour department, who will know the day's schedule.

[Stumblefoot]

Rouen

Normandy is sacred ground. Go Inland all the way to Rouen and it is filled with History. A couple of days there will just wet your appetite. for more.

[AtMaui]

Brian - we'll talk about this on the Whisper. I was just there in July on Uniworld. Breathtaking!

 

Jaci

[Mike2131]

4 of us will be on the Silver Explorer in May and are really looking forward to visiting the D-Day beaches and other associated sites.

[bonbon66]

Can you please tell me the name of the private tour that you used? We will be on Regent Navigator in June, 2014 and prefer not to take their large coach trip. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[gdlamberth]

Can you please tell me the name of the private tour that you used? We will be on Regent Navigator in June, 2014 and prefer not to take their large coach trip. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

The link I posted at #4 is still active and I believe if you contact them you can structure a tour to see the sites you want to see. When we did our tour I gave them a list of what I wanted to see and explained we did not want a long leisurely French Lunch (offered by the ship's tours) but wanted to spend our time seeing sights. So when we walked into Point du Hoc our guide asked us for our sandwich orders and phoned them in so we ate our lunch on the way to Omaha in his Mercedes Van.

 

I will offer for your consideration that I had to find two other couples willing to seeing my VERY self-centered itinerary to make the trip affordable.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Greg

[OrpingtonT]

Having visited Normandy several times, I concur with all that has been said. It is a most moving experience especially if you have lived through those terrible times.

 

Can I put in a word though for the young men of Germany conscripted and fighting, as they thought, for their country. There is a place where the German dead, after being collected from all around Normandy, were laid to rest at La Cambe, near to Isigny-sur-mer. Well worth a visit and a very sad experience.

[newlondon]

Tom, Couldn't agree with you more. We made a special point to get to the German cemetery. The contrast of the white simple crosses at Colleville to the black more rustic crosses at La Cambe is so emotional.

Imo the whole tone of the burial grounds was defined by this difference. As you say the Germans were fighting for their country (or so they thought) and their bravery should be recognized.

[Stumblefoot]

Can you please tell me the name of the private tour that you used?

Hi bonbon66. We used Normandy Sightseeing Services for our private day long tour. Our Guide, Duncan Hollands, was exceptional. He's based out of St. Michel De La Pierre, France, and he'll custom tailor anything you wish. I believe our full day cost, including transportation to/from the port of Honfleur was €750. Worth every cent!

[doglover214]

We used Overlord tours for our tour of Normandy. They are the best!! Their guides are wonderful and their knowledge is amazing.