Texas to Paris/Charles de Gaulle CDG

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April 29: Depart the USA for Paris

April 30: Arriving at Paris CDG by mid-morning

May 10: Depart Paris

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The British Normandy memorial at Ver-sur-Mer; Arromanches; Longues-sur-Mer

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Across the verdant countryside we drive to the British Normandy Memorial at Ver-sur-mer (literally, “View the sea”), unveiled on June 6, 2021, and dedicated to the 22,442 men and women from the United Kingdom and more than other 30 countries under British command who were killed in Normandy from June 6 to August 31, 1944. The vision of the planners was to create a place of serene beauty where people could gather to remember and reflect for generations to come. Inscribed in stone, their names have never been acknowledged in one place. The site also includes a French Memorial, dedicated to the memory of the estimated 20,000 Norman civilians who died during their liberation from Nazi oppression.

Five miles west we stop on a high cliff above the beach cove town of Arromanches for a striking view of remnants of one of the two artificial Mulberry harbors set up near the shore by the British and Americans within days after the landing. On this same hilltop, we will take in a 20-minute video in the 360 circular cinema (nine screens) showing archival footage with dramatic music of the Battle of Normandy.

Following lunch in a small family restaurant called l'Auberge des Monts nestled in the hills a few minutes inland, we will stroll the site of the well-preserved German gun batteries at Longues-sur-Mer, the perfect example of Hitler’s vaunted Atlantic Wall. The Atlantic Wall was not literally a wall but a series of strong points, like knots in a string along the entire coast with powerful guns and overlapping fields of fire, usually ranging out about 14 miles. Huge steel and concrete fortifications (called casemates) were built over them. The four guns and their command-observation bunker at Longues-sur-Mer can be seen in numerous videos and movies (e.g., The Longest Day) because they are classic examples of German coastal defenses and well preserved.

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Overnight: Grand Hotel Cabourg

The City of Caen and the Sunday market; Église Saint-Étienne (Church of Saint Stephen); Bayeux

Check out of the Grand Hotel of Cabourg for mid-morning departure to the Hotel Villa Lara in Bayeux. Halfway there we will make an extended stop in the center of ancient city of Caen to ramble through the Sunday market around the marina formed by waters from the nearby River Orne and canal that connect the city to the English Channel. One of the largest markets in Normandy, countless items of various kinds are displayed, including live chickens and ducks, as well as fresh foods from which you will want to select your lunch. From the marketplace, we drive a few blocks to view the Abbaye-aux-Hommes (Abbey for Men) founded by William the Conqueror in the 11th Century, now the City Hall; and visit the adjacent abbey church, Église Saint-Étienne (Church of Saint Stephen), consecrated in 1077, the finest example of Norman Romanesque architecture in the region, and the site of grave of William, who died in 1087. Then, a driving tour of the city before continuing to Bayeux for mid-afternoon check-in at the
Villa Lara in the city center.

Reception & group dinner at the historic Le Lion d’Or Restaurant

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Overnight: Villa Lara

Bayeux; the Cathedral; the Tapestry; the British Cemetery, as relaxing as you choose to make it.

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You’ve had a busy few days, so it’s time for a little relaxation. Start your morning with a visit to the Bayeux tapestry, which I vividly tells the story of William the Conqueror. You are heartily encouraged to make use of the free audio guides, as they enhance the experience tremendously. 

After that, you are free to roam the ancient streets of Bayeux, visiting the numerous galleries and boutiques that have made the city popular for centuries. 

Lunch is on your own. 

In the late afternoon, we’ll go together on the coach to a private dinner at one of the area’s best-kept chateaux. 
 

Overnight: Villa Lara

German Cemetery; Pointe du Hoc; Omaha Beach; and the Normandy American  Cemetery

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We go first to the German cemetery at La Cambe. Each of the more than 21,000 graves is marked with a dark volcanic stone, making it a solemn contrast to the British and American cemeteries. The somber atmosphere begins at the entrance, so narrow that you must enter one-by-one, symbolizing that

death as is a lonely journey.

Then to Pointe du Hoc, site of the famed assault on D-Day up 100-foot cliffs by U. S. Army Rangers commanded by Lt. Col. Earl Rudder, later President of Texas A&M University, to knock out its powerful guns. The Allied high command believed the guns imperiled the American landings on Omaha and Utah Beaches. When Rudder returned the first time in 1954, he gazed down the cliffs and mused to himself, “Will you tell me how we did this? Anybody would be a fool to try this. It was crazy then and it’s crazy now.”

 Next to the nearby scenic coastal town of Grandcamp-Maisy for a group lunch at a family restaurant, La Trinquette. Proceed to Omaha Beach, continuing to Normandy American Cemetery to contemplate 9,387 perfectly aligned white marble crosses and Stars of David, lending an air of optimism, brightness and triumph to the lives lost in battle. Be sure to view the memorial with its mosaic maps and visit the chapel, taking time to observe the ceiling and inscriptions. The Wall of the missing is inscribed with 1,557 names.

Return to Bayeux for private dinner at the Museum Baron Gerard, a city museum.

Overnight: Villa Lara 

Paris to Cabourg

• Arrive mid-morning and clear immigration & customs.​

• 10:30 am: Meet Francis Paz, our tour manager, at the Sheraton Hotel in Terminal 2 at CDG.

• Drive directly to Cabourg on the coast of Normandy.

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Tom Hatfield will host a welcome reception in the late afternoon followed by a dinner at the hotel, where seafront views and five-star luxury meld with timeless charm. Unwind along the boardwalk in this town immortalized by Marcel Proust, the French novelist (1871-1922) who favored the Grand Hotel and here wrote most of his famous novel “Remembrance of Things Past.”

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Overnight: Grand Hotel Cabourg

Honfleur; the Côte Fleurie; and the Villa du Temps Retrouvé (Mansion of Time Recovered)

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Today we explore a stretch of France's coast known as the Côte Fleurie (Flowering Coast) by driving to Honfleur, a historic port tucked between two hills that owes its distinctive character to the surrounding land, sea and sky. Remnants of a 16th Century fortress still stand at the harbor entrance, built to keep English ships from wandering too far up the Seine estuary. Daring seamen from Honfleur helped to establish the French presence in Quebec.

Honfleur became a hub of the Impressionist movement after Eugene Boudin (1824-1898) began painting Normandy’s sky, its sea, and shoreline. One of his followers was Claude Monet (1840-1926). Boudin's legacy was more than a fine collection of paintings. He began a tradition that still flavors the charming ambience of Honfleur, which boasts more than 95 art galleries. As you meander through the streets of Honfleur, scan the sky for the spire of Saint Catherine’s Church, and go there to visit the largest wooden church in France and outdoor market around it.

We will arrive in Honfleur for the opening of the Eugene Boudin Museum at ten o'clock, followed by lunch in the bistro of your choice around the Vieux Bassin (the old basin). Stroll along the quays and take the time to walk around the Vieux Bassin and try to capture the magic of its water mirror at least for Instagram.

We will return to Cabourg in time to visit the city’s Villa du Temps Retrouvé (Mansion of Time Recovered), an innovative museum in a home designed by a Parisian architect about the beginning of the 20th Century near our hotel. The museum offers a journey through time to discover La Belle Époque period (1871-1914), “the beautiful era,” generally regarded as Europe's golden age, a remarkable time that altered the history of the continent and beyond.

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Overnight: Grand Hotel Cabourg

Sainte Mère Église; La Fière Bridge;
Utah Beach; monument to French Resistance; Angoville au Plain; Graignes

This is an event-filled and important day. Fast get-away for Sainte Mère Église, the second city of the Cherbourg peninsula (properly the Cotentin), and the center of the American paratrooper landings. On the village square, visit the parish church with its poignant stained-glass memorials to the American liberators, and across the square, the extensive and widely acclaimed Paratrooper Museum. The church is prominent in film as where the parachute of Pfc. John R. Steele was caught on the steeple as he was coming to ground in the wee hours of June 6th.

Three miles west we come to a cluster of farmhouses called La Fière and a small unassuming bridge over the Meredet River that leads to a raised roadway, or causeway, across a marshland that was the scene of brave and bitter fighting for three days, June 6-9. The Americans –– elements of the US 82nd Airborne Division –– had to capture the bridge and the causeway if they were to take Cherbourg at the upper end of the peninsula and the Germans put up a bitter, unsuccessful defense to stop them. Overlooking the scene today is the statue of a mythical American Paratrooper called "Iron Mike." The losses here were horrific and visiting La Fière is important as well as emotional for many people.

After La Fière, we will stroll the shoreline of Utah Beach and view numerous monuments in the area. We will take our group lunch in Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, a small town known for its fresh seafood and farm produce.  En route back to Bayeux, we visit three stirring scenes: a statue of French Resistance fighters (includes a woman); the small, 11th Century chapel in Angoville au Plain, a scene of great humanity where soldiers’ blood still stains the pews; and Graignes, a remote farm village where enormous atrocities were committed against GIs and French civilians who helped them.

Return to Bayeux for dinner at your leisure.

Overnight: Villa Lara

Giverny, Monet’s Home, the Garden and Ponds; Charles De Gaulle Airport (CDG)

Mid-morning departure from Villa Lara Hotel for Paris, stopping en route in the village of Giverny on the River Seine. Here we will visit the home, gardens and famous lily ponds of the Impressionist painter, Claude Monet. Lunch will be on your own in a restaurant on the autoroute, the Aire Nord de Vironvay.

Overnight: Sheraton CDG Airport Hotel

Caen Memorial Museum; Home of Marie Louise Osmont; John Howard at the Pegasus Bridge; Ranville British Cemetery

We begin our tour in the heart of Caen, the capital and principal city of Lower-Normandy, as well as the location of the University of Caen founded in 1432 and destroyed in during the Allied invasion in 1944. Here we visit the world-renowned Caen Memorial Museum of Peace and of the Battle of Normandy, which teaches history primarily with visual media rather than objects or relics. The museum has hundreds of fascinating exhibits and graphic scenes enriched with archival films that explain life under the Occupation, concentration camps, regained freedom and the consequences of world conflict on our present society.

From the Caen museum, we travel a few minutes to the village of Périers-sur-le-Dan to survey the comfortable dwelling that was once the home of Marie Louise Osmont, a widowed nurse whose property was taken over by Germans shortly after the French surrender in 1940. They treated her respectfully, allowing her to continue living there in her own bedroom. She kept a diary that has been published but is relatively unknown. On June 11th, five days after D-Day, she wrote: “Since the sixth, we have stayed dressed, night and day, washed essential things in haste, and fixed our hair on the run. Panicked or wounded animals stampede and many are killed. The cats are scared, the goat nervous. I think about the women and the children, about the sick who are under this uninterrupted pounding that shatters your nerves!”

Next, we journey to the Pegasus Bridge where the Battle of Normandy began––the exact location where the first allied soldiers touched French soil on June 6, 1944. The hour was 16 minutes after midnight, and they were British paratroopers who came in six gliders towed from England to seize two bridges, one spanning the Caen Canal and the other the River Orne. If the bridges had remained in German possession, they could have attacked the main British force coming ashore on Sword Beach only three miles away. Their leader was Major John Howard who decades later lectured at UT Austin. Then, we visit the nearby Pegasus Bridge Museum.

On our way back to Cabourg, we pause at the British War Cemetery around the church in the village of Ranville, an intimate setting in a quiet place whose modest church is a gem of Norman architecture. Men killed at the Pegasus Bridge are among those buried here and those laid to rest nearest the church have never been moved –– 2,151 British graves, 76 Canadian, 322 German, and those of several other nationalities. One grave is that of paratrooper Pvt. Emil Cortiel, aged 19, who jumped with his dog, Glen. They died together connected by Glen’s leash and they are buried together.

Free for dinner.

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Overnight: Grand Hotel Cabourg

In the Footsteps of Sgt. Tommy Rouse; the city of Saint-Lô and Major Thomas Howie; Col. Glover Johns of Austin and his clay pigeons of Saint-Lô; Operation Cobra and General Patton; the historic town of Avranches; the Brittany American Cemetery at Saint James; the city of Mortain, Frank Denius and Hill 314

The first segment of our travels today is toward Saint-Lô, stopping for a few minutes to retrace the footsteps of Sgt. Thomas B. Rouse of Medina, Texas from Omaha Beach to a highpoint that the US Army called Hill 192, and to the crossroads called Le Calvaire where he was fatally wounded on July 11, 1944. From a marvelous viewpoint, we will have a visual perspective of the first five weeks of the Normandy campaign, from the beach 15 miles inland to Hill 192. In Saint-Lô –– a town 90% destroyed and called the “Capitol of Ruins” –– we tour war-related sites, stopping at the statue of Major Thomas D. Howie, and the mausoleum command post of Lt. Col. Glover Johns of Austin, Texas and his "The Clay Pigeons of Saint-Lô."

Three miles west of Saint-Lô we come to a long straight highway built on the foundation of a Roman road constructed in the 1st Century BC. It was along this highway on July 24 & 25, 1944, that the Americans finally broke through the Germans defenses in Normandy in Operation Cobra, which set the stage for the energetic and dashing General George S. Patton to assume command of the US 3rd Army for the thrust into Germany. We will follow the route of Operation Cobra, massive and complex, southward to the historic city of Avranches where in the city center the French have erected an impressive monument on the site of Patton’s headquarters. 

Beyond Avranches we will visit the Brittany American Cemetery, renowned for its distinctive Breton architecture and manicured grounds near the town of Saint James. Along the way we will individually purchase the goodies for a picnic lunch on the highest ground in the region near the city of Mortain, a place called Hill 314 with a grand view of the countryside. It was here that Frank Denius, prominent Austin lawyer-philanthropist and UT Austin alum was one of 665 GIs, isolated and surrounded for six days, turned back a massive German counterattack that threatened American gains in Normandy. Historians recognize the successful defense of Hill 314 as a turning point in the European war.

Return to Bayeux for dinner at your leisure.

Return to the USA or proceed to another destination   

The Sheraton CDG is located inside airport Terminal #2. Proceed on your own to airline check in.

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