Tour the D-Day sites of Normandy for £96 return

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to walk in the footsteps of the brave heroes who risked everything to wrestle Europe back from the scourge of the Nazis during WWII? Then a D-Day tour of Northern France exploring the key sites linked to the largest amphibious assault in history should be top of your list of summer adventures in 2025.

Trust me when I say it is a fascinating journey that immerses you in living history while indulging your passion for exploring the world by bike. And let’s not forget the amazing French food and wine you’ll enjoy along the way.

Many of the D-Day sites are just a stone’s throw away from the French port of Caen, which is served by the Brittany Ferries routes from Portsmouth, and can be visited over the course of a short tour.

And, handily for us, Brittany Ferries is offering a five-day return sailing for just £96, for you and your bike this summer.

So, to help you embark on your own D-Day tour, we’ve chosen six of the most important, poignant and thought-provoking places to visit once you’re in France.

Pegasus Memorial Museum

Our first D-day site is just a short 10-minute ride from Caen Port, so it couldn’t be more convenient. Slightly set back from the coast lies Bénouville Bridge, renamed Pegasus Bridge, the first objective taken by airborne troops during the Normandy campaign.

Ahead of the beach landings, tens of thousands of paratroopers were dropped across Normandy, tasked with disrupting the forces behind the Atlantic Wall and aiding in the eventual beach assault.

A key bridge over the Caen Canal, the bridge has since been replaced and now memorialises the efforts of those first boots on the ground on D-Day, while the nearby Pegasus Memorial Museum tells the stories of the 6th Airborne Division and gives visitors and insight into the airborne operation that proved a vital part of the story of D-Day.

Longues-sur-Mer Battery

On the coast about half a mile away from Longues-sur-Mer village lies a German gun battery. Perched on 60m high cliffs between Gold and Omaha beaches, the bunkers each held a 150mm gun, the originals of which remain in the battery to this day.

The area around is still peppered with bomb-holes and craters, while the bunkers themselves give an impression of the scale of firepower enlisted during the initial bombardments and defensive efforts to both take and hold the beaches.

Peer into the bunkers and imagine the view as the Allied forces advanced into the Seine Bay, after all the battery was located directly opposite the fleet as it approached the coast. On D-Day, the battery was silenced by naval fire before being captured the next day, a crucial battle to win in the struggle for the coast.

Arromanches Mulberry Harbour

The numbers behind D-Day are simply staggering. On 6 June alone, nearly 160,000 troops crossed the English Channel, while by the end of June nearly 875,000 troops had landed on the shores of France.

The infrastructure and planning behind this operation is remarkable, as is the ingenuity of the engineers tasked with making it possible. This is where the Mulberry Harbour enters the story, the remnants of one of which is still present in the sea close to the town of Arromanches-les-Bains.

The Mulberry Harbours were built in pieces in England, before being assembled off-shore a few days after D-Day.  They served as temporary harbours designed to bring ashore vehicles, troops and supplies while the better defended major ports in the area were still being fought over.

Port Winston, as the harbour off the coast of Arromanches is known, saw 500,000 vehicles use it to get ashore during a 100 day period. At low tide the blocks supporting the piers are visible, while elements of the harbour are can be seen further out to sea.

Omaha Beach

This five-mile stretch of of the Normandy coastline was one of five sectors targeted during the initial landings. The responsibility for it’s capture fell primarily on the shoulders of soldiers of the United States army, who found themselves up against some of the fiercest and most heavily fortified resistance on the entire Atlantic Wall.

Memorialised in the acclaimed WWII war film, Saving Private Ryan, the landings on Omaha Beach have come to define the ferocity of the battle for the coast and the ultimate sacrifice given by the men who knew turning back was not an option.

Omaha Beach is now home to a poignant reminder of these sacrifices in the form of the American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-mer, with neat rows of gleaming white tombstones positioned on top of the bluff overlooking the beach where many of the German defensive positions had been located.

Close by lies the Overlord Museum, providing a historical context to the area and chronicling the period of time from the Normandy landings to the liberation of Paris.

Maisy Battery

One of the joys of riding in Northern France is the fact you’re treated to a picturesque ride on typically empty French roads along the coast with many of the prominent beaches of the Normandy landings to your left. Our next destination takes us to the Maisy Battery, one of the largest German defensive positions in the landing area of Normandy.

The Maisy Battery was actually buried at the end of the war, before eventually being uncovered in 2006 and opened to the public.

The restoration of the battery has opened up a warren of trenches and bunkers to be explored, over 2km in total, and with it’s burial and subsequent rediscovery, the battery is almost as it was over 70 years ago. With an extensive display of WWII cannons, howitzers, landing crafts and other vehicles it’s a comprehensive living museum of D-Day, and certainly a must-visit for anyone looking to explore the area.

Azeville Battery

A German artillery battery is located close to the French village of Azeville. It was part of the larger Atlantic Wall coastal fortifications that Hitler had ordered to be constructed in anticipation of an Allied assault on north-west Europe. The battery shelled the nearby Utah beach, before eventually falling to American forces three days later.

The bunkers have been preserved and can now be explored, as well as the tunnels that link the fortifications together, with the assistance of an audio guide. One fascinating feature is a hole punched through a bunker by an unexploded shell fired from USS Nevada, giving you a brief glimpse into the ferocity of fighting that those few during D-Day experienced.

Brittany Ferries

The best way to visit all these sites is by taking a Brittany Ferries crossing from the UK to Caen. You can take advantage of the operator’s five-day return sailing for just £96 by heading over to the Brittany Ferries website today.