Your next stop in our private 3 Day Normandy Tour can be Rouen, the capital of Upper Normandy. Few cities offer as much history as it does, and a walk through its Old Town is one steeped in events of the Roman Conquest, the Middle Ages, Viking settlements, and the Hundred Years War. We can take you to the spot where the life of Joan of Arc was brought to its cruel end. You will also visit the Cathedral which Monet painted countless times, and we can stop for lunch in the historic Place du Vieux Marche, the Old Market Plaza, where there is a wide variety of dining establishments from which you can choose, including Côté Gill, an excellent and simple bistro, or the historic La Couronne, reputed to be the oldest inn in France (since 1345!),  where Julia Child had a meal that transformed her life, and French cuisine as it is now known in North America.

Our private 3 Day Normandy Tour might then continue on to Honfleur, one of the loveliest fishing villages in the world, now a town and a very picturesque one. You can enjoy a stroll around the Old Port and be charmed by its quaint Ste. Catherine church, built to celebrate the end of the Hundred Year’s War in the 15th century. You may also wish to visit the Eugène Boudin Museum, named after Monet’s mentor.

Of course, there are other sites that can be substituted in place of Rouen: consider the romantic ruins of Richard the Lion Heart’s fortress castle, Château Gaillard, in Les Andelys, and the charming rustic Norman village, Lyons la Forêt. Instead of Honfleur, you might wish to see the dramatic cliffs of Étretat, especially if you have opted for Château Gaillard and Lyons la Forêt. Another option is the beautiful Château Champ de Bataille and its gardens (Saturdays and Sundays from the first of April to the end of November).

For your overnight stay in Normandy, Paris Luxury Tours has many favorites to propose: the five star Château La Chenevière, situated in the countryside in a beautiful arboretum near Port en Bessin Huppain, is one of our favorite hotels in all of France. You are likely to remember its superb cuisine, bountiful breakfasts and peaceful setting. For a four star hotel that is more modest, but quite beautiful, consider the Château de Sully, located a 10-minute drive north of Bayeux. For something simple but practical, consider the three star Domaine de Bayeux near the center of Bayeux, a short walk from many nice dining establishments, such as L’Angle St. Laurent and l’Alchimie.

Your second day of your 3 Day Normandy Tour can be devoted to seeing Mont Saint Michel Abbey, which is one of the most dramatic and unforgettable spots in the world, a combination of improbable nature matched by an astonishing history of Christian Evangelism, Vikings, and the endless struggle between the monarchs of Britain and France, and the barons of Normandy and Brittany, in the second millennium. To visit it we begin the second day with an early morning drive to the mainland parking lot of MSM, from where we will take the shuttle to the island where we will meet an indispensable local guide who will show you the village of Mont Saint Michel and take you on a commented visit of the abbey. Your guide will relate the rich natural, human and spiritual histories of MSM, as well as the abbey’s architecture, and how the abbey functioned.

There are several very rewarding dining establishments near Mont Saint Michel that are practitioners of cuisine that is wholly derived from local organic produce that is in season. The results are astonishing, and we are consistently reminded of it by the silence that always descends on the table as clients tuck into and appreciate what they have been served. Our favourite is the Gué du Holme in St. Quentin sur le Homme. We are also partial to the Manoir de la Roche Torin. We feel that experiencing superb regional Norman cuisine is a vital part of your tour experience, and urge you to take time to enjoy a meal at one of these remarkable establishments.

The second half of the second day of your 3 Day Normandy Tour can devoted to Bayeux, sometimes fancifully called the Venice of the North, thanks to its network of canals. Home of the eponymous tapestry, which details the Norman conquest of England (a D Day in reverse that took place in 1066), you will also be delighted by Bayeux’s lovely Old Town and its impressive Notre Dame Cathedral, parts of which date from the 11th century. The first city to be liberated in the Battle of Normandy, Bayeux will seduce you with its charm.

An alternative to the tour of
Bayeux can be a visit of Arromanches-les-bains in the Gold Beach sector, to see its Port Winston, the surviving mulberry port, where you might wish to visit the Debarkation Museum, which is devoted to how the Allies solved the over-riding issue of logistics in supplying a 2-million man invasion force. 

For your third day of your 3-Day Normandy Tour, we suggest seeing the Normandy Landing (D Day) Beaches. Clients can choose between the US sector of the Normandy D Day sites, or the British and Canadian sectors, or all three of them. For the former, we start with a drive to Ste. Mère Église (where Private John Steele’s parachute caught on the town church belfry) and we visit its Airborne Museum, which is devoted to the role of US paratroopers in the landings. We then proceed to visit Utah Beach, where we will explore WN10, one of the German fortifications over-looking the beach and we will walk on the beach. After lunch in the renowned fishermen’s port of Grandcamp Maisy, we proceed to visit the American cemetery in Colleville sur mer, the only US cemetery in Normandy. After seeing the cemetery we will proceed to the major break-out point at WN65 on Omaha Beach, where we will explain how one man’s determination snatched victory from the jaws of defeat at Omaha; and we will drive along the beach, on which you may wish to take a walk. 

For the British and Canadian sectors, options include the German long-range artillery battery at Longues-sur-Mer (which retains its original guns), Port Winston, the hauntingly eloquent Canadian cemetery at Bény sur mer, the Juno Beach Center at Courseulles sur mer, the Great Bunker (a German fire control tower) in Ouistreham, and Pegasus Bridge, with its Pegasus Memorial Museum, devoted to the impressive accomplishments of British paratroopers in Operation Overlord.