6 June 2014 (1 Viewer)

[Gunner29]

Next year is the 70th anniversary of D Day and will surely be the last big anniversary that the "veterans" will be able to attend or make the journey to.
Anyone know of any tour companies that are arranging trips over that period?

No comments pse about the futility of war etc
We know your views and this thread is not the place to air them. Thank you

 

[bigfoot]

Try this one http://www.overlordtour.com/

 

[15edward]

We've just been over there at Easter. Met a Veteran Frenchman at one of the museums -one of the first french to land back in France. He married a English woman so chatting was easy and so interesting and humbling.
Since most french sites didnt seem to be open til April 3rd we started off in the municipal site at Ouistreham (Caen) which is all year - 4 km from Pegasus bridge-and very good too, and then worked our way round. We had done a fair bit of background reading ( Anthony Beever for example) and we took Major and Mrs Holts small guide and maps.
it will ofcourse be very busy next June but I'm still considering redoing that without a tour guide. I think with pre booking it would be feasible. There'll be plenty of on and offline publicity for events I think. And whilst we did some wild camping I wouldnt consider that but want stays booked early

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[15edward]

meant to say there we a lot of guides out there so basing yourself in MH and engaging local guides would seem a feasible option. They seemed to range from single car and a few sites to minibus loads and ranging further afield and from 1/2 day to 3 days

 

[Spenders]

Tour companies?

Do you really need a tour company to organise your itinery for you? In my experience they do reasonable job of getting to the main sites, but if you see something that interests you and wanna stay a bit longer.. tough! The tour must move on to meet their remaining time slots.

I would recommend getting a copy of the top film 'The Longest Day' and take a note of the scenes depicted, then plot your own route around the ones you wanna see. As you go round, you will notice other sites that you can call in on as you wish, but at your own pace, not the tour guides. Also, unless you very specifically want to attend a particular ceremony at a particular place, I'd go a few days before or after 6th June, as it will be VERY busy, which could also impact negatively on your enjoyment of the area.

Simon

 

[Rugeley Tim]

Gunner,

Did the beaches 2 years ago and based myself on a nice little site just outside bayeux (good for the tapestry) think the site was called Chateau De Matrigne (will try and find the details) it was very central for all the beaches, and reasonably priced (for France which I believe is now very expensive) I brought a map from the Amazon (from the Maj and Mrs series) and we did our own thing. Generally everything is well signposted with explanations in English in all of the key areas.

Might see you there before we deploy on the last Afghan tour in July.

Tim

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Soaringman]

I will visit again someday. My dad died last November, he was Doug Cooper and he landed on sword beach in a Sherman tank with east yorks yeomanry. His tank was hit on 8th June and his best friend Charlie Harper from Derby was killed and dad managed to scramble out of the tank as it turned into a firebomb. He had a few more close escapes during his journey to Berlin. But he made it pretty much unscathed. My brother and I took him back in 1997 for his first visit, since his landing at the same place Caen. It was a very emotional visit especially as dad never used to show his real feelings. People of that age never did. We never did find his friends grave even though we had a few watery eyed days searching the immaculately kept war graves in Normandy. After we returned home I found though the Internet that his friend is buried in the tomb of the unknown soldier in Bayeux.

He was just a dad to me, but he was one of the many Hero's for the nation.

RIP Dad

 

[RogeTeri]

June 5

I'm off to Normandy on June 5. Will spend a few days touring. Went about 15 years ago so looking forward to visit again. Any other Funsters going?