Caen & D-Day beaches

Caen

Caen is the main city in the province of Calvados. A vibrant and young city with a big university.

We found a nice apartment in  sort of a hostel, where we booked 4 nights.

Caen is located near the landing beaches of D-Day and the large cemeteries of both allied but also German soldiers. Caen also has one of the biggest Memorials and Museums of the D-Day landing and operation Overlord.
We spent 4-5 hours in the museum, there was a lot to see and a great audio guided tour along with a bunker under the museum.

After an insightful day at the museum, we had a traditional French dinner at Bistronome in Caen, with steak, foie gras and tarte citron (not very 2024’ish I know).

On our third day we headed out to see some of the landing beaches Sword Beach, Juno Beach and Arromanches-les-Bains where the Allied made an artificial harbor during WW2.
We also had a stop in the beautiful old town of Bayeux where there is an old tapestry museum which I skipped and had a coffee in the sun.

Normandy is well known for its cider production, and since we were in the region of Calvados, we of course had to go on a cider tour. So on our fourth day in Caen, we went east to the Route du Cidre starting from the small town of Beuvron-en-Auge, nominated as one of the most beautiful towns in France.

After a quick pain au chocolat and a coffee we were ready to embark on our cider route. Driving through the beautiful landscape we stopped at Denis Geneviere Marie, Ferme cidricole Desvoye, GAEC du Manoir de Grandouet, Calvados Pierre HUET and Domaine Familial Louis Dupont with a single break in Cambremer at a local bistrot, we were filled up with apple cider and calvados and returned to Caen.

When we got back we had time for a quick look at the Abbaye des Hommes, and old monastery.

Time had finally come to leave Caen for this time, an interesting city worth a visit. We left for Omaha beach, where the Americans invaded France during WW2, and had a look at some of the remaining German bunkers. We stopped by the American cemetery, and incredible and sad sight for all the fallen soldiers.

Our last stop was a German cemetery close by remembering that although the Germans were the enemies in WW2, most of the soldiers were only young men forced into war.