Private D-Day Omaha Utah Beach Guided Trip from Paris by Mercedes

07:00 Hotel pick up and Departure to Normandy

07:00 Pick up from Your hotel in Paris and departure destination Normandy by our air conditioned comfortable Mercedes E220 business-class car by 2 people or by Mercedes minivan from 3 participants. It takes about 3,5 hours (280 km) to reach Normandy American Cemetery in Collville-sur-Mer. One stop at a rest area will be made. This trip is Live guided.

11:00 - 12:00 Normandy American Cemetery visit

11:00 - 12:00 Arrival and Visit of the Normandy American Cemetery & Visitor Center, located in Colleville-sur-Mer and overlooking Omaha Beach. It contains 9,387 U.S. soldiers, most of whom were killed during the Normandy Landings and the Wall of the Missing with the names of 1,557 soldiers missing in action. The cliffs leading down to the beaches contain the remnants of the German defences, including concrete casemates with memorials to the soldiers. At Normandy American Cemetery you’ll see as well the semicircular memorial colonnade with the sculpture “Spirit of American Youth Rising from the Waves” and large maps of military operations; and the most beautiful, idyllic spot on Planet Earth. At the Visitors Center You will find a very nice small Museum with a lot of informations about Battle of Normandy.

12:00 Departure to Omaha Beaches. It takes just 5 to 10 minutes (5 km).

12:10 - 12:30 Omaha Beaches

12:10 - 12:30 Arrival at Omaha Beaches. Learn about the huge sacrifice made by the 34 000 men who landed here on D-Day. Omaha Beach is the most popular travellers destination of the D-Day Beaches.

12:30 - 13:00 Short Lunch break at Omaha Beaches

12:30 - 13:00 Lunch break at Omaha Beaches. There is a restaurant and a cafe open during the spring - summer season where You can get food or bring foo with you to spend more time at Omaha Beaches.

13:00 Departure to the Church Saint-Come-et-Saint-Damien in Angoville-au-Plain. It takes 30 minutes (37 km).

13:30 - 13:50 Stop at Church Saint-Come-et-Saint-Damien in Angoville-au-Plain

13:30 - 13:50 Short stop at Church Saint-Come-et-Saint-Damien in Angoville-au-Plain. During the D-Day two Medics Medics Robert Wright and Kennith Moore from the 101st Airborne set up a field hospital in the little church. They provided medical assistance to 80 combatants of both sides and one child. They used the pews of the church as hospital beds and, incredibly there are still blood stains on the church pews. Several Germans stormed through the door of the church, but seeing that the medics were treating wounded from both sides they quietly left and marked the door with a Red Cross.

13:50 Departure to the Utah Beach Landing Museum. It takes about 10 minutes (10 km).

14:00 - 14:30 Utah Beach and its Monuments

14:00 - 14:30 Arrival at Utah Beach. Free time for learning on Utah Beach. Utah Beach is the next to Omaha Beach and the westernmost of the Five Normandy D-Day Beaches containing nowadays many museums, memorials and monuments. Utah Beach was the first beach to be stormed by 23,000 American soldiers on 6 June 1944 in order to capture the town of Cherbourg and its deep water port. Utah Beach casualties were relatively light with 197 (including 60 missing). The units that landed on Utah Beach include: 82nd Airborne Division, 101st Airborne Division, VII Corps, 4th Infantry Division, 90th Infantry Division, 4th Cavalry Regiment and 70th Tank Battalion.

Near the UTAH BEACH Landing Museum You can discover many important monuments. Normandy’s Utah Beaches are wide and clear and make it easy to imagine the events of 1944. You can spend here some time strolling the beach, thinking about the events of WW2. In the same general area at the Landing Museum you’ll find a collection of monuments:

1. Higgins Boat Monument. On D-Day, Americans landed in amphibious crafts used for all ladings and known as Higgins Boats, named for its inventor.

2. U.S. Navy Monument, the only outside the US consisting of three figures meant to represent: leadership, sailors, and combat units. Inscribed on the base of this statue are the names of the American ships that participated in Operation Overlord.

3. 90th Infantry Division Monument. After landing on Utah Beach, the 90th continued inland through Northern France, then onto Belgium, the Ardennes and helped liberating the Nazi concentration camp at Flossenbürg in Bavaria.

14:30 - 16:00 Utah Beach Landing Museum visit

14:30 - 16:00 Visit at Utah Beach Landing Museum, created atop a former German bunker. Having a big collection of historical artifacts, military vehicles and the original B26 bomber—one of only six left in existence.

16:00 Departure to Sainte-Mère-Église town and Airborne Museum. It takes just 20 minutes (13 km).

16:20 - 16:40 Sainte-Mère-Église, John Steele Story, Milestone of freedom

16:20 - 16:40 Short stop in Sainte-Mère-Église in front of the Airborne Museum

Sainte-Mère-Église is a small town in Normandy which played a significant part in the WW2 because of its position. In the early morning of 6 June 1944, mixed units of the U.S.82nd and U.S.101st Airborne Divisions occupied the town in Mission Boston, making it one of the first towns liberated in the invasion.

John Steele Story. You will learn here the story about paratrooper John Steele of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR) and other members of 82 Div. John Steele was this figure that inspired the film "The Longest Day", shot in the village in 1961. Thanks to this cult film starring John Wayne, Henry Fonda and Sean Connery, this moment has been immortalised. In tribute to this soldier, a mannequin is still in place on the church steeple.

Milestone of freedom. The Borne 00 – Milestone 00 marks the spot where General Theodore Roosevelt Jr. landed and decided to lead the assault from. It is located in front of Sainte-Mère l'Eglise town hall.

16:40 - 18:10 Airborne Museum visit, Experience D-Day Night Jumps

16:40 - 18:10 Arrival at Airborne museum. This visitors of Normandy favourite museum is dedicated to the U.S. paratroopers of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions. The Airborne Museum comprises five separate buildings, two of which resemble open parachutes. Inside you’ll find an incredible collection of World War II aircraft and thanks to the touch pad You will experience the highlights of the Normandy landings. The first WACO building of the Museum is dedicated to the gliders and presents the only copy of a WACO glider in France. You will join a dozen soldiers in the glider few moments before the take off. More than 500 gliders were deployed to carriy on About 4 400 soldiers, vehicles, ammunitions and other equipments. The C-47 building with the original legendary C-47 aircraft sits proudly at the centre of a spectacular scenography made of deployed parachutes, suspended mannequins and realistic statues that question the visitor!

Experience D-Day Night Jumps of a C-47 aircraft as if you were there ! Through a hyperrealist museography You can join the nighttime embarkation of a C-47 aircraft in England, then drop into the square of Sainte-Mère-Eglise in the midst of the fighting and take part in the operations that followed. Finally you will discover an American reconnaissance plane: a Piper Cub.Get into the minds of the troopers and feel the intensity of the combat.

18:10 Departure Paris. It takes 3,5 to 4 hours (320 km). One stop at the rest area will be made.

22:00 Arrival in Paris

22:00 Arrival in Paris depending on traffic situation and Your hotel location. Drop off at Your hotel.