Tour guides--Le havre to Normandy

We have a car rented in Le Havre.....Is there an option to hire just a guide that can take us and show us around Normandy and give us the history?? Sort of wishing now that I stuck with my Overlord private tour and changed it from the Canadian sectors to the USA ones.

I guess my big concern is we rent the car..drive to the Canadian sectors, but don't get the full history of what took place. Would be super if one could hire a guide! TY

Negate that! Managed to rent guide and car through Label West! I had been in contact with them back in February and they were very professional. But I went in another direction......When I checked back, I noticed their website was no longer running.....I emailed them yesterday as everyone else I had emailed was booked! Turns out they just have a new webpage,lol So no more renting a car for us and with have a tour guide for the Canadian and UK sectors of Normandy! Think we will get much more out of it this way!!

Is there room in the car for sharers?

On this forum I frequently see Canuks bemoaning the fact that ships' tours, and those looking for van sharers via RollCalls, concentrate on the US beaches.

If there's space, is it worth offering on your cruise RollCall????

JB :)

Is there room in the car for sharers?

 

On this forum I frequently see Canuks bemoaning the fact that ships' tours, and those looking for van sharers via RollCalls, concentrate on the US beaches.

If there's space, is it worth offering on your cruise RollCall????

 

JB :)

nope,lol I posted on our roll cal awhile back for a Cdn Sector tour..not many were interested...all wanted to do the USA sectors! had 1 couple that were interested....then when I went to put down the deposit...they then told me they may not even be taking the cruise (medical issues) but still, dont tell me that ur good to go on the tour..then tell me that 1 may not even be on the cruise, little frustrating. I set up 4 private cruises on our Med cruise that were a blast.

So going to go in comfort and see what I want to see, as this is the highlight of the cruise for me...too bad its the very 1st port,lol

TY for replying to my previous posts about renting a car......but I think we will get more out of it with a guide! Lesson for those that want to book Normandy tours...do so well ahead of time as they get booked up very fast!!!

flames: I'm so glad this is working out for you.

We loved the excursion we did in Normandy a few years ago, and I'm sure you will too! Enjoy!

BTW: if you have never seen "The Longest Day," it's really worth watching (and even re-watching) before your trip. Yes, a cheesy film by today's standards, but the history is spot on and you'll appreciate your visit even more.

flames: I'm so glad this is working out for you.

 

We loved the excursion we did in Normandy a few years ago, and I'm sure you will too! Enjoy!

 

BTW: if you have never seen "The Longest Day," it's really worth watching (and even re-watching) before your trip. Yes, a cheesy film by today's standards, but the history is spot on and you'll appreciate your visit even more.

Yes, I'm quite relieved to be going with a guide, paying a bit more than I wanted,lol..as much as i love driving....think we will get more of of it this way! Added the movie to my watch list on Amazon. Down to my final episode of Game of Thrones, so something else to watch while I'm on the Elliptical!! Ty all.

We have done a couple of land holidays in Normandy in our own car. We have found that the majority of museums have guided tours operated by their employees. Normandy is a beautiful part of France and is very easy to drive around.

I like to drive, but the driver tends to miss out on a few things...which I have been told there is not a whole lot to see between Le Havre and Normandy! Since it is just the wife and I, we can pretty much still go where as we want, within reason of course.

I like to drive, but the driver tends to miss out on a few things...which I have been told there is not a whole lot to see between Le Havre and Normandy! Since it is just the wife and I, we can pretty much still go where as we want, within reason of course.

I DIYed Normandy in 2012 as I wanted to visit the Canadian sites. I followed JB's recommendations and it worked out well. Here's my journal/scrapbook entry for our stop in LeHavre. If you can rent dockside it would be worth it as "time is money" and it'll give you almost an extra hour free time.

November 4, 2012 I was awoken at about 6:35am by the sound of passengers moving along our hallway. There was plenty of activity as the ten hour tours to Paris and Normandy started early. I got ready quickly to wait for the delivery of our breakfast and to give DW some time to gradually wake up. At 7:15am we headed to the buffet for a quick bite and left a note for room services as it did not arrive. After eating we headed ashore and took a cab to the car rental agency. We were the last to arrive so our vehicle didn’t get a Garmin (English) and it was equipped with a stock French GPS. The manual Peugeot 208 VTI that we got handled well and was easy to drive. All the paperwork was completed shortly within 15 minutes and we headed onto the expressway for the 90 minute drive to the town of Bayeux to see the famous Tapestry depicting William the conquerors conflict with Harold and his rise to the throne. The audio tour and museum was surprisingly interesting and we spent 90 minutes there. Our next stop was the cathedral of Notre Dame across the street. It was closed for renovations but its magnificence could be appreciated from the exterior. We had time for a quick stroll through town and stopped at a local patisserie for snacks on the 30 minute drive to Juno Beach. We just wanted a croissant but we also left with a cheese stick, apple tart, and a dark & white chocolate loaf. All of the items were tasty but the chocolate loaf and apple tart were items we have never experienced before. We arrived in the town of Courseulles-sur-Mer and headed for the Juno Beach Centre. We took the self-guided tour and spent an hour in the museum before heading to the beach area. The tour gave us an appreciation of Canada’s involvement on the D-Day landing at Juno Beach. There are monuments and war artefacts left throughout the area and while it’s sentimental to Canadians, and the older French people it’s become a sail surfing beach for the locals. The Canadian guide working at the centre suggested that we visit the Beny-sur-Mer Cemetery for Canadians. He said the French government allowed the loved ones of the buried soldiers to post a message on the tombstones. We took his advice and drove the 10 minutes to an area that really was open for miles without any buildings or distractions. It was quite moving to read some of the 2500 headstones and that the age of most of them were in their early twenties. DW said we had to visit the grave that was furthest away from the gates as few would take the time to go that far. We paid our respects and headed for the 20 minute drive to the Pegasus Bridge Memorial. It was a “flyby” stop on our 60 minute trip back to Le Havre. We dropped the car off at 6:30 and headed back to the ship. We stopped by the Pizza restaurant for a quick bite before heading back to the room to do a load of laundry before dinner and the evening show. In the room we found a bottle of sparkling wine and some crudité from room service as an apology for screwing up our breakfast service. The show featured a hypnotist named David Knight and he hypnotised a group from the audience and had them doing some funny stuff. We were not overly hungry so we passed on the dining room again and headed for a quick snack at the buffet. We finished the evening journaling, reading and watching a movie. Rough seas are expected tomorrow as we pass through the Bay of Biscay so we thought we stay up late and sleep in to avoid some of the movement.

The Bayeux Tapestry (Calvados) is embroidery, 70 meters long, made in the 11th century. It is listed as a “Memory of the World” by UNESCO. Celebrating the conquest of England by William, Duke of Normandy, this linen canvas was embroidered after the Battle of Hastings on October 14th, 1066, probably in a monastery in the south of England. Vikings ships, Norman and Saxon cavalries illustrate the exploits of William and his opponent Harold, another pretender to the throne of England.

In June 1944, the destroyer “la Combattante” commanded by André Patou, was charged with escorting Canadian troops. On June 14, it approached the Norman coast carrying Charles de Gaulle and a dozen of his closest assistants. For de Gaulle, this visit to the Normandy bridgehead was of fundamental importance in imposing the authority of his temporary government in France. In the afternoon, the General set foot on French soil for the first time in four years in Courseulles-sur-Mer.

In 1990, a Cross of Lorraine was erected in Courseulles-sur-Mer to commemorate de Gaulle’s return to France on June 14 1944. It was inaugurated in the presence of Admiral Philippe de Gaulle.

The Juno Beach Centre is a museum and cultural centre, which opened at Courseulles-sur-Mer, France on June 6, 2003. The Centre presents the war effort made by all Canadians, civilian and military alike, both at home and on the various fronts during the Second World War, as well as the manifold faces of contemporary Canadian society.

The Juno Beach Centre Association (JBCA) is a Canadian non-profit charitable corporation that is governed by a Board of Directors. The JBCA owns and operates the Juno Beach Centre in Normandy, France. The founder and past President was Garth Webb (1918-2012), a D-Day veteran.

The Minister of Canadian Heritage has designated the Juno Beach landing site to be a site of national historic significance to Canada.

Juno or Juno Beach was one of five sectors in the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944. The Juno landings were judged necessary to provide flanking support to the British drive on Caen from Sword, as well as to capture the German airfield at Carpiquet west of Caen. Taking Juno was the responsibility of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division and commandos of the Royal Marines, all under the command of British I Corps, with support from Naval Force J, the Juno contingent of the invasion fleet, including the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN). The beach was defended by two battalions of the German 716th Infantry Division, with elements of the 21st Panzer Division held in reserve near Caen.

The invasion plan called for two brigades of the 3rd Canadian Division to land on two beach subsectors focusing on Courseulles. It was hoped that preliminary naval and air bombardment would soften up the beach defenses and destroy coastal strongpoints. Close support on the beaches was to be provided by amphibious tanks of the 2nd Canadian Armored Brigade. Once the landing zones were secured, the plan called for the 9th Canadian Infantry Brigade to land reserve battalions and deploy inland, the Royal Marine commandos to establish contact with the British 3rd Infantry Division on Sword, and the 7th Canadian Infantry Brigade to link up with the British 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division on Gold. The 3rd Canadian Division's D-Day objectives were to capture Carpiquet Airfield and reach the Caen–Bayeux railway line by nightfall.

The landings initially encountered heavy resistance from the German 716th Division; the preliminary bombardment proved less effective than had been hoped and rough weather forced the first wave to be delayed. The Royal Winnipeg Rifles and The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada took heavy casualties in the opening minutes of the first wave. Strength of numbers, as well as coordinated fire support from artillery and armored squadrons, cleared most of the coastal defenses within two hours of landing.

The subsequent push inland achieved mixed results. When all operations on the Anglo-Canadian front were ordered to halt at 21:00, only one unit had reached its D-Day objective, but the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division had succeeded in pushing farther inland than any other landing force on D-Day.

Beny-sur-Mer Cemetery was created as a permanent resting place for Canadian soldiers who had been temporarily interred in smaller plots close to where they fell. As is usual for war cemeteries or monuments, France granted Canada a perpetual concession to the land occupied by the cemetery. The graves contain soldiers from the Canadian 3rd Division and 15 Airmen killed in the D-Day Battle of Normandy. The cemetery also includes four British graves and one French grave, for a total of 2049 markers. The French grave belongs to a French resistance soldier named R. Guenard who fought and died alongside the Canadians and who had no known relatives. As is typical of war cemeteries in France, the grounds are beautifully landscaped and immaculately kept. Contained within the cemetery is a Cross of Sacrifice, a piece of architecture typical of memorials designed by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

The Cross of Sacrifice was designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield for the Imperial War Graves Commission and is usually present in Commonwealth war cemeteries containing 40 or more graves. It is normally a freestanding four point limestone Latin cross in one of three sizes ranging in height from 18 to 32 feet. On the face of the cross is a bronze broadsword, blade down. It is usually mounted on an octagonal base. The Cross represents the faith of the majority of the dead and the sword represents the military character of the cemetery.

Pegasus Memorial is a memorial to the first British soldiers to arrive in Normandy who captured the Pegasus Bridge from the ****s.

Pegasus Bridge is a movable bridge, built in 1934, that crossed the Caen Canal, between Caen and Ouistreham, in Normandy, France. It was a major objective of Operation Deadstick, part of Operation Tonga in the opening minutes of the invasion of Normandy. A gliderborne unit of the British 6th Airborne Division, commanded by Major John Howard, was to land, take the bridges intact and hold them until relieved. The successful taking of the bridges played an important role in limiting the effectiveness of a German counter-attack in the days and weeks following the invasion. In 1944 it was renamed Pegasus Bridge in honour of the operation. The name is derived from the shoulder emblem worn by the British airborne forces, which is the flying horse Pegasus.

I DIYed Normandy in 2012 as I wanted to visit the Canadian sites. I followed JB's recommendations and it worked out well. Here's my journal/scrapbook entry for our stop in LeHavre. If you can rent dockside it would be worth it as "time is money" and it'll give you almost an extra hour free time.

 

November 4, 2012 I was awoken at about 6:35am by the sound of passengers moving along our hallway. There was plenty of activity as the ten hour tours to Paris and Normandy started early. I got ready quickly to wait for the delivery of our breakfast and to give DW some time to gradually wake up. At 7:15am we headed to the buffet for a quick bite and left a note for room services as it did not arrive. After eating we headed ashore and took a cab to the car rental agency. We were the last to arrive so our vehicle didn’t get a Garmin (English) and it was equipped with a stock French GPS. The manual Peugeot 208 VTI that we got handled well and was easy to drive. All the paperwork was completed shortly within 15 minutes and we headed onto the expressway for the 90 minute drive to the town of Bayeux to see the famous Tapestry depicting William the conquerors conflict with Harold and his rise to the throne. The audio tour and museum was surprisingly interesting and we spent 90 minutes there. Our next stop was the cathedral of Notre Dame across the street. It was closed for renovations but its magnificence could be appreciated from the exterior. We had time for a quick stroll through town and stopped at a local patisserie for snacks on the 30 minute drive to Juno Beach. We just wanted a croissant but we also left with a cheese stick, apple tart, and a dark & white chocolate loaf. All of the items were tasty but the chocolate loaf and apple tart were items we have never experienced before. We arrived in the town of Courseulles-sur-Mer and headed for the Juno Beach Centre. We took the self-guided tour and spent an hour in the museum before heading to the beach area. The tour gave us an appreciation of Canada’s involvement on the D-Day landing at Juno Beach. There are monuments and war artefacts left throughout the area and while it’s sentimental to Canadians, and the older French people it’s become a sail surfing beach for the locals. The Canadian guide working at the centre suggested that we visit the Beny-sur-Mer Cemetery for Canadians. He said the French government allowed the loved ones of the buried soldiers to post a message on the tombstones. We took his advice and drove the 10 minutes to an area that really was open for miles without any buildings or distractions. It was quite moving to read some of the 2500 headstones and that the age of most of them were in their early twenties. DW said we had to visit the grave that was furthest away from the gates as few would take the time to go that far. We paid our respects and headed for the 20 minute drive to the Pegasus Bridge Memorial. It was a “flyby” stop on our 60 minute trip back to Le Havre. We dropped the car off at 6:30 and headed back to the ship. We stopped by the Pizza restaurant for a quick bite before heading back to the room to do a load of laundry before dinner and the evening show. In the room we found a bottle of sparkling wine and some crudité from room service as an apology for screwing up our breakfast service. The show featured a hypnotist named David Knight and he hypnotised a group from the audience and had them doing some funny stuff. We were not overly hungry so we passed on the dining room again and headed for a quick snack at the buffet. We finished the evening journaling, reading and watching a movie. Rough seas are expected tomorrow as we pass through the Bay of Biscay so we thought we stay up late and sleep in to avoid some of the movement.

The Bayeux Tapestry (Calvados) is embroidery, 70 meters long, made in the 11th century. It is listed as a “Memory of the World” by UNESCO. Celebrating the conquest of England by William, Duke of Normandy, this linen canvas was embroidered after the Battle of Hastings on October 14th, 1066, probably in a monastery in the south of England. Vikings ships, Norman and Saxon cavalries illustrate the exploits of William and his opponent Harold, another pretender to the throne of England.

In June 1944, the destroyer “la Combattante” commanded by André Patou, was charged with escorting Canadian troops. On June 14, it approached the Norman coast carrying Charles de Gaulle and a dozen of his closest assistants. For de Gaulle, this visit to the Normandy bridgehead was of fundamental importance in imposing the authority of his temporary government in France. In the afternoon, the General set foot on French soil for the first time in four years in Courseulles-sur-Mer.

In 1990, a Cross of Lorraine was erected in Courseulles-sur-Mer to commemorate de Gaulle’s return to France on June 14 1944. It was inaugurated in the presence of Admiral Philippe de Gaulle.

The Juno Beach Centre is a museum and cultural centre, which opened at Courseulles-sur-Mer, France on June 6, 2003. The Centre presents the war effort made by all Canadians, civilian and military alike, both at home and on the various fronts during the Second World War, as well as the manifold faces of contemporary Canadian society.

The Juno Beach Centre Association (JBCA) is a Canadian non-profit charitable corporation that is governed by a Board of Directors. The JBCA owns and operates the Juno Beach Centre in Normandy, France. The founder and past President was Garth Webb (1918-2012), a D-Day veteran.

The Minister of Canadian Heritage has designated the Juno Beach landing site to be a site of national historic significance to Canada.

Juno or Juno Beach was one of five sectors in the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944. The Juno landings were judged necessary to provide flanking support to the British drive on Caen from Sword, as well as to capture the German airfield at Carpiquet west of Caen. Taking Juno was the responsibility of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division and commandos of the Royal Marines, all under the command of British I Corps, with support from Naval Force J, the Juno contingent of the invasion fleet, including the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN). The beach was defended by two battalions of the German 716th Infantry Division, with elements of the 21st Panzer Division held in reserve near Caen.

The invasion plan called for two brigades of the 3rd Canadian Division to land on two beach subsectors focusing on Courseulles. It was hoped that preliminary naval and air bombardment would soften up the beach defenses and destroy coastal strongpoints. Close support on the beaches was to be provided by amphibious tanks of the 2nd Canadian Armored Brigade. Once the landing zones were secured, the plan called for the 9th Canadian Infantry Brigade to land reserve battalions and deploy inland, the Royal Marine commandos to establish contact with the British 3rd Infantry Division on Sword, and the 7th Canadian Infantry Brigade to link up with the British 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division on Gold. The 3rd Canadian Division's D-Day objectives were to capture Carpiquet Airfield and reach the Caen–Bayeux railway line by nightfall.

The landings initially encountered heavy resistance from the German 716th Division; the preliminary bombardment proved less effective than had been hoped and rough weather forced the first wave to be delayed. The Royal Winnipeg Rifles and The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada took heavy casualties in the opening minutes of the first wave. Strength of numbers, as well as coordinated fire support from artillery and armored squadrons, cleared most of the coastal defenses within two hours of landing.

The subsequent push inland achieved mixed results. When all operations on the Anglo-Canadian front were ordered to halt at 21:00, only one unit had reached its D-Day objective, but the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division had succeeded in pushing farther inland than any other landing force on D-Day.

Beny-sur-Mer Cemetery was created as a permanent resting place for Canadian soldiers who had been temporarily interred in smaller plots close to where they fell. As is usual for war cemeteries or monuments, France granted Canada a perpetual concession to the land occupied by the cemetery. The graves contain soldiers from the Canadian 3rd Division and 15 Airmen killed in the D-Day Battle of Normandy. The cemetery also includes four British graves and one French grave, for a total of 2049 markers. The French grave belongs to a French resistance soldier named R. Guenard who fought and died alongside the Canadians and who had no known relatives. As is typical of war cemeteries in France, the grounds are beautifully landscaped and immaculately kept. Contained within the cemetery is a Cross of Sacrifice, a piece of architecture typical of memorials designed by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

The Cross of Sacrifice was designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield for the Imperial War Graves Commission and is usually present in Commonwealth war cemeteries containing 40 or more graves. It is normally a freestanding four point limestone Latin cross in one of three sizes ranging in height from 18 to 32 feet. On the face of the cross is a bronze broadsword, blade down. It is usually mounted on an octagonal base. The Cross represents the faith of the majority of the dead and the sword represents the military character of the cemetery.

Pegasus Memorial is a memorial to the first British soldiers to arrive in Normandy who captured the Pegasus Bridge from the ****s.

Pegasus Bridge is a movable bridge, built in 1934, that crossed the Caen Canal, between Caen and Ouistreham, in Normandy, France. It was a major objective of Operation Deadstick, part of Operation Tonga in the opening minutes of the invasion of Normandy. A gliderborne unit of the British 6th Airborne Division, commanded by Major John Howard, was to land, take the bridges intact and hold them until relieved. The successful taking of the bridges played an important role in limiting the effectiveness of a German counter-attack in the days and weeks following the invasion. In 1944 it was renamed Pegasus Bridge in honour of the operation. The name is derived from the shoulder emblem worn by the British airborne forces, which is the flying horse Pegasus.

Great info..I may use part of it as our tour...but will stick with the tour company with their Mercedes and guide! TY