Day 12: Paris/Normandy (Le Havre), France

It would have been very difficult, if not impossible to do this tour on our own so we booked a guided bus tour with Overlord Tours. When I booked tour #9B at Overlordtour.com, I received an e-mail saying they only do private tours from Le Havre. I e-mailed them back saying I wanted the tour #9B from cruise port advertised on their website for €95 per person. They e-mailed me back for instructions on how to book the tour. While the tour is payable in cash to the driver, they wanted us to give credit card info as a security deposit.

The tour bus was waiting right outside the ship at 8am. The tour had 4 stops: the American cemetery, Omaha Beach, the town of Bayeux, and a last stop at the seaside town of Honfleur.

The early part of the day was sunny but it started raining when we arrived in Bayeux. It rained for maybe a half hour and then was clear for the rest of the day.

We arrived at our first stop, the American Cemetery around 10am. We spent about an hour and a half there walking around the grounds and visiting the museum. We then headed to Omaha beach and the tour guide gave about a half-hour commentary on the D-Day landings at the beach.

We arrived in Bayeux around 1:30pm under pouring rain. First we went to the Bayeux Tapestry exhibit. The tapestry depicts William the Conqueror's victory at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. The exhibit comes with a recorded commentary but there is no photography allowed inside. After the exhibit, we ate lunch at a local restaurant and then spent about 10 minutes inside the Bayeux Cathedral. We left Bayeux around 3pm and headed to Honfleur. We arrived in Honfleur around 3:45pm, spent about an hour walking around town and headed back to Le Havre around 5pm and arrived back at the ship at 5:30pm.

This was a very memorable tour. You can see on the picture below how long it is from the water to the beach at Omaha and you can imagine what it was like for the soldiers on D-Day.

Omaha Beach

Entrance to Bayeux Tapestry. No photography allowed inside the exhibit

Bayeux Cathedral

Honfleur

Our Tour Bus

All in all, the tour was a great value for €95. A similar tour offered by the ship costs $199.95 and it doesn't even stop in Bayeux and Honfleur. This was our last port of call prior to disembarkation in Southampton so it was a nice way to end the cruise.