Known for
The D-Day landing beaches, the Bayeux Tapestry and Alabaster Coast
Must-see landmarks
Mont-Saint-Michel, Normandy American Cemetery and Bayeux Cathedral
Days needed
At least 4 to 5 days to cover all the landmarks
Getting around
A rental car for the coast and countryside; and also by direct train
This route covers the D-Day coast west of Bayeux, the practical base for the day. The cathedral was consecrated in 1077 before William the Conqueror and once displayed the Bayeux Tapestry; its own museum is closed for renovation until autumn 2027. Free to enter. Bayeux War Cemetery is a 12 minute walk.
The largest Commonwealth cemetery of the Second World War in France holds 4,144 burials from 1944, 338 of them unidentified, plus over 500 graves of other nationalities. Maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, it is permanently open and free. Normandy American Cemetery is a 25 minute drive.
Rows of white marble crosses and Stars of David look out over Omaha Beach below, the burial ground for Americans lost in the 1944 landings. Free to enter, open daily 9:00 to 17:00 except 25 December and 1 January. Pointe du Hoc is a 20 minute drive.
On D-Day, Rangers of the 2nd Battalion under Lieutenant Colonel James Rudder scaled these 100-foot cliffs to disable German guns aimed at Omaha and Utah beaches, reinforced by the 5th Ranger Battalion. Free to visit, the cratered ground largely unchanged since 1944. Arromanches is a 40 minute drive.
Concrete blocks of the Mulberry harbour that supplied the Allied armies still sit on the beach here, free to see from the sand or the clifftop above. The Musée du Débarquement, on the seafront square, tells the story of the artificial port with models and archive film.
Night Fever: A Tribute to the Bee Gees plays Zénith de Caen in Caen on 10 September at 20:00.
Gyazi plays La Luciole in Alençon on 1 October at 20:30, a rock show.
Ben l'Oncle Soul plays Le Kubb - Le Tangram in Évreux on 2 October at 20:00, an R&B show.
Cirque du Soleil: OVO runs at Zénith de Rouen in Le Grand Quevilly, near Rouen, from 8 to 11 October, a touring circus and acrobatics production.
Free to enter daily from 9:00 to 17:00, except 25 December and 1 January, with no booking required. Staff in the visitor centre answer questions and can direct visitors to individual graves.
The wide sand beach at Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer and Colleville-sur-Mer, below the American Cemetery, is open to walk at any time at no cost, its Les Braves sculpture facing the water where the 1944 landings happened.
Free admission to the cratered clifftop above Cricqueville-en-Bessin where Army Rangers scaled the rock face on D-Day; the visitor centre keeps seasonal hours but the site itself is open every day.
No ticket needed at any time of year for this Norman Gothic cathedral, its stonework carved with scenes explained on panels around the outside; step inside during the day whenever no service is under way.
This cemetery on the edge of Bayeux has no entrance fee and no set visiting hours, its rows tended year-round by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the charity responsible for Commonwealth war graves worldwide.
Free, no-reservation access to the naves, transepts and side chapels of Rouen's Gothic cathedral, outside the hours set aside for Mass and other services.
The clifftop paths to the Falaise d'Amont and the Falaise d'Aval, with its arch and needle, cost nothing to walk and stay open during daylight hours.
The concrete blocks of the wartime artificial harbour are free to see from the beach and the clifftop path above town, while the 360 cinema and the Musée du Débarquement nearby each charge their own admission.
The old harbour and its slate-fronted quaysides cost nothing to walk, ringed by restaurant terraces and the Lieutenance gatehouse at the water's edge.
Normandy stretches along France's Channel coast from the Seine estuary to the edge of Brittany, and its history is defined by two invasions launched in opposite directions nine centuries apart. Between the two lie half-timbered market towns, chalk cliffs and the orchards of the Calvados countryside.
William, Duke of Normandy, conquered England in 1066, a campaign recorded in the Bayeux Tapestry. In 1944, the direction reversed: Allied forces landed on the beaches west of Bayeux to liberate Europe, and the cemeteries, bunkers and museums along that coast now form the region's best-known attraction.
Beyond the D-Day coast, the Alabaster Coast's chalk cliffs run 140 kilometres between the Seine and Somme estuaries, at their most dramatic around Étretat. Honfleur's old harbour, the Gothic old town of Rouen and Monet's gardens at Giverny sit further east, all closer to Rouen than to Bayeux, and Mont-Saint-Michel rises alone on the region's western tip.
Spring and early autumn bring milder weather and fewer coach groups than midsummer. The D-Day coast alone fills a full day from Bayeux; seeing Rouen, Honfleur, Étretat and Giverny as well takes four to five days in total, since those sights sit closer to Rouen than to the coast.
Distances between Normandy's towns run into hours rather than minutes: a car is the practical way to link the coast, Bayeux and Rouen in one trip. Direct trains from Paris reach Rouen in around 1 hour 20 minutes and Caen in about 2 hours, but a rental car is still needed once there for the coast and the smaller villages. The landing beaches on that coast joined the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2026, one more of the places to visit in France that sit well outside Paris.