Normandy, France (June 2024)
When I learnt the Dorset Modrapheniacs Scooter Club were planning to visit Normandy for a few days, detouring on the way to the Euro Lambretta at Magny-Cours, France, in June 2024, I was enthusiastic about Steve and I having the opportunity to join them.
I had not visited Normandy for about 20 years, until six months ago in January 2024, when Steve and I decided to take our teenage children. That was their first trip to France, and they had a keen interest in Normandy’s history and related war stories. However, in January, most museums were closed for winter and we only had two days there (you can read more about that trip – Normandy Part 1 here). We quickly learnt there was way too much to see in a couple of days and there was good reason for the lack of crowds in January. Despite being wet and cold back then, we thoroughly appreciated that experience, although I was slightly ashamed that I didn’t know more about this part of history.
Straight up I must share that I had never been interested in modern history in my youth, nor do I have any close family connections with the military; aside from my English grandfather being involved in WWII, serving in Southern Italy. You see I didn’t know my grandfather well, as he lived in England and me in Australia, plus he died when I was very young, so I never personally heard any WWII stories. From what I can gather, he never spoke much about his military experience with my father or grandmother either, as very few stories have been passed down to me.
Eager about getting a chance to visit Normandy again, I hoped perhaps we might get to some of the sites we’d missed six months earlier. Also, the timing of this visit was the week of the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings on 6th June 1944; impeccable as we were able to experience the mood and commemorations of this momentous occasion.
Day 1 – Arriving in Normandy, Cherbourg To Utah beach
After an early 7am start on Sunday 9th June, we left Poole in Dorset to board a ferry to Cherbourg. There were seven of us travelling together: five of our group (Martin, Jack, Dean, Pete and Steve) riding Lambrettas, plus we had Dean’s van which Shirley would be driving, following the guys with all our luggage, and a back-up able to take on board any major breakdowns should that occur. I was pillion on Steve’s Serveta to board the ferry but planned to jump in the van on the other side, so Steve would be able to ride a bit quicker without my extra weight. The ferry crossing was the smoothest I’ve ever experienced, like a mill pond. I was glad I wouldn’t need my sea sickness tablets, as they tend to make me a bit drowsy. We passed the time by chatting, eating and dozing in recliner chairs by the windows at the front, lower deck, and listening to all the car alarms going off along the way.
Once we arrived at Cherbourg, the scooters all disembarked first, before any cars, we passed through passport control, then parked up, waiting for Shirley to come off with the van. I then jumped in the van, to co-pilot with Shirley for the next few days. In advance of our trip Pete had planned a flexible route and pre-booked our accommodation. Jack was the front rider in the group guiding the way with his Tom Tom on board. He had his helmet connected to Martin who was riding at the rear of the group so they could communicate if there were any issues, the other three rode in between them. Jack immediately had a few glitches with his Tom Tom with the setting of our first destination. Eventually, he worked it out and led the group off down the road, with Shirley and I in the back-up van following behind. I was also using Google maps on my iPhone in the van, to double check we were heading in the right direction. I momentarily panicked when Jack led us on a different route to my map version, but then relaxed as I realised there were a few options of routes so we would end up in the same place.
After riding on country roads, passing through villages with bunting and flags, and seeing the occasional, old military vehicle and hercules plane flying low overhead, we soon saw the sea as we approached Utah Beach. We found the museum ‘Musee Du Debarquement‘, situated where American troops landed on 6th June 1944, parked up and spent a couple of hours browsing the nearby monuments and extensive museum, complete with a B26 Bomber. There were a lot of people there, including a few young men in US military uniforms, commemorating and learning about the American involvement in the D-Day activities at Utah Beach, the first beach to be stormed by the Allies 80 years ago.
We then moved on to our digs for the night which Pete had arranged, apologising for it being a bit more expensive than ones they usually booked. Of course we didn’t mind – Haras du Ry was very impressive, a series of luxurious holiday gites set in immaculate equestrian grounds, surrounded by gorgeous countryside, located a short distance from Carentan-les Marais. The 2 and 3 bedroom gites we were staying in were spacious with multiple seating areas, tastefully decorated with a rustic feel, complete with chandeliers, leather lounges and dining suites, and we had comfortable bedrooms with private ensuites. There was everything one could ask for, including breakfast items and coffee machines. There was even french bread and selection of french cheeses which we put to good use once we got back from our 3 course dinner up the road at a nearby restaurant, we’d all piled into the van to find. Thankfully we had bought some wine that day for our late night supper.
Day 2 – Maisy Battery, Pointe Du Hoc, Omaha Beach
The next morning when we arose, it was lightly drizzling but that didn’t stop us going ahead with our plans. After some breakfast, we set off for Maisy Battery, only a short distance away, stopping briefly on the way for some fuel. It was still sprinkling when we arrived around 11am but the weather cleared up as soon as we started to walk around the site, exploring and reading about what happened here. This site consisted of old German trenches and artillery batteries which had been constructed in secret, not far from Grandcamp-Maisy. The story was that the Americans were supposed to target this important location during the D-Day campaign, mission objective Number 6 as part of Operation Neptune. However, historians have suggested that Colonel Rudder disobeyed orders calling on him to continue to Maisy after taking Pointe du Hoc, leading to a few days delay, which allowed the guns at Maisy to continue to shell troops in both Omaha and Utah Beach for three days after the landings. I later read that British military historian Gary Sterne rediscovered Maisy Battery in January 2004, based on a hand-drawn map in the pocket of a US Army veteran’s uniform he had bought. We found out some areas had only very recently been excavated and considering how huge the site was, we were surprised to learn that the part open to explore, was only 1/3 of the entire German occupied site.
With blue sky now appearing, we decided to ride on up the road to Grandcamp-Maisy to stop for lunch. The guys were still a bit wet from their earlier ride in the rain, so as the sun had come out, they laid out their gear (gloves, jackets, etc) over the scooters to dry, as we sat in the undercover outdoor area in front of the little bar/restaurant. We ordered baguettes and tea but when the tea arrived it turned out they only had green tea, not black. Surprisingly (because I know how much English like their tea) nobody complained, and we all sat there a while in the sun, eating, chatting and people-watching as others pulled up to eat their lunch and drink wine in this quiet, little village. After we’d eaten and taken a quick look around some of the nearby buildings, we then set back on the road, admiring more low flying Hercules planes flying up and down the beaches as we travelled along the country roads.
Next stop was Pointe du Hoc, which Jack’s satnav found relatively easily, and with plenty of free parking we found an area where we could safely all park together. Steve wasn’t feeling up to the forewarned 45 minute walk due to a foot injury, so we all set off without him, leaving him behind at the little visitor centre museum. Turned out the 45 minute walk only took that long because there was so much to read along the way, it actually wasn’t that long in distance. The importance of this site was fascinating. An elevated piece of land between Utah and Omaha Beaches, jutting out into the sea, US Rangers had scaled the high, vertical cliffs in diabolical weather and conditions, in a mission deemed impossible, being shot at by German soldiers from above and shelled by the artillery batteries nearby. The stories of courage and bravery were incredibly sobering. There were bunkers and old batteries still there and we could still see massive disfigurement in the grassy grounds around this area where shells had landed, the size of the mounds and deep craters hard to describe. When we got back to the visitor centre, Steve was gone. I spent a good while looking around, although temporarily distracted by some old cars and motorbikes parked up nearby. At first I thought he’d turn up soon but then as time went by I started getting worried, even asking security if someone had come in for a medical condition – it was hot and sunny with no shade nearby and I was getting stressed, imagining the worst scenarios. Then I decided to walk around the circuit again to look for him, only to find he had followed us halfway and was waiting for us in the wrong place. Sheepishly he re-joined me and we headed back to our patiently waiting group and set back out on our way.
Our last stop for the day was at Musee Memorial at Omaha Beach – another museum dedicated to the American involvement in D-Day. Again we walked around the museum for a long time reading stories, looking at all the historic artifacts, watching a short movie and soaking it all in.
We then continued along the coast via Arromanches and other villages, heading towards Gold Beach where we were staying overnight.
We checked into our accommodation at Gold Beach which was pretty sad compared to the previous night, but to be fair, we all agreed the bar had been set pretty high. We moved to some tables and chairs on a grassy area outside for a couple of drinks in the late afternoon sun, while we contemplated dinner plans. Unfortunately, to add to our disappointment, being Monday night, we soon discovered nothing was open nearby. We had no choice but to all pile into the van and drive back to Arromanches, which, being a slightly bigger town, had more dining options. There we found a nice restaurant and a few of us could have the Moules Mariniere we had been craving. After a nice meal, accompanied with wine and laughter (some of my laughter being at Steve’s reaction to the dogs being hand-fed from the nearby table), we walked across the road to admire the sunset over Mulberry Harbour, a lovely way to end the evening.
Day 3 – British Memorial, Juno Beach, Pegasus Bridge
Starting out at a respectable time after some of us had breakfast, we travelled a few miles up the road to our first stop, the British Normandy Memorial at Ver-sur-Mer, on a hill overlooking Gold Beach in the distance. Only recently officially opened, in June 2021, this Memorial records the names of the 22,442 servicemen and women under British command who fell on D-Day and during the Battle of Normandy in the summer of 1944. Including people from more than 30 different countries, it also incorporates a French Memorial, dedicated to the memory of French civilians who died during this time. It was the only place I had been to before, on our last trip in January. It was very different this time, mainly due to the warm and sunny June weather. There was also a special exhibition erected now for the 80th anniversary: Standing with Giants. A charity in Oxfordshire, England had created a large scale outdoor remembrance art installation. Handmade by volunteers and taking 4 years to make, were 1,475 giants, displayed to reflect the number of servicemen who died serving under British command on D-Day itself, on 6th June 1944.
Next stop was Juno Beach where it was all about the Canadians. We parked up and had a look around some of the leftover WWII bunkers and artillery around the Juno Beach Centre. Then we stepped onto the beach momentarily to try to imagine what it might have been like 80 years earlier. Some of us then went inside the Juno Beach Centre, another museum, this one dedicated to the Canadian troops. Another hour or so went by and as it was approaching 2pm, some of us were getting peckish so we got some food from a nearby van in the car park. It was surprisingly tasty.
Running short on time, we skipped Sword Beach and went straight to Pegasus Bridge Memorial, our final museum visit. We rode over the new Pegasus bridge, to find the museum on the other side, where we would learn all about the British whose mission was to land 6 gliders nearby, just after midnight on 6th June 1944. We read about the importance of their objective to take the Caen canal and bridge, then named Benouville Bridge, and later renamed Pegasus Bridge in honour of the successful operation. In the grounds at the museum, we saw a replica Horsa glider, a tank and other historical items including the original Pegasus bridge. The guys had a serious discussion trying to figure out how the engineering of the bascule (rolling) bridge worked. Once everyone had enough, we left the museum to walk the short distance down the road to visit the famous nearby Pegasus Bridge Cafe, thought to be the first French house to be liberated on D-Day following the successful mission. This involved walking over the new Pegasus Bridge, where we were fortunate to witness its opening and solve the debate which had taken place earlier. We were lucky to find a vacant table in the tiny cafe. After ordering coffee, which turned out to be very strong, we looked at all the memorabilia around and noted no photographs were allowed to be taken inside. On the window outside, one of our group (no names) managed to plant a modrapheniacs sticker amongst all the others, before leaving and bumping into some other scooterists on their way to the Euro, who were enjoying beers in the sun outside.
By now we were all museumed out and it was late afternoon so we jumped back on the scooters and into the van to ride the last 30 minutes to Caen Mondeville where we had our overnight stop scheduled. Shirley and I got separated from the scooters at one point as we navigated a hairy, Spaghetti Junction on the freeway but eventually we all re-connected as we arrived at our final destination for the night, at the Ibis.
After a quick freshen up, we walked across the road to find somewhere to eat, landing at a place called “Flunch”. This was an interesting place, walking straight into a buffet style area with desserts and starters displayed, along with drinks. We then ordered our main meals off a limited menu, found a table and waited for our portable buzzers to go off. I chose a cheeseburger, not keen on the cheval (horsemeat) steak that Steve chose. My burger wasn’t too bad, but wasn’t the best I’d eaten either. There were mixed reactions to the wine. I had to agree with Jack that it was considerably bad, and should have guessed as much, being on tap, no less. The restaurant was closing up by 9pm so we all headed back to the reception area of our hotel for some more wine, which I’d had the good foresight to quickly pick up from the supermarche earlier while the guys were filling up their tanks. Needless to say, our evening of overindulgence lead to some interesting stomach reactions during the night and the next morning.
Beyond Normandy
After we left Caen the next morning, we travelled on another 265 km / 164 miles to Tours, where we were meeting up with three more people (Toby, Dutch and Kelly) on the way to the Euro Lambretta. The ride to Tours was mostly uneventful, with only a couple of intense moments avoiding or overtaking lorries, annoying toll gates and a few fuel stops, including one where Steve, with the smallest tank, had to re-fuel from a Jerry can on the side of the road.
Checking into the Ibis Budget in Tours around 4pm, we discovered the adjoining Ibis Styles had a nice bar area so we took advantage of that and enjoyed late afternoon drinks. At dinnertime, most of us ate at the nearby Buffalo Grill, where I enjoyed a nice steak with fries and glass of wine. Despite lots of drinking, it wasn’t to be a late night, as we had more miles to cover the next day, to get to the EuroLambretta in central France at Magny-Cours.
The next day we had breakfast and left around 9.30am for our final 234 km / 145 miles. We encountered more annoying toll gates, and a couple of minor issues arose, like getting low on fuel resulting in a brief stop in a small village which only had low octane, high ethanol fuel for sale; plus a mishap again towards the end of the route with Jack’s SatNav not picking up a road closure for roadworks and taking us on some wrong turns. Shirley and I took the lead for the last 20 miles to Magny-Cours, along some narrow, bouncy roads with some gorgeous scenery, and then we finally made it, mid- afternoon, just in time for beer o’clock.
Our Normandy tour had been educational and enriching, shared with a brilliant group of travelling companions. Our view is that Normandy and its history needs to be seen by everybody, to remind people of the horrors and tragic loss which occurred and hopefully prevent this from ever happening again.
But now we were ready to park up and immerse ourselves in all things Lambretta for the next few days.
To read more about the EuroLambretta event click here.