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Normandy Coast
& D-Day Beaches
Across the English
Channel by ferry from Brighton and
Dover is an area full of history and culture. It also
offers plentiful opportunities for rest and recreation on some of
Europe’s best beaches.
Viking raids along
the coast and up the rivers of northern France began in the fourth
decade of the ninth
century. Seven decades later, in the year 911, a viking
armada attacked and remained in the region that came to be named for
them: Normandy. Of course, however interesting the viking era and
Norman
Conquest might be, for many the region is somewhat better known
for its later history: the D-Day invasion of Allied forces in
1944.
Aside from an
interest in both ancient and recent historical events, however, our
main focus here is in the sheer beauty of this coastal region and
the fact that it’s a prime destination for travel and
recreation. There’s much to see and do on the Normandy coast which
is not included in these pages, but here are some highlights:
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Those crossing via ferry or the Channel Tunnel
from Dover, or driving south from Belgium, will arrive first at Calais and Dunkirk
in the Departement of Nord-Pas-de-Calais.
With a local dialect of Dutch spoken in addition to French, the area is
one of the most culturally diverse in
France.
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Le
Tréport is a very old city that has nonetheless
remained small in population and area, thanks to which fact it retains
much of its classic character. This is where Haute-Normandie
(the modern Departement of Somme) and the Côte
d'Albâtre, or Alabaster Coast, begin.
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Long a favorite
Watertravel destination of the British,
Dieppe
is home to sea-front hotels, harbor-side restaurants and ancient
stone architecture. On a cliff overlooking town is a 15th-century
castle, today housing a museum with a vast collection of carved ivory
and other art.
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One of Ètretat’s
Dover-like white cliffs is weathered
and eroded by wind and ocean waves into the likeness of an elephant
which appears to be drinking from the sea. You can check into a
14th-century
Hôtel La Résidence and stroll on a beach beside the famous cliffs.
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Sword Beach was the name given to the broad (when the tide is out)
sandy
beach that stretches from Ouistreham on the eastern
end to Luc-sur-Mer
on the west. What the small commune lacks
in terms of interesting architecture it makes up for in being a great
spot for a beach vacation.
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Juno Beach
at Courseulles-sur-Mer
is another
town of mostly modern
architecture situated beside an excellent sandy beach. Those with an
interest in tanks and WWII momuments will find much to appreciate here.
Apart from that, it’s an excellent choice for a vacation spot.
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Gold Beach, as it was
known on D-Day, is located at the commune
of Arromanches-les-Bains.
The caissons have weathered the decades fairly well and now serve as a
habitat for mussels and other
shellfish, which are harvested during low tides by the locals.
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Mont
Saint-Michel,
located on the border between Normandy and
Brittany at the mouth of Couesnon River, is an island surrounded by
mudflats or water depending on the tide. It definitely lives up to the
hype, something to put on your itinerary if you’re in the area.
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Normandy
Coast
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Dieppe beach at sunset, the ebbing tide revealing a broad expanse of
pebbled beach by alabaster cliffs.