Sainte Mère Eglise American War Cemetery - Private Tour - Day trip from Paris

Sainte Mère Eglise American War Cemetery - Private Tour - Day trip from Paris

Visit to Normandy D-Day battle sites from Paris (Including Sainte Mère Eglise and the Airborne Museum, Omaha beach and the Normandy American Cemetery)

Travel with your own group of passengers aboard a Private Air conditioned Minivan

Step back in time on a history tour, and learn about the events of June 6, 1944

See the famous church in Sainte Mère l’Eglise

Live the history of the Normandy invasion at the Airborne Museum in Sainte Mère Eglise ( You will see an unique sample in France of a WACO Glider. Also in an airfield tarmac at the foot of a C-47 aircraft which was deployed in the D-Day parachute drop operations, review the troops with The General Eisenhower just before Invasion and the Battle of Normandyin an airfield).

See few impressives bunkers at WN62, a deadly German fortification on D-Day !

Walk along the « bloody beach » (Omaha) and pay your respect to the fallen U.S soldiers by visiting the Normandy American Cemetery which overlooks Omaha Beach.

Itinerary
This is a typical itinerary for this product

Stop At: La Fiere Bridge and Iron Mike Monument, 13 Moulin a la Fiere, 50480 Sainte-Mere-Eglise France

The Iron Mike memorial is a statue of an American paratrooper. It is named after St Michael, a saint of the Airborne. The memorial is a replica of the one at the U.S. Army Infantry School in Fort Benning USA. The Iron Mike memorial was unveiled on June 7, 1997 by Major-General Kellogg, commander of the 82nd Airborne who made a jump with his men that day out of a plane.

Jumping on the night of D-Day, the 82nd Airborne had to capture the town of Sainte-Mère-Église. Holding the town, however, would have meant little without also holding the roads to and from it. One such route had a bottleneck: the La Fière Bridge a small stone bridge at La Fière manor, 700 yards to the west of the outskirts. The manor itself was a small group of buildings a grenade-throw away from the bridge. On the far side of the bridge, the road led west, the small hamlet of Cauquigny standing by it two-thirds of a mile away.

Securing La Fière Bridge fell to the 505th PIR. The 1st Battalion was one of the few units that night to jump on time and land in its designated drop zone to the east of the bridge, between it and the town. They quickly learned that things were not as expected: the Germans have flooded large areas of Normandy and the tiny Merderet River running north-south under the bridge was now a marsh 1,000 yards across at its narrowest. The elevated road between the bridge and Cauguigny became a causeway surrounded by water, providing no cover.

Duration: 30 minutes

Stop At: Sainte-Mere-Eglise Church, Rue Eisenhower, Sainte-Mere-Eglise France

Sainte Mere Eglise became known to the world after the film The Longest Day because of the paratrooper John Steele of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment.

Steele indeed landed on the church's steeple and pretended to be dead in order to avoid being shot by the Germans.

He stayed put, hanging in the air, for two long hours and watched helplessly as the Germans shot his comrades around him.

Nowadays the Church is still standing in the middle of the town square.

The municipality of Sainte Mère l’Eglise has hung a dummy US paratrooper and his parachute on the steeple of the church and so has found the finest tribute that could be given to John Steele and all his comrades who lost their lives under German bullets.

In addition, two stained glass windows were created for the church, in order to commemorate the liberation of the town by 82nd Airborne Division on June 6,1944.One of them depicts the Virgin with two paratroopers and the second one is Private John M. Steele (1912–1969)

Duration: 1 hour

Stop At: Airborne Museum, 14 rue Eisenhower, 50480 Sainte-Mere-Eglise France

Live the history of the Normandy invasion at the Airborne Museum

At the heart of Sainte-Mère-Eglise, facing the church where John Steele famously was caught, hanging from the bell tower by his parachute. The Airborne Museum makes you live and understand the D-Day from the invasion preparations in England, through to the battles for liberation.

Few miles from Normandy landing beaches, the Airborne Museum has become the largest museum in Europe dedicated to the american paratroopers of the 82nd and 101st Airborne engaged in the context of the Normandy invasion in 1944, during the Second World Word.

Board on mythic planes and discover historic items which bring you in June 1944. The Museum will bring you into the history of Sainte-Mère-Eglise thanks three buildings and very soon four buildings :

The Waco Building

The first area of the Museum is devoted to Gliders and their use during the Invasion in Normandy.

The Airborne Museum presents the unique sample in France of a WACO glider. You will join a dozen soldiers in the glider few moments before the take off.

Discover these planes without motor which were essentials to carry on men and materials. More than 500 gliders were deployed on Norman soil on D-Day and the following days. They carry on vehicles, ammunitions and other equipments about 4 400 soldiers boarded on gliders during Normandy invasion.

The C-47 Building

Attend the preparation of the largest military operation ever carried out!

In England, on the 5th of June 1944, in an airfield tarmac at the foot of a C-47 aircraft which was deployed in the D-Day parachute drop operations, review the troops with The General Eisenhower just before Invasion and the Battle of Normandy.

Operation Neptune

The brand new building « Operation Neptune » will make you experience a night jump as if you were there !

SENSATIONS AND FEELINGS GUARANTEED !

Through a hyperrealist museography, join the nighttime embarkation of a C-47 aircraft in England, then drop into the square of Sainte-Mère-Eglise in the midst of the fighting and take part in the operations that followed.

Finally you will discover an American reconnaissance plane: a Piper Cub.

Get into the minds of the troopers and feel the intensity of the combat.

Duration: 1 hour

Stop At: Omaha Beach, Avenue de la Liberation, Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer France

At Easy Green sector, two monuments were erected after the war and still stands facing the beach :

Monument « Signal of the Liberation » (photo stop on the spot)

This Monument commemorates the landing of the Allied Forces on June 6, 1944 on Omaha Beach, and the liberation of Europe. Two frescoes can be seen on either side of the monument, one dedicated to the 1st US Infantry Division, the other at the 116th Regimental Combat Team of the 29th US Infantry Division.

Monument « The Braves » (photo stop on the spot)

A monumental work by sculptor Anilore Banon which pay tribute to the courage of Allied Forces soldiers.

There you will have a bit of time to walk along the beach and maybe grab a bit of sand to fill in a tiny glassed container as a souvenir to bring back home.

Duration: 30 minutes

Stop At: Memorial 1st US Infantry Division Omaha Beach, Moulins, Colleville-sur-Mer France

The monument of the 1st US Infantry Division (Red Sector / Easy) in the form of a commemoration-obelisk.

The obelisk stands in the middle of the area of Wiederstandsnest (WN62). WN62 was one of the strongest defending positions in that area.

WN62 or Widerstandsnest 62 (Resistance Nest 62) overlooks Easy Red and Fox Green Sectors of OMAHA Beach at Colleville sur Mer. WN62 was the most powerful resistance nest on the OMAHA beach coastline.

Duration: 30 minutes

Stop At: Cimetiere Americain de Colleville-sur-Mer, 14710 Colleville-sur-Mer France

The guide is now taking you to visit the beatiful maintained American Cemetery in Colleville sur Mer which overlooks Omaha Beach nearby. The 180 acre site contains 9,387 perfectly aligned white crosses and a memorial chapel which adds the finishing touches to this moving scene, allowing visitors to reflect on the price of war.

While walking along row upon row of white grave headstones, your historian guide will share with you stories of soldiers who fought in the vicinities and then were awarded for gallantry the highest miltary decorations.

On the Walls of the Missing, in a semicircular garden on the east side of the memorial, are inscribed 1,557 names. Rosettes mark the names of those since recovered and identified.

The memorial consists of a semicircular colonnade with a loggia at each end containing large maps and narratives of the military operations; at the center is the bronze statue, “Spirit of American Youth Rising from the Waves.” An orientation table overlooking the beach depicts the landings in Normandy. Facing west at the memorial, one sees in the foreground the reflecting pool; beyond is the burial area with a circular chapel and, at the far end, granite statues representing the United States and France.

Duration: 1 hour