Tour Dates:
April 2 to 6, 2025
June 4 to 8, 2025
81 years ago the Liberation of Europe by the Americans and their Allies was not simply for the benefit of one continent, but also the free world as a whole. Those men and women who gave up their lives for their country, both on and off the battlefield, accomplished a victory the likes of which had never before been seen by mankind. Such a feat is not to be taken lightly. Where a movie may try to capture the essence of war on the big screen, the intimacy and reality can only hope to be attained through personal accounts and at the scenes of both the tragedy and glory itself. It is these personal accounts that you will hear. This tour, commemorating the Liberation of Europe, gives you the unique chance to follow the achievements of the few, for the purpose of the many.
Tours International, with over forty years' experience organising and running tours for American veterans and their relatives, have put together an itinerary to ensure that you get the very best tour and service.
Depart Paris Charles de Gaulle airport at 10:00 hrs. Visit the British 6th Airborne zone of operations, including Pegasus Bridge and the Pegasus Memorial Museum. Continue to the British Airborne Cemetery in Ranville. Drive to Normandy hotel. Dinner and overnight.
Breakfast. Today we drive into the sector of the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division. We visit Saint Mere Eglise and the famed 13th century church with its Airborne stained glass windows. Visit the Airborne museum followed by lunch on your own. This afternoon continue to the La Fiere bridgehead and its "Iron Mike" U.S. Airborne statue. We then see Utah Beach, where American soldiers wrote their names and addresses inside a captured German bunker. Drive through the 101st Airborne drops zones C and D then onto the Division command post. Pass the Brécourt Manor captured by Company E of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment. Return to hotel. Evening at leisure. Overnight.
Breakfast. This morning we visit the German military cemetery at La Cambe, then drive to the Pointe du Hoc - this coastal gun battery was captured by the men of the U.S. 2nd Ranger Battalion. Travel down the Vierville Draw to the 29th Infantry Division sector of Omaha Beach. After a walk on the beach we drive east on the coast road then up the "Les Moulins" Draw to the U.S. Box lunch. Military Cemetery at St. Laurent sur Mer, where we pay our personal respects to those who gave their lives for our freedom. See the only German coastal gun battery still sporting three of its four guns. Visit the medieval city of Bayeux with option to view the Bayeux Tapestry. Return to hotel. Evening at leisure. Overnight.
Breakfast. Drive to St Lô and the saturation bombing area. The capture of St Lô and the successful break-out from Normandy of the US First Army between July 20th and August 8th, 1944; Operation Cobra breakthrough to Coutances and the Amored Blitz to Avranches. Box lunch. Guided tour of Le Mont St-Michel. We look at the fighting in the Bocage countryside and Hill 112. Return to hotel for dinner and overnight.
After breakfast we visit Arromanches and see the remnants of one of the two artificial harbors erected by the Allies after D-Day. Drive along the British Beaches GOLD, JUNO and SWORD. Box lunch. Return to Paris late afternoon.
