Commemorating D-Day by Cruise

All eyes are on the coast of Normandy as the 80^th anniversary of D-Day is marked by the UK, US, Canada, and France. You can make a personal pilgrimage by cruise. Here's how.

The surprise landing of over 150,000 Allied soldiers on the shores of France on June 6, 1944 was described by Winston Churchill as “the most complicated and difficult” military operation in world history. Despite the incredible complexity, odds, weather, miscalculations, intense Nazi fortifications and thousands dead, D-Day was ultimately the beginning of the end of the war in Europe with Allied boots on the ground on the continent for the first time in five long years of war.

The sheer scope and audacity of the Landings, as well as the extraordinary feats of human spirit, international cooperation, engineering, and sheer heroism that made D-Day a turning point in human history, make a visit to the Landing Beaches an essential trip for us all to this day.

Walking on the hallowed beaches in the footsteps of Allied soldiers, exploring bunkers, shell-pocked landscapes, and the genius portable harbour installations dreamed up to make the invasion of Europe possible is extraordinarily illuminating and moving for every single person who makes the trip.

From a cruise lover’s perspective, you have a number of cruising options to make your own trip to this sacred ground for American, Canadian, and British citizens today who enjoy the freedom won on these shores.

Seine river cruises are the best cruise option to experience the D-Day Landing Beaches in Normandy.

The Seine flows north from the Paris area, emptying into the English Channel at the port town of Le Havre. River cruises begin and end in Paris.That round trip from Paris is doubly convenient: you can fly into and out of the same city, plus you can, of course, bookend your river cruise with a pre- or post-cruise extension in Paris or its surrounding regions.

At the northern end of the cruise itinerary at the coast, all the major river cruise lines offer shore excursions to the Normandy Landing Beaches.Here’s a selection of river cruise lines and Seine river itineraries that offer Landing Beaches shore excursions:

·Scenic: 11-day Normandy and Gems of the Seine

·Viking: 11-day Paris & the Heart of Normandy

·AmaWaterways: 7-night Paris & Normandy

·Avalon Waterways: 8-day Paris to Normandy

·Uniworld Boutique River Cruises: 8-Day, Paris & Normandy

·Tauck: in addition to other Seine itineraries, Tauck offers a family-focused Seine river cruise; perfect for a memory-filled multi-generational trip to the historic beaches.

Check the details of the shore excursion to the Landing Beaches to make sure you will see the places of most meaning to you. There are 5 Landing Beaches: 2 American, 2 British, and 1 Canadian, as well as monuments and cemetaries and landmarks meaningful to WW2 and families of Allied veterans. No single excursion can encompass every sight. Canadian guests in particular, will want to make sure the shore excursion will take them to Juno Beach, the Canadian Landing Beach, in addition to the American Landing Beaches further west along the coast.

In between Paris and the Landing Beaches on the coast, the Seine itinerary immerses you in the world of Impressionist art, with shore excursions to Monet’s famous gardens at Giverny, as well as the moving monument to Joan of Arc in Rouen.

Normandy is the largest French region which does NOT produce wine. Instead, you can taste the fruits of its famous apple orchards in the form of Calvados, or apple brandy. You’ll want to sip at your Calvados accompanied by Norman cuisine. Leave goat cheese and olive oil for your trips to the South of France; the northern-most region of the country is famously the heart of classic French butter- and cream-based dishes using fresh products of its renowned dairy cattle herds.

River cruises aren’t the only way by water to see Normandy.The D-Day landings, of course, happened from the sea, and visitors in these peaceful times can also arrive in Normandy on ocean cruises.

The usual ocean port of call for Normandy is Le Havre, France. And while some cruise lines offer shore excursions from Le Havre all the way to Paris, that is a) a long way to go, and much too little time in Paris to do the City of Light justice, and b) you miss Normandy and the D-Day beaches.

I recommend taking the ship’s D-Day beaches shore excursion instead, while you are right there in Normandy, so you don’t regret missing walking in the very footsteps of one of the most impactful and heroic moments of our collective history.