The Museum of the 39-45 Memories in Pointe Saint-Mathieu, Brittany is housed in a big WWII bunker. The museum is well designed and easy to see items. It’s well explained and whole families will love it.

A lighthouse, a church, ruins of an abbey, a French Navy Observation post and a WWII Memorial museum at Pointe Saint-Mathieu in Brittany. Quite a place to visit.

The Port-Louis Citadel/Fortress in Brittany is in a very good state, and is now a museum. Built by the Spaniards and improved by the French (and Germans during WWII), it’s quite a spectacle.

The city of Vannes in Brittany is old, and very well preserved. The fortified walls extend all along the old city centre and merits a visit.

The initial construction of the Brest Fortress/Castle started in the 3rd century.It is still one of the biggest fortresses in France, it’s still used by the French Navy and it’s the National Navy Museum… it’s definitely worth a visit.

Here is how to get to, where to go, what to see, where to eat and sleep in Les Sables-d’Olonne in the Pays de Loire on the West coast of France.

The castle in Nantes is the former quarters of the Duke of Brittany. The castle, more a fortress, is enormous and can be visited. The Duke’s “hunting” lodge in Sarzeau, Brittany is nicer to visit (it’s called the Suscino Castle – click here to read our review ) but this one if not so shabby […]

Nantes is France’s 6th largest city with some 300,000 inhabitants and 950,000 in the metropolitan area, and it was once the capital of Brittany (that was in the 15th century). Although over the centuries it was part of the Brittany region, nowadays it is no longer considered as such, much to the displeasure of its […]

Camaret-sur-Mer in Brittany is a small town, some 2700 inhabitants, with a very scenic harbour, enormous dramatic cliffs and a very big monument. The village/town is old, very old. Traces of habitation can be found as far back as 2500 years BC! In those days, the place was for druides and their magical stone, the […]

Transport Getting there Air: Lorient has an airport, but it does not offer international flights. The majority of domestic flights go to Paris or Lyon. From there you can transfer internationally. Click here to access the airport’s website (in English) Ferry: No international ferry operations can be found in Lorient. In fact, only a ferry […]

The Submarine museum (in French “Musee Sous-Marin“) is NOT a museum of submarines (for that you can visit the Flore submarine next door, click here to read more about it), but for a look at the life of the divers underwater. The most interesting part of this museum (a private and volunteer endeavour) is the […]

The Flore submarine museum (a diesel submarine) in Lorient is located in the former German WWII submarine base, which includes 3 enormous submarine pens (which could host up to 30 submarines). Next to the 2nd German submarine pen (K2) you can immediately see the Flore submarine. This sub can be visited. You can see the […]

Lorient in Brittany is a rather large city of some 60,000 inhabitants which has as main attraction an enormous harbour area that hosted during WWII, the German submarines. The city dates back to the year 1666 and was constructed by a French trading company (the French East Indies Company) to be the base for their […]

If there was one essential and strategic point during the invasion of Normandy, also known as D-Day, by the Allied troops, it would have been the capture of the two bridges in Benouville and the neighbouring Ranville. The two bridges were essential for the liberation of France and the rest of Europe. The operation was called […]

The Utah Beach was one of the D-Day landing beaches, this one mostly staffed with US Army soldiers. It was on the Western edge of the D-Day beaches, and the beach consisted of deep sand and dunes.   3200 soldiers died on the beach that day. To commemorate this occasion, a museum was erected to display and […]

The names Omaha, Utah, Sword, Gold and Juno are names that many WWII buffs will know very well since those are the names of the landing beaches during the D-Day, the Allied invasion of German occupied Europe. 4 years of World War II lead to this massive invasion, by sea and air, of occupied France. […]

Normally speaking the village of Sainte-Mere-Eglise should mean nothing to most people. Unless you are a WWII buff or a movie buff. The movie in question is “The Longest Day” starring none other than John Wayne trying to get to Sainte-Mere-Eglise during D-Day. The village itself nowadays consists of some 2,500 inhabitants (that is, after […]

One of the few things that are worth a visit in Cherbourg, or even doing a detour to visit, is the Cite de le Mer museum. The museum is quite recent, it opened its doors in the year 2002. But the building is not new. It is the former transatlantic terminal building from the glory […]

Cherbourg, or as it is known officially Cherbourg-Octeville (after having merged with its neighbouring town), can be described as “quaint”. That’s the word I would use if I were to be positive. The real words that come to my mind are “drab”, “rundown” and “uninspiring”. NOTE: Click on the top photo for a bigger panorama […]

Dieppe is a city that was exposed early on to the WWII invasion when the Canadians attempted an invasion called the “Dieppe Raid“, also known as “Operation Jubilee“. It was a sort of “test case” to see if it could be done, and unfortunately, it cost a lot of lives; 1400 died and1946 were captured. […]

Although the Lower part of Normandy saw the biggest brunt of the WWII battles, with D-Day and the immediate battles that followed, the Upper part of Normandy saw its fair share of fighting. And during WWI, it was one of the battlefronts. Therefore throughout Normandy, at almost any hamlet, village, town and city, you will […]

Transport Getting There Pont l’Eveque lies just alongside the main North-South motorway on the West coast of France. So by car it’s very easy to get there from one of the ferry crossings. By Air There is no airport, the closest ones are Deauville or Caen airport. Within Pont l’Eveque The village is really small, more or less […]

Pont l’Eveque had been badly destroyed towards the end of World War II, and that went doubly so for the Saint-Michel church. But the town rebuilt their beautiful city, and the 15th century church was restored to its former glory.   Pont l’Eveque during WWII saw an epic 3-day battle just after D-Day. 3 days […]

Pont L’Eveque in the Calvados region of Normandy is mostly know for two things; its epic 2-3 day battle just after D-Day in WWII and its cheese. But both things are no longer there; the WWII battle is over and done and the Pont L’Eveque cheese is no longer made here. But nevertheless, the village […]