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American Battlefields
AMERICAN BATTLEFIELDS - France & Belgium
Pictures
Itinerary
- DAY 1: TRAVEL TO FRANCE
- Fly through the night to Paris.
- DAY 2: PARIS / NORMANDY & D-DAY BEACHES
- Upon arrival at the airport, you will be greeted by your Prométour Tour Director and board your private motor coach. He/She will remain with your group for the duration of your stay.
- En route to Normandy and the D-Day beaches.
- Stop off at Merville-Franceville Plage visit Le Musée de la Batterie de Merville, installed in bunker Regelbau 611 of the former Heeres Küsten Batterie Merville.
- Continue on to Caen and visit the Memorial Museum of Caen, discover their exhibit on the 2nd World War and the D-Day landings.
- Check into your hotel and take some time to relax.
- Follow your tour director on a stroll through old Caen.
- Dinner with your group in a quaint/local restaurant
- DAY 3: NORMANDY
- After breakfast at your hotel, discover Arromanches-les-Bains selected as one of the sites for two Mulberry Harbors. These were temporary installations used to offload cargo on the beaches during the Allied invasion.
- Continue on to Colleville-sur-Mer to visit the Normandy American Cemetery which sits on a cliff overlooking Omaha Beach and the English Channel. The cemetery contains the graves of 9,387 of our military dead, most of whom lost their lives in the D-Day landings.
- Next, step on the famous D-Day Omaha beach, the largest of the D-Day assault areas, Omaha Beach stretched over 6 miles.
- Continue to the Pointe du Hoc Monument erected by the French to honor American rangers. A simple granite pylon positioned atop a German concrete bunker.
- On your way back to caen, stop off in Bayeux, the first French town liberated by our soldiers.
- Visit the Musée Memorial de la Bataille de Normandie and discover the military and human history of the Battle of Normandy.
- Dinner and night accommodation in Caen.
- DAY 4: CAEN / FALAISE / VERSAILLES / PARIS
- After breakfast, drive to Falaise, the site of battle of the Falaise Pocket.
- Continue on to Versailles, one of the two entry points for the liberation of Paris.
- Visit the Chateau de Versailles; site of the signing of the treaty of Versailles, a major cause of the 2nd World War.
- Check in to your centralized hotel in Paris.
- Dinner on the Champs Ellysees, where the U.S. 28th Infantry Division paraded after the liberation.
- After dinner, climb to the top of the Arch de Triomphe, which shelters the tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
- DAY 5: PARIS
- After breakfast, on a city tour by bus, discover the most famous monuments of Paris: Napoleon's Arc de Triomphe, the Pantheon, the Latin Quarter ... and the Gothic Notre-Dame, a magnificent religious edifice and one of the supreme masterpieces of French art.
- In the afternoon, visit The Louvre Museum, one of the largest, oldest, most important museums in the world. Among the thousands of priceless paintings is Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, probably the most famous painting in the world.
- Next, admire the view from the third floor of the Eiffel Tower on Le-Champs-de-Mars Square.
- Have dinner at the restaurant on the 2nd floor of the Eiffel Tower
- Later, board a glass-topped bateau mouche, where you can enjoy a refreshing guided cruise on the illuminated river.
- DAY 6: DRANCY / BASTOGNE / BRUSSELS
- Have breakfast before you board your bus to Belgium.
- Stop off in the town of Drancy. During WWII, France deported 74,000 Jews to Nazi death camps; Drancy was the main point of expulsion. Fewer than 3,000 survived.
- Visit to the Ardennes American Cemetery and Memorial. This 90-acre cemetery contains the gravesites of those who died during the 1944 Battle of the Bulge, the single biggest and bloodiest battle that American forces experienced in World War II.
- Visit McAuliffe Square and see the Sherman Tank, a symbol of the victory of the U.S. forces. Make your way to Mardasson Monument, built as a token of gratitude for the American soldiers who gave their lives for the liberation of Belgium.
- Finally, stop at the Patton Monument, erected in honor of the general who liberated Bastogne.
- Next, visit to the Bastogne Historical Center, step into a reconstruction of the Battle of the Bulge. You will see the battle unfold from both the German and American perspectives at the two reconstruction scenes.
- Continue on to Brussels for dinner and overnight.
- DAY 7: BRUSSELS
- Breakfast at your hotel.
- Visit the Royal Museum of the Army and Military History, its huge collection is one of the finest in Europe.
- Next, discover the secrets of Belgium's love affair with handmade pralines. Visit the small but tasty Musée du Cacao et du Chocolat (Museum of Cocoa and Chocolate),
- This afternoon, try something different by visiting the Center for Comic-Strip Art, located in a restored Art Nouveau department store from 1903. See Hergé's Tintin and Snowy in a model of the red-and-white checkered rocket in which flew to the moon. And yes, Batman is there too.
- Dinner and overnight in Brussels.
- DAY 8: BRUSSELS / ½ DAY EXCURSION TO FLANDERS FIELD
- After breakfast, visit NATO's headquarters, just outside the city center.
- Continue on to visit the site where John McRae penned his renowned poem “In Flanders Fields”.
- Visit Flanders Field American Cemetery and Memorial situated on a battlefield where the U.S.’ 91st
- DAY 9: RETURN HOME
- After breakfast, board your bus to transfer to the airport for your return flight home.
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