The château of Balleroy, the design of which inspired the design of the palace of Versailles, was built ex nihilo in 1631 at the request of the duke of Choisy by the architect François Mansart (1598-1666).

The architect gave the structure the first spiral staircase ever seen in France. Works by other masters, such as Baudry, Delaroche, Géricault, Gros and Van Loo add to the brilliance of the place named after count Albert of Balleroy, a talented animal painter a student of Schmitz, who exhibited his works at in the hall from 1853 to 1870.

The reception hall has a series of royal portraits of Juste d'Egmont crowned by a ceiling painted in trompe-l'œil style by Charles de la Fosse.

During the course of the renovation of the interior, the dining hall is fitted with Régence panelling from a private hotel in Paris.

The library, built in English style around 1850, houses more than 3600 works.

The park is lies between romantic gardens built in 1856 and French-style panels designed according to the plans of André Le Nôtre and altered by Henri Duchêne in the 19th century.

The property was acquired in 1970 by media magnate Malcolm S. Forbes (1919-1990).

He was a world-renowned balloonist who set six hot-air ballooning world records, and was the first to successfully cross the United States, from east to west, with a single hot-air balloon. He wass also a member of the consultation committee of the Naval College.

He decided to create an international balloon museum on his new property. The wealthy, passionate individual gradually built up the collection, collecting photographs, sketches, dioramas, genuinely unusual objects and unique documents on the history of air ballooning, in particular on the role of air balloons during the sieges that took place during the war of 1870.

Château de Balleroy - Musée des Ballons

F-14490 Balleroy

Tél. : 02.31.21.60.61 - Fax : 02.31.21.51.77

E-mail : reservation@chateau-balleroy.com

Château de Balleroy

The Landing Museum, built in 1954 next to the beach of Arromanches, is located on the same site where the artificial port, traces of which can still be seen, was built, several hundred metres from the shore. "Mulberry B" is the official code name given to the artificial port of Arromanches ("Mulberry A" being the name given to the artificial American port that runs along Vierville-sur-Mer and Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer ). This port had to allow the transport of dfferent types of cargo (live and material) for the troops involved in the battle of Normandy.

- Open 1 February to 30 December : Winter : 9h30 to 12h30 and 13h30 to 17h30. Summer : 9h to 19h. Annual closure : 1 January - 31 January - Four-language reception, trilingual guided visit, visit aids - Boutiques-souvenirs - Duration of visit :1h15 - Prices : Adults : 6.00 Euros / Children, students : 5.00 Euros. Reduction if visiting several museums on the history of the battle of Normandy : 5.50 Euros - Sale to groups only (more than 20 people) of tickets that include admission to the Arromanches Museum and the Pegasus Memorial in Ranville. Adults : 6.50 Euros. School students : 5.00 Euros - Label Normandy Quality Tourism

Covering an area of hectares, The American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer is one of fourteen American Second World War cemeteries on foreign soil, and is managed by the ABMC, American Battle Monuments Commission.

9,386 graves are arranged in rows on this huge rectangular area, each marked by a stele in white Italian marble, in the form of either a cross or a star of David. On the right hand side of the entrance there is a capsule that will be opened on 6th June 2044, a century after D-day: it contains press articles from the time, and a message from Eisenhower to future generations.

The cemetery memorial consists of a colonnade with a seven-metre bronze statue symbolising American youth at its centre. Opposite the rows of graves, on the plinth of the work created by Donald De Lue, the following inscription can be read: "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.

Both ends of the semi-circular colonnade overlook loggias guarded by two great urns crowned by statues. The walls display maps carved into the stone representing the successive phases of the battle: the action of the airborne commandos, the naval plan of the landings, and the fighting on the four beaches. To the east of the memorial, the arc of the circle described by the garden to the missing holds the mortal remains of 1,557 American soldiers who were either drowned or unidentifiable. A chapel stands amid the graves, housing a coloured mosaic symbolising America blessing its children as they left to fight for freedom. A flight of steps leads to the sea, from where visitors have a wide panorama over Omaha Beach, as shown by the viewing table. Twelve kilometres away, rises the Pointe du Hoc monument erected by the French, and accidentally glimpsed in scenes from the 1962 film, "The Longest Day"

The remains of the heroes of the Normandy campaign have rested in peace since the official inauguration of the cemetery on 18th July 1956. Their final resting place was given in perpetuity by the French Republic to the United States of America.

Tours

Opposite the memorial, the American flag flies every day over the great bowl formed by the site, which is closed on 25th December and 1st January.

Access

Seventeen kilometres north-west of Bayeux, via Surrain.

The Normandy American Cemetery "Omaha Beach"

14170 Colleville-sur-Mer

tel. +33 2.31.51.62.00

fax. +33 2.31.51.62.09

American Battle Monuments Commission

Courthouse Plaza II, Suite 500 2300 Clarendon Boulevard Arlington,

VA 22201 United States Of America

tel. (00 1) (703) 696-6897

Because the Normandy landing memorial sites are well worth a detour, a tourist route dedicated to D-Day would not be complete without a visit to the site of Bénouville Bridge,called "Pegasus Bridge" since 1944. Installed in 1934, this lift bridge, just over thirty metres long and nearly seven metres wide, was at the cutting-edge of modernity of the time, as it was driven by an electric motor, the task of which was made easier by an impressive concrete counterweight. 

In the night of 5 to 6 June 1944, three Horsa gliders from the British 6th airborne division, under the orders of Major Howard, landed in silence, just a few metres from Bénouville Bridge. Their insignia, a Pegasus, was the name given to the structure thence onwards.
 

The mission of the British 6th Airborne glider infantry was to seize the bridge. Along with the taking of the neighbouring Ranville bridge, the idea was to prevent German reinforcements from hitting the eastern side of the imminent landing.
In addition, cutting the artery between Caen and the sea would preserve a passage for later expansion of the Allied Beach Head. Armed by around fifty men, a 50 mm canon and a little bunker housing a machine gun, the German garrison defending the strategic structure was rapidly dominated by the first liberators on Normandy soil.

"Ham & jam, ham & jam": a few hours after the gliders arrived, this was the radio signal given to announce Major Howard's mission was a success. The commando still had to fight against enemy counter-attacks, notably by elements of the 21st Panzer.

It managed to keep its position and kept the bridge intact until back-up arrived on Sword Beach.

The meeting was finally achieved at around 1pm, with the famous bagpipes of Bill Millin, personal piper of Lord Lovat, playing in the background. Major Howard's parachutists, in control of the only points for crossing the two rivers between Caen and the Channel, made the first D-Day attack, which gave allied troops control of communications between the east and the west of the River Orne and its canal.

A symbolic site

Immortalised on screen in 1962 during the film The longest day, the first Normandy site under allied control still has many signs of the heroic actions that happened here and which preceded the Landing of 6 June 1944.
In 1960, Pegasus Bridge was extended by five metres following widening of the canal and was then replaced in 1993 by a new, wider and more modern structure. The new bridge is raised, like its glorious predecessor, and has reproductions of the old railing and wooden pathways from the time. In the centre of the site, visitors can still see the German anti-tank canon in its basin, the role of which was to defend access to the port.
Near the banks of the canal which the bridge spans is a path lined with a bronze bust of Major Howard and three stones mark the exact position of the three gliders. On the opposite bank is the first Normandy house liberated by the allied troops, which is in fact the famous Café Gondrée. In summer, the site puts on a sound and light show which stages the intermingled destinies of Bénouville Bridge and Major Howard's men.

Installed between the River Orne and the canal, the Pegasus Memorial was inaugurated on 4 June 2000 by the Prince of Wales and the French defence minister. In addition to the real Bénouville Bridge, which was reassembled after being taken town in 1993, the memorial has a "Bailey" bridge from 1944: named after a British engineer, these bridges could be assembled by forty sappers in less than three hours and were used to allow heavy military vehicles to pass.
Recently, the ministry of defence (general secretariat for administration; department of memory, heritage and archives) made a financial contribution to the installation of a life-size replica of a Horsa glider in the middle of the park around the memorial.
 

The permanent exhibition areas in the memorial give visitors the opportunity to see films of archives and showcases with an impressive collection of objects and documents to the glory of the British 6th airborne division: fragments of gliders from 1944, soldiers' equipment, Major Howard's personal objects and Bill Millin's bagpipes!
For young visitors and their teachers, the Pegasus memorial offers free of charge an educational file which traces a journey rich in emotions, thus emphasising the necessary orientation of memory actions to the younger generations.

Mémorial de Pegasus Bridge

Avenue du Major Howard 14860 Ranville
Tel. +33 (0)2.31.78.19.44.
Fax: +33 (0)2.31.78.19.42.
Email: memorial.pegasus@wanadoo.fr

Tours
The Pegasus Memorial is open every day, except in December and January. Guided tours (in French or English) are organised upon reservation.

Getting there
Five kilometres from Ouistreham, via the Ranville/Cabourg.exit 

Pegasus Bridge Memorial site

Website of Normandy’s regional tourist committee

At the end of the Second World War, the radar was in its infancy; however, some models were capable of detecting movements at sea, day and night, at a distance beyond the reach of the human eye.

The occupying forces and the allies stepped up their research into and installation of these “wizard’s ears”.

In Douvres, due to its altitude, a long-range radar was installed in late 1942 as a means to notify the military staff of any attempt to land in the region. 

However, as happens each time a weapon of war is invented… a means to neutralise it quickly follows suit. The countermeasure of fog and false echoes were extremely popular during the night of the 5^th of June 1944!

The Radar Museum

The radar station remained an entrenched camp until 17 June (10 days after the liberation of Douvres itself).

Today attached to the Memorial of Caen, the radar station is the only one of its kind on the coast.

Two remarkably preserved bunkers and original displays help visitors to understand the role of radars and their technical development.

A couple of miles from the Juno landing beaches, the German radar station in Douvres, along the Route de Basly, served as an entrenched camp for several days. An advanced surgical unit was set up near a convent in La Délivrande. 

The first bodies buried here were soldiers killed on 6 June 1944.

Later, the bodies of soldiers killed between the coast and Caen were buried here.

The British cemetery

At the entrance to the town, on the road from Caen, the entrance to the cemetery is immediately identifiable.

A square pavilion with a peaked roof covered in stone is surrounded by pergolas. In line with the porch, the Cross of Sacrifice stands at the far end of the central walkway. It is erected on a small grassy mound and surrounded by low walls.

The steles are symmetrically placed either side of the central walkway bordered by trimmed yew trees. The German plot with the various stone stele and two-sloped roof stands in the right section of the site. Curiously, the grave of the only Polish soldier is set apart.

Big lime trees and magnolias mainly planted around the edges of the site separate the cemetery from neighbouring houses. The cemetery is enclosed by trimmed hedges of hornbeams or beeches.

Musée Franco-Allemand « Station Radar 44 » Route de Bény – CD83 – 14440 Douvres-la-Délivrande

Tél. : 07.57.48.77.32

Site internet : www.musee-radar.fr - Courriel : contact@musee-radar.fr

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 Musée du Radar - Douvres-la-Délivrande. Michel.dehaye@avuedoiseau.com