Normandy
Ouistreham
Ouistreham is the port on the Orne river that serves Caen. It is the most obvious landing point for visitors wanting a short break in Normandy, either for the Landing Beaches or just chill-out beaches.
The Orne's south bank is a stylish little resort, Bella Riva, which is on Sword, the smallest of the five D-Day Allied invasion beaches. The beaches - each in fact a collection of small strands - were code-named Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword.
Ouistreham town has medieval churches and excellent modern pastry shops. It is a busy place, not just because of the ferries but also its marina, thalassotherapy treatment centre and wildlife park. It is a good starting point to visit must-see sites, such as Pegasus Bridge in Benouille or to go into Caen, but also to enjoy a more ordinary beach holiday. The beach is alive most of the year with people flying kites, and has an equestrian centre from where you can ride on the sands.
What to do: Equestrian Centre (+2.31 06 69/51). Karting Bella Riva (+2 31 97 72 010. Sailing school (Ecole de Voile, +2 31 97 00 25).
For those interested in the Normandy Landings, there's Sword Beach Museum, the museum of the 4th Commandos Place Alfred Thomas (+2 31 96 36 10).
The Great Bunker of Riva Bella includes memorabilia of the German soldiers who were stationed here. Open until the end of October (+2 31 97 28 69).
Where to stay and eat: It's worth driving along the coast to one of the string of little resorts, maybe Luc-sur-Mer or St Aubin-sur-Mer, where you will find good restaurants and comfortable lodgings, such as Hotel des Thermes et du Casino, Luc-sur-Mer (+2 319732 37). Rooms from €60. At St Aubin sur Mer, Le Lighthouse (+2 31977240) offers half-board from €44-63 a night. Meals from €12-40.
Arromanches Les Bains
The must-visit village of the Normandy Landing beaches. The beach code-named Gold is in the middle of the string of Landing Beaches, with Utah and Omaha (the American beaches) to the south of it and Juno (Canadian) and Sword (the other British beach) to the north. The beach itself is long, sandy and empty enough for most of the year to play games and build sandcastles.
The remains of the concrete temporary Mulberry Harbour that was built in Britain then towed across the sea under cover of dark, amazingly survives in view of the panoramic windows of its very good museum. The displays range from mock-ups of battle sites, to weapons and uniforms. There is also a showing of original news film of the day.
What to do: Arromanches is a good jumping off point for the other Landing Beaches, but also for Bayeux, which was the first major town liberated by the Allies, and for Caen, with its excellent museum, which is dedicated to peace.
Where to stay and eat: Hotel de la Marine, Quai de Canada (+2 31 22 34 19) is a two-star hotel across the square from the D-Day Landings museum, with rooms and a restaurant looking out over the sea towards the remains of the Mulberry Harbour. The restaurant specialises in seafood, with fish soup, lobster and, of course, mussels by the bucket load. Menus from€15-32. Rooms from €46-86 (except this June when prices will go up).
Dieppe
Dieppe claims to be the oldest resort in France and is the nearest to Paris. It has a wide, stony beach, circled by flint and chalk cliffs and is much frequented by fishermen and wind surfers. It was a Red Cross port in 1940 and was then Rommel's radio command centre. A failed invasion in 1942 was led by the Canadians and it was the Canadians who liberated it on August 31, 1944.
From Dieppe seafront, which looks like a 50s stage set, with hotels set back from a grass esplanade, you drive over the cliff into Pourville-sur-Mer, with its beach huts on another stony beach and an excellent oyster seller.
Dieppe will have fly pasts in August to commemorate the liberation - but it will also have summer events including regular fun fairs on the esplanade, a vintage car rally in August and kite flying contest in September. There's also a good casino and an excellent Saturday market.
What to do: Crazy golf on Dieppe seafront and at Pourville, plus an 18-hole golf course on the headland between the two.
Where to stay and eat: The Grand Casino (+2 32 14 48 00, casino-dieppe.fr) on the seafront. The casino has two restaurants, both with seafood and Normandy specialities, including pancakes and Calvados. Meals range from €12-60.
Trouville-Deauville
These twin resorts on either side of the mouth of the River Touques have vied for fashionable popularity for two centuries. They both offer huge sweeps of beach, with Trouville securing the literary edge, having starred in the works of Gustav Flaubert, while Deauville, designed by Napoleon III's half brother, the Duc de Mornay, is more racy and fashionable. Deauville has a boarded beach walk and lines of elegant beach huts, many sporting the names of film stars who have visited for the annual film festival in September.
What to do: Horse racing. There are two race courses in Deauville, Le Touques and Clairefontaine, with races most days from May to October. The racing has spawned dozens of stables and riding schools along the coast, including a number that offer tourists rides on the local beaches.
Where to eat: Le Ciro's Barrierie, Deauville. A gastronomic restaurant on the boarded walkway with glassed cubicles for each table, which open on to the beach. If you don't like oysters, go elsewhere. Starting at €39, it's not cheap but it is a treat.
Where to stay: Hotel de Flaubert, Trouville (+231883723). Rooms with a sea view €80-115 a night. Hotel Flaubert took its name in the 1920s from the author, who in the 1830s based a fictional character on the daughter of a Trouville hotelier whom he met on the beach. In 1999 the hotel was redecorated in the style of the 1830s.
Pas de Calais
As many people on their way to Normandy will arrive via Eurotunnel and because Calais was fortified by Hitler as a jumping off point for an invasion of Britain, it would be a shame to miss out on the string of beaches along the bay of Wissant, reached either from Calais seafront or alternatively, from the Chunnel entrance, via exit 11 on the A16. Long, empty sands stretch to the sea beneath towering cliffs and there are wild dunes between two headlands, Cap Blanc Nez and Cap Gris Nez.
Escalles is at the foot of Blanc Nez and has turquoise water, a pale sandy beach, with fossils, plus walks through the dunes. Loads of wildlife - including migratory birds.
D-Day memorials
Pegasus Bridge
Three Horsa gliders landed the first troops into Benouville, at Pegasus Bridge, on June 6 1944, to begin the liberation of France from Germany. The sites where they landed, on the River Orne and Caen Canal between Caen and Ouistreham, are marked - and their closeness to each other and to the marshy areas show how skilled the operation commanded by Major John Howard had to be to miss the river, canal and the reed beds.
Benouville is where the first house in France was liberated on June 6, 1944. There are many firsts along the stretch of Normandy beaches - the first town, the first village - but Benouville and the Café Gondrée, which comes with the human link of still being in the same family as it was in 1944, has a justifiable claim. The cafe is full of photographs, many signed, of the original owners and their daughter with soldiers, politicians and royalty. And it serves good sandwiches.
The memorial at Caen is considerably more sophisticated, but equally not to be missed. It is huge and moving, attached to a spectacular museum with a history of the war, interactive videos and an over-arching message that what we need now is peace (+2 31 06 06 44).
Useful websites: The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (cwgc.org)
Eurotunnel (eurotunnel.co.uk) has a useful booklet, Discover War Memories, about the most northern sites.
Way to go
Getting there: Ferry prices vary from special offer overnight trips at £34 to long summer holiday fares of £203. Competition is intense between the operators at present so shop around for deals. Brittany Ferries, Portsmouth to Ouistreham (brittanyferries.com). P&O Stena, Portsmouth to Ouistreham, Caen (ferry-tickets.uk.com/po-stena.htm). Hoverspeed Seacat, Newhaven-Dieppe (hoverspeed.com). Eurotunnel, Dover to Calais, (eurotunnel.co.uk).
Self-catering properties: French Country Cottages (0870 4609015, french-country-cottages.co.uk), Welcome Cottages (0870 4427143, welcomecottages.com), French Life (0870 4448877, frenchlife.co.uk) Chez Nous (0870 4609426, cheznous.com) have self-catering properties on the Normandy coastline.
Further information: Maison de la France (020-7399 3535, franceguide.com); normandy-tourism.org.
Country code: 0033.
Time difference: +1hr.
£1=€1.44
