01 Nov 2024
Having read about D-Day for so long and always wanting to go visit, we struggled with exactly how to plan a way to make this visit possible. Do you rent a car and drive? (possibly, but I was intimidated by never having driven in France). How about a big bus tour with 40 other people? (also possible, but I didn't want to be forced into seeing only the most seen places on someone else's timeline).
If you are trying to justify spending the money for a private tour to Normandy, you are in exactly the same spot my wife and I were in. In the end, we decided that we most likely would only get to Normandy once, and we wanted to make it memorable.
It turns out that I feel like this was probably the best option we could have chosen. When I think of the time that we might have wasted just trying to drive TO Normandy, let alone trying to find all the spots I wanted to see, it just made sense to let a knowledgeable guide get us to those places and not have to worry about the transportation details.
Emilie was our personal guide (just my wife and I) and she was personable, knowledgeable, extremely friendly and easy to converse with. She truly wanted us to have the best experience we could have in the short 13 hours we were with her. She picked us up from our place in Paris, drove to Normandy (while sharing tons of information along the way), and we toured all the places I wanted to see, plus some out of the way places I was not expecting to see that blew us away. Of course, Emilie dropped us off back at our place in Paris. This tour was everything we hoped it would be and was the best money I've ever spent on a private tour. Simply amazing.