Today, we depart the USA on our overnight flight to London, England. We make this journey to commemorate the 80th Anniversary of D-Day and give homage to the Allied soldiers who fought on the beaches of Normandy.

Upon arrival, we meet our local guide and are transported to our hotel for the next three nights. Our hotel is located in central London, within walking distance to many of London’s most popular attractions; including the renowned British Museum, Covent Gardens, Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square and Oxford Street’s shopping area. We have the remainder of the day at leisure to explore before our welcome dinner at the hotel. (D)

Enjoy breakfast before beginning our full day of touring London. We see the Palace of Westminster, which serves as a meeting place for both the House of Lords and the House of Commons. We take pictures of the iconic Big Ben, known as the Great Bell of the Great Clock of Westminster. We continue to Westminster Abbey to view the statue of Sir Winston Churchill in Parliament Square, and view Downing Street which houses the official residence and office of the Prime Minister. We visit the Imperial War Museum (IWM) and the Churchill War Rooms, a group of basement offices beneath the Treasury building in Whitehall. (B)

After breakfast, we travel from London to Bletchley to visit Bletchley Park, an English country house and estate which became the top-secret home of the WWII Codebreakers. In 1939, an organization began recruiting ‘professor type’ educated and intelligent men and women from prestigious colleges, like Cambridge and Oxford, to decode enemy encrypted secret messages of planned air and land strikes against the Allied forces. We travel to Woodstock to tour Blenheim Palace house and gardens, the birthplace and ancestral home of Sir Winston Churchill. We return to London for an evening at leisure. (B)

We travel today to the south of London to Chartwell House and gardens, Sir Winston Churchill’s country home set atop the hill with magnificent views of the Weald. We admire the beautiful walled garden including its golden rose walk created by Sir and Lady Churchill’s children in 1958. We travel to Portsmouth, a port city and naval base of England’s south coast. We experience the D-day Story; Operation Overlord during the Normandy D-Day landings. We hear the story told in three parts: Preparation; D-Day and the Battle of Normandy; Legacy and the Overlord Embroidery. We then check into our hotel to enjoy dinner and relax after a full day of touring. (B, D)

Today we travel by ferry across the English Channel to the small port of Ouistreham in northwestern France. We visit Le Grand Bunker – Museum of the Atlantic Wall, a 52-foot-tall concrete tower which served as a flak tower to protect the harbor and fire control for the batteries protecting the Orne estuary. The Atlantic Wall was a system of fortifications built by the Germans during WWII along the Atlantic coast and stretches from northern Norway to southern France. This defense built along the coast, ports and submarine bases caused the deaths of approximately 10,000 Allied soldiers. We check into our hotel in Bayeux for our four-night stay. (B)

After breakfast, we explore Bayeux, a town in the Normandy region of northwestern France. We visit the Memorial Museum of the Battle of Normandy with exhibits and artifacts showcasing the events of the D-Day landings. Classified as a UNESCO World Heritage site, we admire the Bayeux Tapestry, a masterpiece which depicts the conquest of England in the 11th century by William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy. We travel to Ducy-Sainte-Marguerite to Les Vergers de Ducy orchard and cider farm for a tour and tasting. Here we enjoy a full cold buffet with cheeses and dessert. We return to Bayeux to walk through the largest WWII war cemetery of the Commonwealth soldiers of France. We enjoy the remainder of the day at our leisure. (B, L)

Today is battlefield and beaches day. We view Longues-sur-Mer Battery then tour Musee du Debarquement, an indoor and outdoor museum commemorating WWII Normandy campaign & D-Day Landings. We watch a film “Into the Heart of the Battle of Normandy” at Arromanches 360 Circular Cinema. We stop to view the British Normandy Memorial and Gold Beach in Ver-sur-Mer, the center beach of the five designated landing areas of the Normandy Invasion. Then we visit Juno Beach in Courseulles-sur-Mer, whose first wave of assault took on heavy casualty but by the end of the day the Allied troops gained control of the area from defending Germans. We return to the hotel after a day of remembrance. (B)

After breakfast, we begin our day in Collevillesur- Mer to visit the Normandy American Cemetery, a place to honor American troops who died in Europe during WWII. Our next stop is the Omaha Beach Memorial Museum in Vierville-sur-Mer. The museum is located on Omaha Beach where the American naval landing took place on June 6, known as Bloody Omaha. This memorial is for all the young men who died in 1944 and a reminder of the cost of freedom to future generations. We stop in Pointe-du-Hoc, a promontory with 110 ft cliff overlooking the English Channel, the location of a series of German bunkers and machine gun posts. We view La Cambe German War Cemetery; the largest German war cemetery in Normandy and contains the remains of over 21,200 German military personnel. We visit the Airbourne Museum in Sainte-Mere-Eglise; dedicated to the memory of the paratroopers of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Division. Our last stop is Utah Beach Landing Museum in Le Madeleine. The westernmost beach of the five landing areas, Utah Beach was the landing site of the US 4th Division and was taken with relatively few casualties. We enjoy dinner at a local restaurant before returning to our hotel in Bayeux. (B, D)

We depart our hotel this morning traveling to Paris. On our way we stop in Caen to visit the Memorial Museum Caen. The Battle of Caen was fought June 6 (D-Day) to July 20, 1944, as the British battled for control of the city of Cain in Normandy. This afternoon, we arrive in Paris to explore the Museum of the Liberation of Paris / General Leclerc Museum. Paris was occupied by the Germans for four years until the Liberation of Paris, a battle that took place from August 19th until August 25th, 1944. We stop for dinner on our own before checking into our Paris hotel for two nights. (B)

After breakfast, we join a guided tour of the city of Paris, viewing the main sights relating to wartime Paris. We view the Arc de Triomphe and Champs-Elysees. Known for its theaters, cafes, and luxury shops, Champs- Elysees has been described as the “most beautiful avenue in the world”. Our tour continues to Jeu de Paume Centre on Place de la Concorde, which was used by the Nazi to store art they stole from local Jewish families prior to selling it. This afternoon we explore the Musee de l’Armee (the Army Museum) at Les Invalides, one of the largest collections of military history and art with over 500,000 objects to admire. We join our fellow travelers for a farewell dinner as we share in our memorable experiences of our D-Day anniversary tour. (B, D)

PARIS • HOME: Today we travel to the Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport for our return flight home. (B)