Second World War routes, from the beaches of Normandy to the forest of the Ardennes.

What are the Second World War routes?

A way of travelling through western Europe following the places where fighting took place in the last year of the war, between June 1944 and May 1945. It is not a signposted route, but a thread to organise the trip: beaches, batteries, bridges, forests and villages that still bear the marks, and around them museums, memorials and very well-kept military cemeteries.

On Geocalia we organise it around two settings that are easy to visit independently and can be joined in a single trip: the D-Day beaches, in Normandy, where the Allies landed on 6 June 1944, and Bastogne, in the Belgian Ardennes, where the American army held out surrounded in December 1944 during the Battle of the Bulge, the last great German offensive in the west.

Each place is better understood with a little context, and so the rule of the trip is simple: one big museum to understand the battle and then the terrain, with the small sites where each thing happened.

How is the trip organised?

Normandy. The most practical base is Bayeux, which has a direct train from Paris Saint-Lazare and has the greatest choice of hotels. From Paris by car it is about 260 km and about three hours. The five beaches are spread along some 80 km of coast and you need a car or a guided minibus tour. On the first day, to the west, the American sector: Utah Beach and Sainte-Mère-Église, the Pointe du Hoc and Omaha Beach with the American cemetery, with almost 9,400 graves above the beach. On the second, to the east, the British and Canadian: the Longues-sur-Mer battery, Arromanches and the artificial harbour, Juno, Pegasus Bridge and the Mémorial de Caen, the museum that best explains the whole war.

The Ardennes. Bastogne has no train: you get there by train to Libramont and from there by bus, or by car. From Brussels it is about 155 km and two hours, and from Luxembourg about 70 km and an hour. In the village are the Bastogne War Museum and the Mardasson memorial, which is free. On the outskirts, near Foy, the Bois Jacques preserves the foxholes of Easy Company. In Luxembourg, at Hamm, next to the capital, the American cemetery holds General Patton's grave.

Joining the two. From Bayeux to Bastogne it is about 600 km and more than six hours of motorway, via Paris or via Rouen and Reims. It is worth splitting the journey: in Reims, besides the cathedral, there is the Museum of the Surrender, in the room where Germany signed the capitulation on 7 May 1945.

What else can you add?

If you are interested in following the front, there are other settings from those months without their own page on Geocalia. In Arnhem and Oosterbeek, in the Netherlands, Operation Market Garden was fought in September 1944; in Oosterbeek is the Airborne Museum Hartenstein. In Remagen, in Germany, the towers of the bridge the Americans crossed over the Rhine in March 1945 house a peace museum.

And if you want to go further back in time, Ypres, in Flanders, is the great city of the First World War, with the Last Post every night beneath the Menin Gate.

The trip does not have to be only about war. From Normandy, Mont-Saint-Michel or the Pays d'Auge cider route are worth a day. From Bastogne, La Roche-en-Ardenne and the Ourthe or Orval Abbey.

When to go?

May and September are the best months: long days, mild weather and fewer people than in summer. June has the D-Day anniversaries, with ceremonies, period vehicles and road closures on the coast: if you go on 6 June, book months ahead. In July and August everything is open but full. December makes sense in Bastogne, when the anniversary of the battle is remembered and it is as cold as that winter, although the days are very short. From November to February some museums close on certain days or reduce their hours.

How many days do you need?

Normandy needs two full days for the five beaches, from Bayeux, and a third for the Mémorial de Caen at leisure or to rest from the war. Bastogne can be seen in a day, with another for the Ardennes. The two together, with the journey, need a week.

What is worth knowing?

Military cemeteries are free, like the beaches and many memorials. The big museums are paid: the Bastogne War Museum costs €28 with the Bois Jacques and War Rooms included. At the cemeteries, silence and respectful dress and behaviour are asked for: they are soldiers' graves, not a backdrop.