On the morning of 6 June 1944 this long, flat stretch of sand between Ouistreham and Lion-sur-Mer was the easternmost of the five Allied landing beaches in Normandy. British troops of the 3rd Infantry Division came ashore here, supported by commandos, including a small unit of French commandos under Philippe Kieffer, who fought their way into Ouistreham. The beach linked up with the airborne forces who had taken the bridges over the Orne and the Caen canal during the night, among them the famous Pegasus Bridge at Bénouville, a few kilometres inland. Lord Lovat's commandos marched to relieve the paratroopers there, led, according to the well-known story, by piper Bill Millin playing on the beach under fire.
Today the beach is a holiday shore again, lined with villas, beach huts and promenades, and it takes a little imagination to picture the scene of that morning. Memorials and plaques are scattered along the seafront in Hermanville, Colleville-Montgomery and Ouistreham, and the museum of the Atlantic Wall in Ouistreham is housed in a former German concrete fire-control tower. Pegasus Bridge, with the original bridge preserved in the memorial museum, is worth the short ride inland.
The riding here is easy, with flat roads following the coast and running inland through farmland and small villages. The coast road links all the landing beaches, from Sword through Juno and Gold to Omaha and Utah further west, and many riders make a day or two of it, stopping at the cemeteries, museums and memorials along the way. Traffic can be heavy in summer and around the anniversaries, especially near the main sites. The weather is changeable, with wind and rain common, so pack accordingly.
Ouistreham, a town of about nine thousand people, has all the services you could need, as well as a ferry port with crossings to Portsmouth, which makes it a natural starting or finishing point for riders coming from Britain. The town has a good choice of restaurants and seafood, and the market is lively. Inland, Caen offers a larger city with its castle and abbeys, built by William the Conqueror, a reminder that the links between Normandy and England are far older than the war.