A thirty-eight-metre lighthouse, ferries leaving for England, a lock where you can watch the boats go through, and the beach where the hundred and seventy-seven Frenchmen of the Kieffer commando came ashore.
Ouistreham Riva-Bella has everything that makes the Côte de Nacre: a seaside resort with its promenade and casino, a working fishing and sailing harbour, the only cross-Channel port in Normandy — and a beach that carries a name out of history, Sword Beach. It is the campsite’s neighbouring town, fifteen minutes by road or an hour by bike along the coastal greenway. La Capricieuse, a five-star Yelloh Village campsite, is in Luc-sur-Mer: cottages, a heated water park, a restaurant on site and the beach at the end of the lane.
The coast road runs through Lion-sur-Mer and Hermanville: fifteen minutes in any season. By bike, the greenway follows the sea without ever crossing the road.
The harbour, the lock, the beach and the lighthouse all belong to the same walking loop; only the Grand Bunker means getting back in the car, five minutes away.
Crossings to England leave the terminal several times a day: even without boarding, watching a ferry slip through the outer harbour is a sight in itself.
A long stretch of fine sand, lifeguarded in summer, edged by a promenade and backed by dunes. This is Sword Beach: on 6 June 1944 the hundred and seventy-seven men of the Kieffer commando, the only Frenchmen of the landings, came ashore on this very spot.
Ouistreham is the sea gate of Caen: the canal runs fourteen kilometres to the Saint-Pierre basin, right in the city centre. At the lock, you lean on the railing and watch the boats rise, fall and head back out into the Channel.
A bronze flame facing the sea, ringed by the Allied flags, on the exact spot of the French landing. The No. 4 Commando museum, a step away, tells the story of the assault on the fortified casino on the morning of 6 June.
Seventeen metres of concrete over five floors: the former German fire control post, still intact with its machinery, its signals room and its rangefinder. From the roof, the whole bay opens up — it is the children’s favourite visit.
The only port in Normandy with a daily link to England: ferries leave for Portsmouth several times a day. Watching that white hull glide down the channel, from the jetty or a café terrace by the harbour, is part of the scenery.
A little back from the seafront, in the old village, stands a fine church of the 12th and 13th centuries, halfway between Romanesque and Gothic. Its carved front and stocky tower are a reminder that Ouistreham was first of all a village of fishermen and farmers.
Photo credits: Ikmo-ned, Rundvald, Sylenius, M. Strīķis, RéMineur7, Doalex, Pimprenel, René Hourdry — Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA / public domain).
Photo: René Hourdry · CC BY-SA 4.0During the night of 5 to 6 June 1944, six British gliders landed fifty metres from the bridge and took it in ten minutes: the very first action of the landings. The Café Gondrée, at the end of the deck, claims to be the first house in France to be liberated; the Pegasus Memorial next door displays the original bridge and a full-size glider. Bénouville is five minutes from Ouistreham, on the road back to the campsite.
Five-star cottages, a heated water park and the beach fifty metres away, in Luc-sur-Mer.
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