Notes on...Normandy

There are some, I know, who for whom Normandy means the three Cs — cider, cream and calvados. But if, like me, you’re more of a three B person — beaches, bocage and the Bayeux tapestry — then the place from which to assault all three is the relatively unknown fishing village of Port-en-Bessin.

Everyone visits the spectacular US cemetery of dazzling white marble and the pillboxes at Omaha beach, and rightly so, for together with the similarly well-preserved clifftop battery taken by the 2nd Ranger Battalion at Pointe du Hoc, it’s the perfect Saving Private Ryan experience. What everyone also does, I hope, is visit the beaches where our own boys did their bit (Gold and Sword, mainly; Juno for Canadians), Pegasus Bridge (scene of the dashing glider-borne coup de main by the Ox & Bucks Light Infantry) and the excellent museum at Arromanches (where you can still see the remains of the artificial Mulberry harbour so essential for supplying the eventual allied breakout).