Cherbourg: My Normandy Gateway

We walked off straight onto the Quai de Normandie – massive art-deco transatlantic terminal where the Titanic stopped and the Queen Mary was built. La Cité de la Mer is brilliant – the Redoutable submarine tour inside a real nuclear sub is mind-blowing, and the Titanic exhibit has actual passenger artifacts that made us tear up.

In the afternoon we drove to Sainte-Mère-Église (where paratrooper John Steele hung from the church steeple) and Utah Beach – the sand is still there, the bunkers still stare at the sea, and the silence is deafening. We had lunch at a tiny café in town – moules-frites with cider, the mussels so fresh they tasted like the ocean waved hello. The pros: authentic Normandy without the Omaha crowds. The cons: rainy more often than not, but the clouds make the green even greener.