Possible Itinerary

Note: Include side trip to the Netherlands to the Groesbeek Canadian Cemetery. See information at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and Veterans Affairs Canada.

Start at Lens (near Arras) to visit the Vimy and Hill 70 sites.

Travel toward Caen, stopping in Rouen. Try to visit one of Rick Steves' favorite restaurants in Normandy: Les Nymphéas, Rouen.

Try to see the Château de La Rochefoucauld in south-western France which is an excellent castle and has a magnificent staircase designed by Da Vinci staircase.

Continue on to Caen to visit the Juno Beach site and to Bény-sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery, near Reviers, with a side visit to Bayeux. If time permits add an additional trip from Bayeux to Cherbourg (about 100km) and visit the Musée de la Libération.

All of these sites can be reach by rail from Rouen. Download the French rail map for the Normandy region here.

Flanders Field Memorial

Normandy Sightseeing Tours

This company provides day tours of the various Normandy beaches, as well as Mont-Saint-Michel. They do full day and half day tours, both private and shared. All trips start from Bayeux.

I would look at the shared Canadian sector tour. There is also a combination American and Canadian tour which looks quite good.

Ypres and Passendale

Went on a fantastic tour of the battlefields and monuments of Ypres and Passendale with Battlefield Tours of Ypres. These are the main sites related to the Canadian involvement in the First World War that are located in Belgium.

Owner, operator and guide, Roger, has encyclopedic knowledge of the First World War and especially the Belgian theatre. He provides a number of tours for different interests; I went on the "In Flanders Field & Passchendaele ½ Day Tour." (Passchendaele is the Dutch spelling.) It was supposed to be 3½hours but was closer to 4½, which was fine. This tour had a high amount of Canadian content starting with the Hill 62 memorial, the Brooding Soldier memorial and the field hospital bunker staffed by Dr. John McCrae which included an extensive memorial to him. The tour also included visits to a trench, to a New Zealand memorial and to a large Australia/New Zealand memorial. It also included a tour of the Langemark German cemetery. On the tour with me were 3 people from New Zealand and 2 from Australia. Overall, a very moving experience.

Went to Ypres, Belgium where thousands of Canadian soldiers died in the Battles of Ypres and Passendale. Went on a tour and visited lots of battle sites, and memorials like Hill 62 (aka Sanctuary Wood or Mount Sorrel).

Went to the New Zealand Memorial at Tyne Cot - a massive neo-classical structure.

Altogether, visited memorials to British, Australian and New Zealand soldiers. On the tour with me were 3 people from New Zealand and 2 from Australia. Overall, a very moving experience.

Canadian Memorial at Hill 62 (aka Mount Sorrel or Sanctuary Wood) was the German position from which they fired on Ypres and leveled the town. The town was 3 miles away, and the German guns could shoot 8 miles.

Canadian Memorial as the statue of the Brooding Soldier is located on Canadian soil - soil was brought from Canada expressly for this. Plants there represent poison gas moving across the ground and others represent explosions. The statue is marking its 100th anniversary in 2023. The Canadian government put up a temporary public display outlining the history of the site and the memorial’s installation in 1923.

At the height of the battle 750 men were killed per day. 300,000,000 shells fired throughout the course of the war.

Today 30-40 bodies (or partial remains) are found every year, and 250 tons of munitions are dug up in fields, usually by farmers. When they find any munitions they put it out at the nearest road and call the bomb disposal unit who come and pick it up.

The Menin Memorial renovation won’t be finished for 2 1/2 years (from May 2023). Now completely covered in scaffolding.

Accommodations: In Ypres try Pilgrim’s Loft (a monestary) which was recommended by Sam of Australia. If staying in nearby Brugge (an excellent destination in its own right) stay at Hotel Ter Brughe, Oost-Gistelhof 2, 8000 Brugge. +32 (0) 50 34 03 24

Battlefield Tour Itinerary Map

Liberation Tours Canada

I recently discovered a tour company that specializes in tours of battlefields in Europe called Liberation Tours Canada. They have tours of Normandy and Vimy as well as special Italian Campaign and other tours. They have spacial anniversary tours coming up this year, next and beyond. For example, they will have an 80th anniversary of the Liberation of Holland tour in 2025. Information on their extensive fall 2023 tour can be found here.

They also have Medieval Britain and American Civil War tours.

I haven't investigated the company, so I cannot vouch for their quality or reliability.

Fall 2023 Canadian Battlefield Tour

Juno Beach

Sites here are the Juno Beach Centre — Museum and Park, and Juno Beach itself.
Located in Courseulles-sur-Mer, France, 25km from Caen and about 270km from Paris.
Juno Beach Centre website.

Location of the famous Bayeux tapestry, Bayeux is about 30km west of Caen.

Located south of Courseulles-sur-Mer is the Bény-sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery, near Reviers.

Getting there:

By train (SNCF) from the Gare St. Lazare, Paris to Caen (25km from the Centre)
By taxi or bus to the Centre. Use the Bus Verts line 3.

Full contact information:
Centre Juno Beach
Voie des Français Libres, BP 104
14470 Courseulles-sur-Mer, France

Tel: (33) (0)2.31.37.32.17
Fax: (33) (0)2.31.37.83.69
Email: resa@junobeach.org

GPS Coordinates:
49°20'11.52"N / 0°27'42.52"W

Vimy and Hill 70

Just north of Arras near the small town of Lens are two famous First World War sites and memorials:
The Vimy Memorial

Site of the memorial and the preserved trenches and the nearby Canadian Cemetery. Located about 10km north of Arras, 15km south of Lens, 135km southeast of Calais and 175km north of Paris.

The Vimy Memorial website.
Map of the site location.
Wikipedia page.

Vimy Memorial and Preserved Trenches map

The Canadian Cemetery No.2 is located in Neuville-St.Vaast, about 1.5km west of the Vimy Memorial. Map

Map of the Vimy and Hill 70 Memorials around Lens, France.

Map of the Vimy Memorial and Canadian Cemetery No.2.

Getting there:
From Paris: Take train (SNCF) from Gare du Nord, Paris to Lens (approx. 1hr, 15min.).

From Arras (approx 15min.): N17 towards Lens/Thélus/Vimy/Liéven and drive for approximately 10 km.

From Calais (approx. 1.5hrs): A26 motorway for approx. 130km, take exit 7 for Arras Center/Vimy and follow signs to join the N17 towards Lens/Thélus/Vimy/Liéven.

Full contact information:

Canadian National Vimy Memorial

Route D55
Chemin des Canadiens
62580 Givenchy-en-Gohelle
France

Tel (from Canada): 011 33 3 21 50 68 68
Tel (from Europe): +33 (0) 3 21 50 68 68
Email vac.vimy.acc@canada.ca

GPS Coordinates:
N50.379444, E2.773611

Hill 70 Memorial

Site of the Hill 70 memorial and the Loos Commonwealth War Grave Cemetery. Located about 5km north-west of Lens, France near the village of Loos-en-Gohelle.

Hill 70 Memorial website.
Map of the site location.
Wikipedia page.

Canadian 1st & 2nd World War site maps

Map of the the principle sites of the battlefields, burial sites and invasion beaches of Canadian forces in the First and Second World Wars.