Normandy D-Day Canadian Sector | Private Tour | from Honfleur

Your first stop will be at Juno Beach where Canadian assault troops first stormed ashore in the face of fierce attacks from German strongholds. The Canadians suffered the second-highest number of casualties here, with the Americans losing the most at Omaha Beach.

This museum is the only Canadian one in Normandy. Divided in seven parts, it explains what Canada was before the war started, how the country turned completely toward the war effort, the different Canadian campaigns in Europe and the total human cost. The museum always houses a temporary exhibition. Located just behind the sand dunes of Juno Beach, it is surrounded by German bunkers and beach obstacles, Canadian and Allied military equipment, monuments, sculpture, inukshuk and information signs.

Located between Beny and Reviers, inland from Juno Beach on top of the little hill that overlooks the coast, this cemetery is beautifully maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. It is the final resting place of 2.043 Canadians (as well as one French and four British soldiers) including the 359 Canadians killed on D-day. The entrance is decorated with four maples and the Stone of Remembrance. At the center of the graveyard is the Cross of Sacrifice, surrounded by the limestone headstones (all of which have recently been replaced).

On this eastern side of Juno Beach, two other infantry regiments attacked : the Queen’s Own Rifles and the North Shore. At Bernières, where La Chaudière Regiment later landed, is located the main monument close to the famous "Canadian House" that is in so many D-Day pictures, and which still permanently flies a Canadian flag. The German resistance in this area and then the counter-attack from the south caused the slow progression inland toward Caen and stopped the troops from reaching the Carpiquet airfield.