"GRANDCAMP-MAISY IS NOW THE PLACE TO BE " a Grandcamp Maisy Travel Page by ranger49

In November 1972, the commune formerly known as Grandcamp-les-Bains amalgamated with Maisy and changed its name to Grandcamp-Maisy.

It is a bustling little town with it's busy fishing port and pleasure harbour; it's important historical part in the D-Day Landings and links with the US Rangers and the important role played by them in the Allied Liberation of France.

We had passed through or near G-M many times but this time decided to make it our base for a 12 day visit to the area. We found a spacious holiday house -with internet access - and discovered that even in mid-October there is much to see and do within a 30/40 mile radius.

We had not expected to find so many good restaurants and cafes in this small town but as we have found before real, working communities stay open all year unlike tourist resorts that almost close down for winter.

Another great bonus was the weather - far better than we expected for mid- October but exactly what we hoped for, a real late summer!

The main focus of local history is inevitably WW2 and the D-Day landings.

Most visitors work their way along the beaches from Utah, Pointe du Hoc and Omaha then move on to Arromanche where the remains of the Mulberry Harbour can still be seen on the sand and offshore. The British and Canadian Landing Beaches of Juno, Sword and Gold are further on.

We saw both small private organised tours and coach parties during their 5 or 10 minute photo opportunity stops, with no time for reflection on the events that took place along that stretch of coast and the price paid by all those involved.
We walked within earshot, of a couple of private tour guides with their 2 or 3 clients and were not impressed by their commentary.

An, as yet, less well known site is the recently discovered Batterie de Maisy.

This is, to quote from the Leaflet, "the huge German artillery Battery which was completely camouflaged and hidden in the French countryside and has just been restored".
The discovery was made by Gary Sterne an English historian of WW2 and collector of memorabilia. A wartime US map of the area led him to the site which has been partly excavated and is now open to the public.

I have a separate page on this development.