Ste Mère Eglise/Utah Beach ‘s Open Sky Museum …
…is a tour where you will discover Landing’s history and important moments of the Liberation, in an innovative way.

Information and booking at:
Tourist office of Ste Mère Eglise

Jeep Tour offers guided visits with old timer vehicles

Information and booking :

Gold Beach Evasion is an agency which is associated with professionals and organise for you leisure “à la carte”. Innovative concept created to meet visitors and clients’ needs.
Live again every second of the 6^th of June 1944 that has made Normandy the greatest center of operations in the 20^th century.
Jeep, plane, LSA, minibus lead you on the Battle of Normandy’s traces.
 
FROM SAINTE MERE EGLISE, with minibus, every Wednesday and Saturday (tour n°2), starting 1^st June. Departure at 1.30p.m. from church’s square.
Book at the tourist office of Sainte Mère Eglise 
 
2 other tours are possible with minibus from Bayeux. Information at Gold Beach Evasion directly : +33 231 22 75 80
 
ALSO :
Special offers are proposed: sport, activities which include relaxation, discoveries in natural areas.
For example, quad, buggy, kart Cross, windsurfing, LSA, mountain bike, horse riding, jeep, kayaking, scuba diving…

2km discovery path along the bird sanctuary starting from Utah Beach.
The association Claude Hettier de Boislambert is in charge of this 500 ha area, renowned internationally for its importance in welcoming water birds. These birds stop by or stay for the winter. Equipments are placed all around the sanctuary and allow a visit on your own.

A guided visit is proposed one Sunday per month. Meeting either at 9.30a.m. in front of Ste Marie du Mont’s Town Hall or at 10 a.m. at the end of polder path on the parking lot.
2 hour visit
Take wind-jackets, boots and binoculars with you.

Goat farm, cheese making, ferme-auberge

Go and see these 150 milking goats and 50 young ones et participate to the milking around 5.30p.m.
Discover as well the process of making cheese and paté which you can taste at the end of the visit.
Tea time at the farm possible for groups with prior booking.

Château Bellenau gardens

From 1717 to 1903, Château Bellenau was owned by the La Fosse family. Pierre-Etienne-Joseph La Fosse (Pierre V) born in 1828 at Saint Côme du Mont, had a dream in which he envisaged a splendid park behind his family home with rare trees, water gardens, islands, follies & grottos. Over a period of around 40 years using a workforce of 200, he succeeded in transforming the surrounding marshland into a unique environment. He introduced and acclimatised many rare and exotic foreign plants for the first time in the Cotentin region (famed for its micro-climates), many of which still flourish today as magnificent mature specimens. He designed a series of islands and waterways interlinked by bridges or accessible by boat. He planted trees and shrubs to form thickets or groves among which he created a myriad of winding paths to explore.... The garden is still evolving to this day, published in local garden guides and maintained by Jardins Naturels
With the association « Cotentin coté jardins » - composed par private gardens’s owners, open to the public during the season  -  the gardens will be open in  2010, at the following dates  : 
3 / 4 april 2010
17/18 april 2010
15/16 may 2010               
19/20 june  2010
17/18 july 2010
21/22 august 2010
 4/5 et 18/19 september 2010
16/17 october 2010
Opening times : from 10h30  to 18h30
 5 € for free visite  and 7 € guided visite
(free for child under 16)

Manoir de Donville

Franck Feuardent welcomes you in le Manoir de Donville in Méautis, next to Carentan in the heart of Parc des Marais et du Cotentin (preserved marshland park). A remarkable historical treasure to visit.
4 different visits :
- Battle of Donville in 1944 and its vestige
- History of le Manoir de Donville and Chapel since the Middle Ages
- Architecture
- gardens

« Les Marais de la Douve »
 
From the church, you are at one of the most beautiful point of view on marshlands of la Douve. Practical information of the marshlands (fishing and agriculture). Indicated from D70 (Blosville- Chef du pont) through Carquebut.

« Village of Longuerac »
 
Discover Auberge de l’Ouve, Notre Dame de Fatima Chapel, pottery shop situated along marshlands from la Douve. Little boat trip possible.
Indicated from D24 (St Jores – Picauville)
You will find there a little Terroir Auberge: Auberge de l’Ouve where you can have a meal on a great view.

  Discovery path
« Landscapes through ages »
 
On this 7 km discovery path, 11 boards make you understand the landscape and Heritage’s history of the emblematic marshland village. Reading of many old plans and archive documents. Indicated from R15 and R70 (follow Pont l’Abbé, starting point)
Interpretation document available at the tourist office of Ste Mère Eglise or at the Information Point in Picauville in July and August or in town Hall.

Airships dirigible Hangar

The hangar was built by Marine Nationale in order to shelter dirigible airships to escort the convoys and to find sub-marines and mines during the First World War. Under German occupation from 1940 to 1944, it was then used by Americans. Unique in Europe, this huge building has two parts: visit first the museum which explains its history and then visit the hangar and discover flights of two dirigible airships in July and August where you can as well take place (with flight fee) or during special days which will be announced in newspaper. The Association des Amis du Hangar was created in 2003 in order to restore the hangar and create new activities on this site.