Normandy American Cemetery from Paris by Private Chauffeur
Colleville-sur-Mer is about 275 km from Paris. With a private chauffeur you leave from your hotel door, spend as long as the place asks of you, and are driven home in the evening — no train connections, no coach timetable.
Book your day trip ↗The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial stands on the cliff above Omaha Beach at Colleville-sur-Mer, in the Calvados department. Close to 9,400 American servicemen and women rest here beneath white marble headstones, and the Walls of the Missing carry 1,557 further names. The site is run by the American Battle Monuments Commission, it opens every day of the year but two, and entry is free. The only complicated part is getting there from Paris and back in a single day. That is the part a private chauffeur takes off your hands.
Door to Door
Collected at your Paris address, dropped at the visitor center entrance, collected from the same spot when you are ready.
Your Own Timing
Stay an hour or three; the car waits. Add Omaha Beach, the museums or the Pointe du Hoc as the day unfolds.
One Fixed Price
Chauffeur, vehicle, fuel, motorway tolls and waiting time included for the whole day.
How to get to the Normandy American Cemetery from Paris
There is no direct public transport between Paris and Colleville-sur-Mer, so every way of getting there asks you to give up something: time, freedom or budget. Here is an honest comparison.
By train. Trains from Paris-Saint-Lazare run to Bayeux, the nearest station. From Bayeux you still need a taxi or one of the local bus services to reach the cemetery; connections are limited, some are seasonal, and the return has to be timed carefully. It works for the cemetery alone. It is hard to combine with Omaha Beach, the museums or the Pointe du Hoc in the same day.
By rental car. The A13 motorway via Caen, then the road to Bayeux and the coast, takes you door to door in around 3 hours. You keep your freedom, but you drive some 6 hours in the day, handle tolls, unfamiliar roads and parking, and arrive at a place of remembrance already tired.
With a group tour. Coach and minibus tours of the D-Day beaches leave Paris daily in season and are the least expensive way to see several sites. The trade-off is a fixed order of stops, a set time at each one and a group whose pace is not yours. At the cemetery in particular, that clock is felt.
With a private chauffeur. Your chauffeur collects you at your hotel or apartment in Paris, drives the same A13 route while you sleep or work, drops you at the visitor center and waits. The day is built around you: stay as long as you wish, add Omaha Beach and its museums, come back for the flag lowering, rest on the way home. It costs more than the train or a coach seat. For a family, a group of friends or a business traveller with a single free day, it is usually the only way to do it once and do it properly. Our Paris to Normandy guide covers the wider region if you have longer.
Normandy American Cemetery hours, entry and what to expect
Opening hours. The cemetery is open every day except 25 December and 1 January; check the day's opening hours on the official ABMC website before you travel. A day trip from Paris fits comfortably inside those hours provided you leave early.
Entry is free. Like every cemetery and memorial managed by the American Battle Monuments Commission, the Normandy American Cemetery charges nothing for admission, and neither does its visitor center. There is no ticket to book in advance.
The Visitor Center. Inaugurated on 6 June 2007, it sits in a wood about 100 m east of the Garden of the Missing. Start there: the exhibits give the landings and the lives of those buried here a context that makes the walk through the graves area something other than a walk. Your chauffeur drops you at its entrance.
The Walls of the Missing. In the semicircular garden behind the memorial, the walls list 1,557 Americans whose remains were never recovered or identified. Take time here as well as among the headstones.
The flag lowering ceremony. Every day, one hour before closing, the colours are lowered — around 5 pm in the summer season and 4 pm the rest of the year. If you would like to be present, tell us when you book: we arrange the order of the day so you are back at the cemetery in time, and the drive home starts afterwards.
Conduct and dress. This is a working place of remembrance visited by families. Dress as you would for a memorial, keep voices low and let children know in advance where they are going. Photographs are part of most visits; taking them quietly is the whole etiquette.
Access to the beach. The path that used to lead from the cemetery down to Omaha Beach has been closed for safety reasons. Check on site or with the ABMC for the current situation. In any case your chauffeur can drive you down to the Omaha Beach car park at Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer, a few minutes away by road, so you stand on the sand itself.
How long to plan: a one-day itinerary from Paris
Count roughly 3 hours of road each way. That leaves the middle of the day for the cemetery and its surroundings, which is enough when the driving is not yours. A day that works, and that our chauffeur drove with a guest on 22 September 2026:
- Early morning — Paris. Pick-up at your hotel or apartment; coffee on board if you wish. The A13 towards Caen is quiet at that hour.
- Late morning — Colleville-sur-Mer. Drop-off at the Normandy American Cemetery visitor center. Most visitors spend between one and two hours; some stay longer. There is no clock to keep.
- Midday — Overlord Museum and Omaha Beach. The museum is a few minutes along the road from the cemetery. From there, the clifftop viewpoint over Omaha Beach, then down to Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer for the beach itself and the Omaha Beach Memorial Museum.
- Lunch. A table by the sea at Saint-Laurent, or in Bayeux if you prefer a town; we book ahead on request.
- Afternoon — Pointe du Hoc. Further west along the coast, the cliff battery stormed by the US Rangers. On the way back, the option of returning to the cemetery for the flag lowering an hour before closing.
- Evening — Paris. The drive home while you rest, with drop-off at your door.
Guests who want to add Utah Beach, Arromanches or the Caen Memorial are better served by our full D-Day beaches tour, or by two days with a night in Bayeux as part of a wider Normandy itinerary. For a single day devoted to the American sector, the programme above is unhurried and complete.
Ask us to shape your day ↗Museums and sites near the Normandy American Cemetery and Omaha Beach
Everything below is within a few minutes' drive of the cemetery, which is why a chauffeur-driven day makes sense: the car links the sites, and you only ever walk from the door of one to the next.
Overlord Museum, Colleville-sur-Mer. Right beside the cemetery, a large collection of vehicles, tanks and equipment recovered from the battlefield. On an outside wall a painted poem begins "Souviens-toi d'Omaha" — remember Omaha. Next door, Omaha Beach Tours run rides in wartime Jeeps and Dodges for those who want to see the beach the way the soldiers' vehicles did.
Inside the Overlord Museum. The rooms are staged as life-size scenes rather than rows of cabinets. A German Sd.Kfz. 251/7 half-track, the engineers' version with its assault-bridge sections carried on the roof, stands in front of a wall-sized wartime photograph. A trailer lettered "Air Corps – U.S. Army" is stacked with jerricans, two American airmen in flight gear beside it. A glass case lays out an infantryman's kit of 1944 — helmet, field jacket, pistol, rations, first-aid dressing — beneath a photograph of the men who carried it, and a rack of Second World War rifles, submachine guns and machine guns rises against a bay window. Our chauffeur photographed these rooms on 27 September 2026; allow an hour if you enjoy the detail.
Omaha Beach from the clifftop. A short drive from the museum, the view opens over the whole beach and the Channel. On a clear day it is the image most people carry home.
Omaha Beach Memorial Museum, Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer. About 200 m from the sand: a Sherman M4 tank at the entrance, a 155 mm "Long Tom" gun, uniforms, weapons and the personal stories of the men who landed here. From the museum, the beach is a walk away and the car park is where your chauffeur waits.
Also photographed on 26 September 2026, in evening light: the Sherman tank and the Czech hedgehog, one of the steel beach obstacles of 1944, on the forecourt of the Omaha Beach Memorial Museum, its façade with the flags and the painted insignia of the units that landed here, and the "Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer – Les Moulins" totem at the top of the road that runs down to the sea.
Pointe du Hoc. West along the coast, the German battery on its cliff, taken by the Rangers on 6 June 1944 and left much as it was: craters, bunkers and the sea below.
Bayeux. On the road back towards Paris, a town spared by the fighting, its cathedral and its famous tapestry. A natural lunch stop or the base for a second day.
Normandy American Cemetery photos: our private day trip of 22 September 2026
On Tuesday 22 September 2026 one of our chauffeurs drove a guest from Paris to Colleville-sur-Mer in a Mercedes E-Class. The photographs below are his, taken while he waited, and the times are read from them: the cemetery at 11:14, the Overlord Museum at 11:25, the Omaha Beach clifftop at 11:59 and the Omaha Beach Memorial Museum at 12:21, followed by the Pointe du Hoc and the return to Paris in the evening. Left to right: our car in the cemetery car park, the Overlord Museum facade and its painted poem, the Sherman tank and the Long Tom gun at Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer, and the E-Class on the road at Colleville-sur-Mer.
Normandy American Cemetery FAQ
Is the Normandy American Cemetery free?
Yes. Entry to the cemetery and its visitor center is free, as at every site run by the American Battle Monuments Commission. There is nothing to book for the cemetery itself; what you pay for with us is the private chauffeur and vehicle for the day from Paris.
What are the Normandy American Cemetery opening hours?
The cemetery is open every day except 25 December and 1 January; check the day's opening hours on the official ABMC website before you travel. On a day trip from Paris we plan the drive so you arrive with the whole middle of the day ahead of you.
How far is the Normandy American Cemetery from Paris?
About 275 km by road, roughly 3 hours by car depending on traffic, via the A13 motorway towards Caen and Bayeux. A private chauffeur collects you at your Paris hotel or apartment and drives you door to door, then back in the evening.
Can I visit the Normandy American Cemetery and Omaha Beach in one day from Paris?
Yes. With an early departure you have the middle of the day for the cemetery, Omaha Beach and the neighbouring museums, then the drive back to Paris in the evening. Our chauffeur did exactly this with a guest on 22 September 2026, adding the Pointe du Hoc before heading home.
Where exactly is the Normandy American Cemetery?
At Colleville-sur-Mer in the Calvados department of Normandy, on the cliff above Omaha Beach and the English Channel, just east of Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer and north-west of Bayeux. Your chauffeur drops you at the visitor center entrance and waits in the car park.
What time is the flag lowering ceremony at the Normandy American Cemetery?
The colours are lowered every day one hour before closing, so around 5 pm from April to September and 4 pm the rest of the year. If you would like to attend, tell us when booking and we build the day around it.
How do I get to the Normandy American Cemetery from Paris without a car?
By train from Paris-Saint-Lazare to Bayeux, then a taxi or a local bus to Colleville-sur-Mer; connections are limited and the last leg takes organising. A private chauffeur from Paris removes the changes and lets you add Omaha Beach, the museums and the Pointe du Hoc in the same day.
Your Normandy American Cemetery day trip from Paris
All-inclusive private price: chauffeur, vehicle, fuel, tolls and waiting.
Business Class
from 949€up to 3 passengers · full day
Business Van
from 1189€up to 7 passengers · full day
Indicative from-price for a private day trip; the final quote depends on your exact itinerary, dates and group size. First Class and larger groups on request.
Visit the Normandy American Cemetery at your own pace
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