2026 Campervan road trip Pt1 Normandy Beaches to Falaise

Departing from our usual ferry route for our early summer road trip to Sardinia and Corsica, we opted for the Portsmouth to Le Havre ferry. It was just £20 more expensive and allowed us to reach Normandy without the lengthy drive.

In this blog, we'll guide you from the historic Normandy beaches to Falaise, the birth place of William the Conqueror, with many intriguing stops along the way.

Portsmouth to Le Havre Ferry

Typically, we take the Dover - Calais ferry as it's the most economical way to travel to mainland Europe. However, the trip from the Yorkshire Dales to Dover is often plagued by delays on the M6 and M25. For our winter ski trip, we tried the Hull to Rotterdam ferry, which offered great value in winter, but for the summer trip, it was nearly £800 return!

In search of alternatives, I looked into routes from Portsmouth and discovered the crossing to Le Havre for £145. It’s nearly 60 miles closer from the Dales to Portsmouth, and we wanted to explore the Normandy beaches, making it a perfect choice for us.

Travelling in mid-May, the ferry was quiet with few cars, allowing us to breeze through French passport control. Since our details were already in the system from our ski trip in February, we faced no issues. However, I can imagine that on a busy summer ferry, it might take longer to pass through, as there was no dedicated lane for those already registered, and each car took some time to process.

We stayed over night at Port Solent which we have done a couple of times. They have introduced a cost of £10 a night which is worth it as it feels safe and secure and it is handy for catching the early ferry.

There are a few restaurants on the harbour front including a Wetherspoons - a real treat as it was our 31st wedding anniversary that day!

Honfleur

Based on the advice of many of our subscribers, we chose Honfleur for our first night in France. There's a large motorhome aire with more than 200 spaces, so we assumed we would find a spot. However, when we arrived at 7 pm, it was full! Fortunately, there is a small overflow car park without EHU, and we managed to secure the last available spot. At €15 per night, it's not cheap, and honestly, the facilities are quite dated and dirty. Nonetheless, you are in a fantastic location right on the edge of the town.

We explored the picturesque harbour town both in the evening when it was a little wild and windy and early the next morning. What a contrast! There are a maze of cobbled streets packed with quirky little shops and a beautiful old harbour area with lots of cafes and restaurants where you can sit and watch the world go by.

The buildings are colourful and eclectic which just adds to the character and if we weren't on a mission to get down to the French Mediterranean coast for our Sardinia ferry, we could have stayed a little longer to get a true feel for the town and the surrounding area.

From Honfleur, we took the coastal road towards the historic Normandy beaches. First stop was at Sword beach, one of the primary D-day landing beaches for the British Infantry. It is 5 miles long and we got the bikes out so we could see the various memorials dotted along the promenade. It is hard to comprehend that over 630 soldiers lost their lives on that beach with hundreds more severely injured.

A particularly moving place to visit was the British Normandy Memorial just above Gold Beach. It is a very peaceful, sombre place which highlights the enormity of the number of lives lost in just a few days in that area. Each Pillar of the walk way is engraved with dozens of names of soldiers who died, many barely reaching the age of 20!

We were fortunate to catch the art installation - 'Standing with Giants' which is there until September. There are 1,476 silhouttes to represent each of the lives lost on the 6th of June 1944. They are set in the wild flower meadows that over look Gold beach - just the sight of them sent shivers down our spine. The memorial is a very busy destination with coach loads of people arriving while we were there - yet you could hardly hear a pin drop as people quietly wandered around taking all the information in.

The memorial is only a few miles from the town of Arrowmanches-les-Bains, famous for the Mulberry Harbours to allow troops to get to shore. It is incredible that there are still the remains of these portable harbours littering the beach 82 years later!

It is quite fascinating wandering around them trying to picture what it must have been like at that time. The town was incredibly busy with school parties of all nationalities and alot of US and Canadians accents. I actually remember visiting here in my school days! It was also a French bank holiday weekend where all the children were off on the Friday, so lots of families.

Parking in the town is not easily accessible for campervans but there is a large carpark and aire on the clifftops about 15 minutes walk into the town by the cinema. We parked there for a couple of hours with no problems.

Having arrived in France on a bank holiday weekend, all of the campsites and aires by the coast were full and it was so busy everywhere. We made the decision to drive south for an hour and just find a park up for the night as we would be arriving late after a long day exploring and leaving early.

Not satisfied with a packed 24 hours of history - Richard had his eye on the medieval town of Falaise - the birth pace of William the Conqueror. We found a free P4N right next to the castle walls and had a lovely stroll around the castle grounds the next morning.

We hadn't realised the significance of the town in WW2 until after we had left - perhaps we should have paid more attention to all the information signs and the tank art installation that had been covered with portraits of civilians and soldiers. Definitely an interesting town to call in at on your way down through France - there was also a paid aire that had motorhome service facilities next to the castle.

In the next blog we spend a few days exploring the castles and hill top villages in the Loire Valley and the Dordogne. An extremely beautiful area of France that we will certainly return to.

Click on the link below if you would like to see more detail on our visit to the Normandy beaches and Honfleur:

Thanks for taking the time to read our blog

Jackie and Richard