Exploring Normandy's Canadian Remembrance Route - a 4 day itinerary from Juno Beach to Dieppe
- teamthomastravels
- Sep 8
- 12 min read
Updated: Sep 11
The Canadian contribution to the Battle of Normandy in WWII was nothing short of vital. From landing on Juno Beach on D-Day to the fierce fighting to liberate Caen and Rouen and the decisive final battle to close the Falaise Gap, Canadians left an incredible legacy on French soil. Out of a country of only 11 million inhabitants, 1 million Canadian women and men, all volunteers, joined the Allied armed forces from 1939-1945. Of those, 45,000 would lose their lives, with 5,500 in the Normandy Campaign alone. Their journey of liberation would continue beyond Normandy through Belgium and the Netherlands, leaving a lasting impact across Western Europe.
Today, an official 400km memorial route has been created by the tourism boards of Normandy, Dieppe, Caen la Mer, and Lens to honour the sacrifices made by Canadian troops in France. The route runs through Normandy and continues into Pas-de-Calais to explore the Canadian memorial sites of WWI - more on that later.
For me, this journey was also deeply personal. My grandfather served in the Royal Canadian Air Force during WWII, navigating Dakotas (or C-47s) through the skies of a world at war. It was a huge privilege to learn more about my family's history, especially as I realised how little of the Canadian Normandy story is taught in the UK. As a nation that is both North American and a part of the Commonwealth, Canada's narrative often seems to get amalgamated into the broader British and US stories. I wanted to follow in their footsteps to ensure that I could understand and honour the Canadian victories and sacrifices in their own right.
Where to stop on the Canadian Remembrance Route
We’ve put together a four-day itinerary that explores the main Normandy sites on the Canadian Remembrance Route from Juno Beach to Dieppe. While you could spend weeks exploring every museum, village, and small roadside memorial, this trip covers the key locations and most powerful stories along the way.
Day 1: The Landing
Begin your journey in Courseulles-sur-Mer on the hallowed grounds of Juno Beach, where Canadian troops bravely came ashore on D-Day. Walk along the sand and imagine the scale, sounds, and carnage of the events of 6th June 1944 before heading to the Juno Beach Centre. This excellent museum offers a powerful and moving look at Canada's role in the Second World War, from the home front to the battlefields of Europe. There is also a temporary exhibition about the Royal Canadian Air Force (until 31st December).
A 10-minute drive east, on the way back to Caen, pause outside the Maison des Canadiens in Bernières-sur-Mer, on the eastern flank of Juno Beach. It's a large, distinctive villa that stands right on the promenade, making it a very visible landmark from the water. It was the first house liberated by Canadian soldiers on D-Day, and it now stands as a private home with a small garden of remembrance outside.
The first waves of troops landing here, specifically the Queen's Own Rifles of Canada, faced fierce German machine-gun fire, strong winds, and an undetonated minefield. Their landing craft had been delayed, meaning the naval bombardment had ended and the German defenders had time to regroup. Within the first few minutes of the landings, the unit suffered heavy casualties, and over 100 men were killed or wounded on the beach in front of this very house. The Canadian forces were able to push through and secure a foothold, but not without significant sacrifice.
End your day at the peaceful Bény-sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery, the final resting place for many of the earliest Canadian casualties—those who gave their lives in the D-Day landings and the advance towards Caen. Here you'll find 2,049 burials, the majority Canadian, including seven of the servicemen executed by the SS at Ardenne Abbey (see tomorrow's itinerary): Private Charles Doucette, Private Reginald Keeping, Private James Moss, Trooper James Bolt, Trooper George Vincent Gill, Trooper Thomas Henry, and Lieutenant Fred Williams. Look out for a lone grey cross amongst the white Commonwealth war graves; it belongs to R. Guenard of the French Resistance. You can also find the graves of the three Westlake brothers, George, Thomas, and Albert.
(Sleep in Caen)
Day 2: The Fight For Caen
Caen was a crucial D-Day objective, meant to be captured within hours of the landings on 6th June 1944. However, the German defenders had heavily fortified the city, and the surrounding flat terrain was perfect for their tanks. The Allies faced fierce and sustained resistance, which turned the battle into a brutal, month-long struggle of attrition. In the end, the main part of the city was not fully liberated until 9th July 1944, with the last of its districts only secured on 19th July 1944, during Operation Atlantic.
Start by briefly exploring the centre of the city. Much of historic Caen was destroyed by Allied bombing, but you can still find a few medieval gems like Caen Castle and the beautiful Abbaye aux Hommes and Abbaye aux Dames, founded by William the Conqueror and his wife Mathilde. Behind the Abbey Church of St Etienne (where William is buried) on Place Monseigneur des Hameaux, a plaque and a small garden commemorate the spot where the French flag was raised on 9th July 1944, for the first time in four years, following the city's liberation by the Canadians.
Next, visit the Caen Memorial Museum, a must-see for its incredible in-depth exploration of not only the D-Day landings but also its exceptional galleries about France during the years of German occupation and Vichy collaboration. It is built on top of the remains of General Richter's bunker, the German commander in charge of the 716th Infantry Division which defended the coast during the D-Day landings. You can visit part of the bunker with your museum ticket.
There is a very good museum cafe where you can have lunch and be sure to head outside to visit the Canadian Garden of Remembrance, where maple trees surround a central black granite slab in a pool of running water, inscribed with a quote from Virgil: “Nulla dies umquam memori vos eximet aevo” (No day will ever erase you from the memory of time). A low stone wall records the names of the 122 Norman villages that were liberated by Canadian forces, and at the garden's high point stands a Canadian flag and a series of glass panels listing the names of all the Canadian units that served in Normandy. Expect to spend at least four hours at the museum; it is amazing.
Your final stop for today is the solemn Canadian Abbey d’Ardenne Massacre Memorial, a 10-minute drive from the Caen Memorial Museum, where 18 Canadian prisoners of war were executed by the 12th SS Panzer Hitlerjugend Division on 7th and 8th June 1944. A further two were killed on 17th June. The garden of remembrance is a quiet and deeply moving place of reflection with photographs of all the servicemen and Canadian flags. N.B. The memorial garden closes at 6:00 p.m.
(Sleep in Caen)
Considering A Guided Tour?
If you'd like to join a guided tour to visit some of these sites with an expert, the Caen Memorial Museum runs an excellent half-day itinerary, From Gold Beach to Caen,that includes Bény-sur-Mer Cemetery, the Ardenne Abbey Memorial, Arromanches, and the British Memorial.
The tour costs €150 per person and includes guaranteed departure in a seven-seater air-conditioned minibus with a certified Caen Memorial guide and a driver, bottles of water, and umbrellas should you need them. The guides are all absolute fountains of knowledge (we did it with Oliver who was outstanding) and will fill you in on vital historical context with photographs and maps while you drive between sites, as well as giving an in-depth explanation of each site as you explore them. Your tour ticket also includes admission to the Caen Memorial, so you could take the tour from 8:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. (it starts and ends at the museum), have lunch in the cafe, and then do the museum in the afternoon. If you plan on doing this, tweak the itinerary so that instead of visiting Bény-sur-Mer on the evening of Day One, you explore the centre of Caen instead, leaving your full second day free to do the tour (including Bény-sur-Mer and Ardenne Abbey) and the Caen Memorial Museum.
Day 3: The Falaise Pocket
Today you will follow the Canadian advance out of Caen, starting 14km south of the city at the Bretteville-sur-Laize Canadian War Cemetery, where the later casualties of the Battle of Normandy rest: those who fell in the battles of Caen and the Falaise Pocket. There are 2,958 burials, 2,782 of whom are Canadian, including 11 of the Canadian POWs executed at the Abbaye d'Ardenne: Private Ivan Lee Crowe, Corporal Joseph McIntyre, Trooper Thomas Lockhead, Trooper Harold Philp, Lieutenant Thomas Windsor, Private Walter Doherty, Private Hugh MacDonald, Private George McNaughton, Private George Millar, Private Thomas Mont, and Private Raymond Moore.
Head to the town of Falaise itself, where interpretive boards scattered across the historic centre detail the story of how the Canadians liberated Falaise on 17th August 1944. A Canadian flag flies proudly on Rue Brebrisson beside a memorial dedicated to five members of the South Saskatchewan Regiment who were ambushed by the SS on 20th August 1944.
Carry on driving, following the southern thrust of the Canadian troops, through the villages of Trun (liberated on the 18th) and Chambois (20th August) where you'll find memorials dedicated to the Canadians. Between the two, stop at the St. Lambert-sur-Dive battlefield overlook where information boards below Canadian and French flags give a contextual overview of the movements of German, Canadian, British, and American troops on the fields below. This is where the Allies attempted to surround around 100,000 retreating German soldiers in what became known as the Falaise Pocket.
270m up the road is a memorial to Major David V. Currie, the only Canadian to be awarded the Victoria Cross in the Normandy Campaign, for his decisive and courageous leadership in his part in closing the Falaise Gap.
5km from Chambois, up on Hill 262, the Memorial Montormel Museum provides a comprehensive look at the brutal but critical events of the Falaise Pocket, marking the end of the Battle of Normandy. From this strategic lofty point, overlooking the encircled German forces who were desperately breaking for Vimoutiers to join the rest of the retreating German army, the Polish 1st Armoured Division and then the Canadian Grenadier Guards laid down unceasing fire on what quickly became a "Corridor of Death." After two days of relentless attacks and counterattacks from 19th-21st August 1944, 10,000 German soldiers were dead and 40,000 were captured. Montgomery referred to the battle as "the beginning of the end of the war."
The museum has two excellent informative films about the battle, including testimonies from soldiers and civilians who were there, along with artefacts from the battlefield such as uniforms, photographs, an Enigma machine, and a crate labelled "SS Vitamultin," Hitler's vitamin/methamphetamine stimulant of choice which Himmler ordered to be sent to the SS Divisions. Outside by the car park, you can see two tanks and a memorial dedicated to the Polish soldiers who heroically held the hill for two days despite heavy losses and dwindling ammunition.
N.B. Depending on what time of year you're visiting, you might need to keep an eye on the time earlier in the day, as outside of the peak season of 1st May - 30th August, the museum closes at 4:30 p.m.
(Sleep in Dieppe)
Day 4: Dieppe: The Raid and the Liberation
Your journey concludes in Dieppe, a city whose history with Canada stretches back centuries. This connection began long before the World Wars, as Dieppe was the port of departure for many of the French pioneers and settlers who founded early Quebec.
Begin at the beachfront and walk along the promenade to visit the memorials for the different Canadian regiments (and the US Rangers) involved in Operation Jubilee: the catastrophic 1942 Dieppe Raid. On this pebble beach, Canadian soldiers and tanks alike struggled to gain traction under heavy enemy fire. Of the nearly 5,000 Canadian troops involved, 916 were killed or died of their wounds, and 1,946 were taken as prisoners of war.
At the western end of the beachfront, beneath Dieppe Castle, the Square du Canada is a beautiful spot for quiet reflection. Originally created in 1924, long before the war, to celebrate Dieppe and Canada's four centuries of shared history, it now also serves as a memorial garden to honour those who fell in the Dieppe Raid and the liberation of the city two years later. The flower beds are all red and white, the colours of the Canadian flag, including two in the shape of red maple leaves.
Just around the corner, behind the Mercure Hotel, the Memorial du 19 Août 1942 Museum offers a detailed and sobering look at the Dieppe Raid with a focus on personal stories. Housed within a beautiful Italianate theatre that was built in 1826, the museum contains a collection of documents, objects, uniforms, weapons, and a film of archive footage. A particularly moving highlight is the Faces of Memory display: portraits of Canadian veterans arranged on the actual theatre stage.
N.B. The dates of your visit will determine whether you can visit the museum or not—it's currently only open from 2:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, 5th September to 2nd November. You can check the opening hours for your trip here.
Pay a visit to magnificent St. Jacques's Church. While the commemorative plaques here are not for the war, they honour the centuries of historic ties between the people of Dieppe and Quebec, a connection that makes their 1944 liberation by the 2nd Canadian Division, the same unit that suffered such heavy losses in the 1942 raid, even more meaningful.
A stained glass window near the front of the church commemorates the Canadian Martyrs, Jesuit missionaries killed by First Nations people in the New World, and close by, a marble plaque is intriguingly dedicated to Jeanne Marguerite Chevalier who left Dieppe for Quebec as a Fille du Roy: To solve a severe gender imbalance in 17th-century New France, King Louis XIV sent nearly 800 young, single women to the colony between 1663 and 1673. The King provided their dowries and passage, and their mission to marry and have families was a huge success, dramatically boosting the population and transforming the colony.
To continue the Remembrance Route, take a short drive to visit the memorials at nearby Pourville-sur-Mer and Puys, key landing sites for Operation Jubilee either side of Dieppe where more troops came ashore for flank attacks.
Finally, visit Dieppe's Canadian War Cemetery, 5km out of town in the village of Hautot-sur-Mer. Out of the 765 identified Allied burials, 582 are Canadian and a further 187 are unidentified. The cemetery was initially created by the occupying Germans and its headstones are placed back-to-back in long double rows, typical of German burials. When Dieppe was liberated in 1944, the Allies elected not to disturb the graves, so this unusual arrangement, unique in Commonwealth War Cemeteries, remains. The vast majority of the gravestones bear the date 19th August 1942, the Dieppe Raid.
Extending The Trip
We like to travel at a fast pace and our itinerary packs a lot in. If you'd prefer a more restful trip, you could easily space it out over a couple more days, leaving extra time for leisurely lunches and coffee breaks.
You could also use this itinerary as a base for a more general Operation Neptune trip and include visits to some of the other D-Day beaches and memorials. Juno Beach is between the two British landing beaches at Gold and Sword and very close to both the beautiful British Memorial and the remains of Mulberry Harbour B at Arromanches. For an American perspective, you could drive 45 minutes up the coast to explore Omaha and Utah Beaches, Pointe du Hoc, Sainte-Mère-Église and the outstanding Airborne Museum. Alternatively, drive 35 minutes the other way to visit the site of Pegasus Bridge, where you can see the original bridge and the remains of a Horsa glider at the Pegasus Memorial Museum. Be sure to stop for a coffee at Café Gondrée, the first house to be liberated on 6th June 1944.
As well as the most famous D-Day sites you could also include some amazing less-visited stops such as:
Batteries Longues-sur-Mer, a remarkably preserved German coastal battery where two of the massive guns still remain intact.
The Radar Museum 1944 at Douvres-la-Délivrande, a fascinating journey through a German radar station and bunker complex that explains the vital role of radar and radio communication in the fighting.
The Falaise Civilians Museum, which tells the often-overlooked story of the French civilian experience during the Battle of Normandy. Its three rooms explore daily life under occupation, the liberation of France, and an immersive film about the aerial bombings that so many towns and villages endured.
Exploring Beyond The Battlefields
If you'd like to see more of the region itself you could also extend your trip to include some of the other amazing things to do in Normandy not far from its WWII battlesites:
Visit beautiful villages and towns like Honfleur, Pont Audemer, Beuvron-en-Auge, and Veules-les-Roses.
Explore the Norman castles in Caen and Falaise, both with connections to William the Conqueror.
Enjoy a sunny day at Deauville, Normandy's chic Art Deco beach resort.
Take an indulgent cheese and calvados tour through Pays d'Auge.
Need more ideas? We've written a blog with over 30 of the best things to do in Normandy apart from its D-Day beaches.
Completing the Canadian Remembrance Route
While our trip focused on the Normandy section of the route, specifically Canada's contributions to the Second World War, the full 400km memorial route continues into Northern France, commemorating the country's immense sacrifices and role during the First World War as well.
To complete the Canadian Remembrance Route you'll need to head into Pas-de-Calais to visit the magnificent memorials at Vimy Ridge, where you can take a guided tour led by Canadian students to explore the underground tunnels used during the capture of Vimy Ridge and visit preserved trenches and two military cemeteries, and Beaumont Hamel, a bronze caribou, the emblem of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, high on a hill, with a staggering view of the maze of trenches below, the ground still cratered with shells and No Man's Land.
Disclosure: Our trip to Normandy was made possible with support from the tourism boards of Normandy, Dieppe and Caen. All opinions and the itinerary remain our own.
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