Northern France 2025 (with kids!)

September 28 - October 12, 2025 (with our son Alex, daughter Madeline, and her husband Dustin)

Portland to Los Angeles to Paris

Train to Blois

Our Airbnb was located in the Arts District, nestled immediately below Blois Castle. This historic neighborhood dates back to the 15th century, when it first flourished as a vibrant Renaissance hub for craftsmanship, art, and gastronomy.

View of our street from an upper window

St. Nicholas Church as seen from an upper rear window of our house

A peak inside the church

Situated along the scenic Loire River, the historic town of Blois is very walkable.

Formidable Blois Castle

A view of our house from the castle

A saunter to Cathedral St. Louis

Jardins de l’Evêché

On an evening jaunt for gelato, we stumbled upon this beautifully lit park with Blois Castle in the background

Day trip to Chambord Castle

After three nights in Blois, we picked up our rental car and drove to Dinan for a four-night stay.

The port of Dinan was just down the block from our house

Crêperie Entre Amis

Megaliths:

Known as the "Druids' Cemetery," this 2000 BC Neolithic site is Brittany’s third-largest alignment. It boasts 65 white quartz menhirs in five rows, dominated by a 3.5-meter lookout stone.

Dinard

Back in Dinan, we headed up the hill to check out more of our town

Le Poisson Ivre

Concale

Mont Saint-Michel

Next stop: three nights in Normandy, using the coastal town of Port-en-Bessin-Huppain as our home base

The Longues-sur-Mer World War II German coastal artillery site is perched on a 60-meter cliff overlooking the English Channel between the Allied landing zones of Gold Beach (5 miles east) and Omaha Beach (8 miles west). It's the only coastal battery in the region that still retains its original artillery pieces inside their concrete bunkers. On June 6, 1944, the battery actively shelled the invasion fleets but following a heavy counter-bombardment duel with Allied warships, it was silenced and captured by the British 2nd Devonshire Regiment on June 7.

Utah Beach and The Landing Museum

Arromanches-les-Bains is the site of a massive, prefabricated artificial port (mulberry harbour) installed by the British following the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944. The harbor allowed the Allies to land over 2.5 million men, 500,000 vehicles, and 4 million tons of supplies, crucial for the liberation of France. Today, massive, hollow concrete blockships remain in the water, serving as a breakwater and providing a visible testament to the WWII engineering feat.

Pointe du Hoc

On June 6, 1944, the 2nd U.S. Army Rangers scaled the 100-foot cliffs under a hail of gunfire. The massive bomb craters scoring the landscape served as immediate, ready-made foxholes for the heavily outnumbered troops. After fighting their way to the top, they pushed inland to find and disable the hidden German artillery, stubbornly holding the high ground until backup arrived.

Omaha Beach

The five-mile-long beach was the most heavily fortified D-Day sector, where intense German crossfire from steep bluffs initially pinned U.S. infantry down on the open sand, causing devastating casualties. The near-disaster was turned around by the sheer grit of isolated groups of soldiers who rallied to breach the seawall. Supported by naval destroyers that braved shallow waters to blast enemy bunkers at point-blank range, the infantry fought their way up the high ground and secured a vital foothold inland by nightfall.

Le Restaurant D-day House

Normandy American Cemetery

The 172.5 acre cemetery contains the graves of 9,389 American military dead, most of whom fell during the D-Day landings and subsequent operations. An additional 1,557 names are inscribed on the memorial’s Walls of the Missing.