Historic WWII Sites of France & Germany

Depart for Paris

Your journey begins on your overnight flight.

Arrive in Paris

If you purchased airline tickets from YMT, a representative will welcome you at the airport and transport you to the hotel. Meet your fellow guests tonight at a welcome dinner. (D)

Paris City Tour and Paris Liberation Museum

Start your journey with a coach tour of Paris, which was occupied by the Nazis from 1940 until Allied forces and the French Resistance took back the City of Light in 1944. Go past sites including the Eiffel Tower, the Bastille, the Latin Quarter, the Louvre, and the Champs Elysées. After free time for lunch on your own, stop by the moving Paris Liberation Museum. Learn the story of Free France from 1940 to 1945, highlighting the heroes of the French resistance and the liberation of the city from Nazi occupation. (B)

Full Day Normandy Tour

Spend a full day along the chalky cliffs of Normandy. Walk the Utah and Omaha landing beaches. Visit the memorial at Pointe-duHoc, where Allied troops scaled sea cliffs to destroy German artillery. See “100 Days of Normandy” at the 360 Circular Cinema on the cliffs of Arromances overlooking the artificial harbor where Allied forces offloaded weapons, supplies, and hundreds of thousands of men. Finally, pay your respects at the Normandy American Cemetery. 9,387 American graves stretch along the top of a bluff overlooking the beaches where so many perished. (B, D)

Normandy to Reims via Rouen

Depart Normandy in the morning to Reims. Stop for free time and lunch on your own in Rouen, the medieval city where Joan of Arc was executed. Continue to Reims to visit the Little Red Schoolhouse and the Surrender Museum, where the German army unconditionally surrendered on May 7, 1945. Their Fuhrer dead, their cities captured, the Third Reich ended with a whisper in the humble rooms of this quiet French school. (B)

Reims to Bastogne via Luxembourg

Your day begins in the American Cemetery, where George S. Patton is interred alongside thousands of his men. Next, take a walking tour of Luxembourg City, the ancient city that was occupied from 1940-1945. See the Grand Ducal Palace, the official residence of the Grand Duke of Luxembourg that the Nazis used as a tavern. You will also see the 10th century Saint Michael’s Church, the Golden Lady war memorial, and more of the city’s unique sites. (B)

Full Day Battle of the Bulge tour

Tour Ardennes, seeing the sites where a desperate Hitler waged one final attack during the Battle of the Bulge from December 16, 1944, through January 25, 1945. Hundreds of thousands of troops clashed in frigid weather through out the dense Belgian forest, with both sides sustaining huge losses. By the time German troops retreated, Allied victory was so complete that the Battle of the Bulge tolled as a death knell for the failed Nazi war effort. (B, D)

Bastogne to Frankfurt via Ludendorff Bridge

Cross from Belgium into Germany, where your f irst stop is Remagen’s Peace Museum and Ludendorff Bridge. The bridge was the last surviving crossing point over the Rhine, and a crucial Nazi line of defense in the last days of WWII. After it was captured on March 7, 1945, Nazi troops made several attempts to destroy the structure. Instead, Allied forces used it to transport countless troops and supplies across the river—speeding up the end of the war in the process. Spend the evening in Frankfurt. (B, D)

Frankfurt to Nuremberg

Much of Frankfurt was bombed during the war, and most of the city was rebuilt in a modern style, save for a few landmark historical buildings. Amongst the sights you’ll see on today’s panoramic tour are the reconstructed Gothic Frankfurt Cathedral and the Römer, a medieval building that served as Frankfurt’s city hall for over 600 years. Following free time and lunch on your own in Frankfurt’s city center, continue to the historic village of Nuremberg. Take a city tour, where you will see the formidable Nuremberg castle, the 13th century St. Sebald Church, the elaborate 14th century Schöner Brunnen fountain, and WWII sites. (B)

Nuremberg to Munich via Dachau

Visit the crumbling Nazi Party Rally Grounds and Documentation Center, where Adolf Hitler ignited his followers with his famously bombastic speeches throughout the 1930s. The mass Nazi party rallies and parades that took place in this once mighty complex helped whip Germany into a fascist frenzy.Next, you will see the human toll of Nazi policies and beliefs on a guided tour of the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site, the first Nazi concentration camp. Over 12 years, 200,000 people from more than 30 countries were confined in Dachau. It was only the second concentration camp to be liberated, and its conditions shocked the world. (B)

Munich

As the birthplace and former headquarters of the Nazi Party, Munich played a key role in the rise and fall of the Third Reich. The city was destroyed in Allied bombings, but the people chose to reconstruct many of its historical buildings. Tour the rebuilt city, where you will the see beautiful Baroque Nymphenburg Palace, Marienplatz in the heart of Old Town, the lavishly animated Rathaus-Glockenspiel clock tower, the idyllic court garden of Hofgarten, the towering Gothic Frauenkirche church, and the Residenz, the largest palace in Munich. (B)

Depart for Home (B)