Le Havre, France Shore Excursions - Paris, D-Day Beaches, Versailles & Giverny

Cruise ships dock at the Le Havre Cruise Terminal in the Port of Le Havre, on the north bank of the Seine estuary on the Normandy coast. The terminal is approximately 3 kilometers from Le Havre city center. Your private driver-guide and vehicle will meet you at the pier exit with a name sign. Paris is approximately 200 kilometers southeast - about 2 hours by private vehicle via the A13 motorway. Versailles is approximately 80 kilometers southeast - about 1 hour. Giverny is approximately 80 kilometers southeast - about 1 hour. The D-Day beaches at Omaha are approximately 90 kilometers west - about 1 hour 15 minutes.

Yes - with realistic expectations about the time involved. Paris is 200 kilometers from Le Havre cruise port - approximately 2 hours each way by private vehicle, giving you 5 to 6 hours in the city on a 10-hour tour. That is enough time for a panoramic driving tour past the major monuments, lunch near the Seine, and independent exploration of one or two neighborhoods. It is not enough time for multiple museum visits or the Louvre. Guests who prioritize museums generally do better to choose Versailles, which is closer and fully covered in a single visit. The Paris tour is strongest for guests who want to say they have seen the city from street level with a private guide.

The D-Day Landing Beaches are the stretch of Normandy coastline where Allied forces landed on 6 June 1944 - Operation Overlord, the largest seaborne invasion in history, which involved approximately 156,000 troops landing across five beach sectors in a single day. The Le Havre D-Day shore excursion focuses on the American sector - Omaha Beach, where the US 1st and 29th Infantry Divisions suffered the highest casualties of the day in the face of fortified German positions on the bluffs above the beach; the Normandy American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer overlooking Omaha, where 9,387 American war dead are buried in 172 acres of Normandy soil permanently ceded to the United States; and Pointe du Hoc, where US Army Rangers scaled 30-meter cliffs under fire to destroy German heavy artillery. The German concrete bunkers, shell craters, and Ranger climbing equipment are preserved at Pointe du Hoc as they were in June 1944.

Giverny is a small village in Normandy approximately 80 kilometers southeast of Le Havre cruise port - about 1 hour by private vehicle. Claude Monet lived and painted at his house in Giverny from 1883 until his death in 1926. He designed the garden himself - the flower garden in front of the house with its Grande Allee, and the water garden created by diverting a nearby stream, whose Japanese bridge and water lily pond were the direct inspiration for his famous Nympheas series of approximately 250 paintings, several of which now hang in the Orangerie Museum in Paris. Visits to the house and garden are timed-entry - we secure tickets in advance as part of your private Le Havre shore excursion. The tour combines Giverny with the medieval port town of Honfleur, 25 kilometers from Le Havre.

Our back-to-ship guarantee means that if an unforeseen delay during your private Le Havre shore excursion prevents you from returning to Le Havre cruise port before your ship departs, we will arrange and cover the cost of transportation to your next port of call. This guarantee applies to all tours from Le Havre France booked through us. Your tour must be scheduled to return 1.5 hours before the ship departs.