I've biked in Normandy a couple of times, including 5 years ago, just before the heads of state arrived for the 70th anniversary of D-Day. There is no danger from mines to bike, walk, or drive on the roads there. And yes, I even biked to Pointe du Hoc. Traffic was not a big issue, though we attempted to take small roads whenever possible.
It was striking how during the days near the D-Day anniversary, how many towns, businesses, and homes were displaying allied flags. This was only true near the landing beaches and in towns liberated soon thereafter. Elsewhere in Normandy, we saw nothing commemorating D-Day.
On roads big and small, we came upon many monuments commemorating a particular battle or an individual hero. Near Utah Beach, there was a monument honoring the Danish soldiers who had participated in the liberation. Similarly, we saw a monument honoring the Belgian soldiers who helped liberate Normandy. I had no idea about either country's soldiers. In one area near Utah Beach, there are special kilometer markers, each one honoring an individual American soldier who died.
Many shops had window displays featuring items from the 1940s. At the tourist office in Sainte Mere Eglise, the women working there were all dressed in 1940s-style clothing, had 1940s hairstyles, and big band music from that era was being played on the speakers. We saw several WWII reenactment camps (some even had the old Canadian flag of that era), and dozens of old American jeeps being driven around. We saw small parades and heard free concerts with music from that period.
We visited numerous cemeteries, including a German one. Each country's cemeteries were different. Whereas the U.S. buried their dead in 2 large cemeteries, the British generally buried their dead close to where they were killed. The result is that there are many British war cemeteries, some of them very small. There is one Canadian war cemetery that I saw on the map, but we didn't go past it. We did go past the 2 British and 1 Canadian landing beaches, and unlike Omaha and Utah Beaches, they are now fairly crowded seaside holiday beach towns.
The restored church in the 1st photo is in Colleville-sur-Mer, the closest village to Omaha Beach. The photo shows what the church looked like after the fighting. The 2nd photo is in Beuvron-en-Auge, the prettiest village we visited in Normandy. The 3rd photo is a bakery displaying the Allied flags, a very common sight.
