Open a GPX file

Normandy beaches and Mont-Saint-Michel

From the Ouistreham ferry along the D-Day coast to Barfleur and Cherbourg, down the Cotentin coast to Mont-Saint-Michel and Saint-Malo, and back through the Suisse Normande.

Distance
375 miles (603 km)
Type
Loop
Where
Normandy

At 150 to 300 miles a day, this is 2 or 3 days of riding. Set your own daily distance and add rest days.

Plotted by us, not yet ridden

Starts at Caen (Ouistreham) ferry port

Click a dot for details. White dots are the stops, each with a bed search. Yellow dots are places to see.

Main roads

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From the map

Longest gap between fuel
23 miles
Fuel stations near the line
98
Curvature
65 ° a mile
Campsites within 2 km
126
  • The longest stretch with no fuel station within 1 km of the line runs from mile 217 to mile 240. Check it against your range with the fuel range calculator.
  • The twistiest 20 miles run from mile 24 to mile 44, at 135 degrees of turning a mile.
  • Countries: France.
  • 21 motorcycle shops are within 3 km of the line.
  • More routes from this port.

Measured on the route line from OpenStreetMap data, which can be missing or out of date. Curvature is degrees of turning a mile, measured every 100 metres. On our routes they run from 6 on the E19 to 701 on the SP638.

Before you go

  • You cannot ride onto Mont-Saint-Michel. Park on the mainland and take the shuttle.
  • The D-Day beaches and museums are very busy around the June anniversaries.
  • Saint-Malo has its own ferry from Portsmouth, so you can also start or finish there.

On the way

  1. Ouistreham
  2. Bayeux
  3. Colleville-sur-Mer
  4. Pointe du Hoc
  5. Sainte-Mère-Église
  6. Barfleur
  7. Cherbourg
  8. Barneville-Carteret
  9. Granville
  10. Saint-Malo
  11. Villedieu-les-Poêles
  12. Clécy
  13. Thury-Harcourt
  14. Ouistreham

Split it into days

Pick the miles you like to ride in a day. Each day ends at the named place on the route nearest that distance, and you get a GPX file for each day.

This is your pace, not our estimate of how long the riding takes. Day lengths vary because each day ends at a named place.

Ready to ride it?

Book this trip

Plan it with dates in the tour planner

1Getting there

This route starts where the boat or train lands at Caen (Ouistreham). Book the bike as a motorcycle, not a car.

Compare every crossing

2Places to stay

Split the route into days above and each day gets its own bed search for where it ends.

Back to the days

3Cover

Check your bike insurance covers riding abroad, get travel insurance that covers motorcycling at your engine size, and breakdown cover that recovers a motorcycle in every country on the route.

What to check before you buy cover

The country on this route

What GOV.UK says riders need for it, checked 05/11/2026. Rules change, so read the official page before you go.

France

Money
Euro
Ride on the
Right
  • Riding into central Paris, Lyon, Grenoble or another low emission zone? You need a Crit'Air sticker. Buy it only from the official site (official site)
  • Some mountain areas require winter tyres or chains from 1 November to 31 March: check which vehicles and areas it covers (official site)
  • The drink-drive limit is a third lower than in England and Wales, with regular roadside checks

On every trip abroad: your licence, insurance that covers riding abroad, the V5C and travel insurance with medical cover. The tour planner turns all of this into a checklist each rider in your group can tick off.

Places to see on the way

Castles, passes, viewpoints and more within easy reach of the line, in the order you reach them. Yellow dots on the map.

Place details from Wikidata. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each card.