Private Tour WW2 Dunkirk (PRIVATE TOUR)

As you booked a Private tour, the driver guide will pick you up around 06:15 am at your hotel location in Paris.

You will travel aboard a comfortable and air-conditioning minivan (7 passengers max).

Expected time for being pickup at your hotel: From 06 :00 am till 06 :30 am

Due to new traffic rules in Paris which ban on the majority of vehicular traffic crossing the city center in 2022, Hotel Pick-up and Drop-off would be operated only in the following listed Paris districts: 75008, 75007, 75006, 75005, 75016, 75015 and 75014.

LIDO DE PARIS 116 Av. des Champs-Élysées, 75008 Paris

Dowload the map here

Come with us to explore Dunkirk and the underground site of "La Coupole", huge bunker, built in 1943-1944 as a base to launch the V2 rockets towards London.

This journey of one day in the county of « Pas de Calais » in North of France will embarks you in the footsteps of the brave allies soldiers who were trapped and encircled by the german panzer-divisions in the hell of Dunkirk. After fierce fighting, finally 338,000 british and french troops succeeded to re-embark aboard ships to cross the channel untill England.

Operation Dynamo was the codename of the largest military' seaborne evacuation ever organized. Military operations to evacuate british and french troops began in May 26 and will end in June 4th 1940, constantly under fire of german aircrafts and artillery bombardements.

With your driver-guide you will travel to Dunkerque in an air-conditioned minivan. Once you arrive, you will visit the « Bastion 32 Museum ».

The Bastion 32 was the name given to the buildings that housed the Headquarters of the French and Allied Forces army during the battle of Dunkerque and Operation Dynamo in June 1940.

Installed in the Bastion 32 casemates, which were built in 1874 as part of the strengthening of coastal defense,

The 1940 Dunkirk Museum (located in severals casemates of the Bastion 32 » tells the story of this battle and the evacuation of more than 330,000 Allied soldiers from the “Poche de Dunkerque” in 9 days.

Dunkirk lighthouse is an automated first order lighthouse, the highest of this type in France. It’s is built on the ruins of Fort Risban, built by Vauban from 1681 It is sited near Dunkirk. Construction on the lighthouse was completed in 1843.

The lighthouse was severely damaged by the German bombings of 1940 and major repairs will be scheduled as early as 1946

Nearby is the famous Dunkirk harbour jetty which you will see in a distance (Photo stop on the spot)

The Dunkirk harbour jetty is one of the emblematic places of the boarding of May-June 40. The pier, resurrected in the film Dunkerque, in a cold, hyperrealistic abyss, remains the point of crystallization of Operation Dynamo.

The Princess Elizabeth is a paddle-steamer built between 1926-1927. It was named the Princess Elizabeth to celebrate the birth of the present queen.

In May 1940, it played a crucial part in Operation Dynamo. Accompanied by the flotilla of 'Little Ships' which sailed to Dunkirk to rescue the stranded soldiers, it saved 1673 Allied soldiers in 4 crossings.

Today fully restored,  you will observe the majestic Princess Elizabeth at the Estacade quay, near the Pole Marine Shopping Centre in Dunkirk. Keeping history alive, the Princess Elizabeth perpetuates the 'Dunkirk Spirit' created by Churchill in 1940.

Star of the film 'Dunkirk'

In May 2016, Christopher Nolan's team landed in Dunkirk to film his new movie 'Dunkirk'. While thousand of extras took part in the film, a special guest also participated: The Princess Elizabeth. The ship relived Operation Dynamo again and came back to the place of its major accomplishment.

With the guide you will enjoy a walk along the sea wall in the lovely little town of « Malo » which is one of the residential areas (buidings dating from 1900 with an art deco style architecture) of Dunkirk renowned for its famous dike, a place where the natives walk as soon as the sun reaches the tip of their nose.

Also there many scenes of the movie « Dunkirk » by the English film director Christopher Nolan were film in the district’ streets.

This charming litlle town of « Malo Les Bains » is lined with terrace, seafood restaurants and ice cream shops that make everyone happy !

So it’s definitly a nice spot to take a break for lunch in a local restaurant or you will just decides by yourself of your own choices of meals (own expense).

 For you ladies, we will even try to save a bit of time in order to explore the local little shops which border the sea wall.

After you lunch, let’s continue the tour 3 miles away in order to see the « fort des Dunes » a so remarkable example of military installation designed by General Séré de Rivières at the end of the 20th Century. With its buildings buried under the sand and camouflated among the dunes' lanscapes who stretch arround. The fort was built in 1878 to protect Dunkirk and its port from attacks from the east. During the Second World War « the fort des Dunes » was at the heart of Operation Dynamo and badly damaged by germans aircraft bombers. (Photo stop on the spot)

In Zuydecoote the coast stretchs untill belgium.There while walking along the beach you will see at low tide some of the boats wrecks left behind by the british navy after operation Dynamo.

The most impressive wrecks are this vessel « Crested Eagle » and the « Devonia » which lie between Zuydcoote and Bray-Dunes. They can be reached on foot but can only be seen at low tides.

The Crested Eagle caught fire after coming under German aircrafts attack, It’s thought that more than 300 soldiers on board perished in the flames. Today both sets of remains and more than a dozen other small ships are largely used as mussel beds.

Leaving Dunkirk, in the afternoon the driver guide will take you to visit the amazing underground nazi military site of « La Coupole » one of the most impressive vestige of the Second World War in Europe.

This huge bunker, built by the Todt Organisation in 1943-1944 had to be the base for launching the V2 rockets against London.

The most prominent feature of the complex is an immense concrete dome, to which its modern name refers.

 It was built above a network of tunnels housing storage areas, launch facilities and crew quarters.

The facility was designed to store a large stockpile of V-2s, warheads and fuel and was intended to launch V-2s on an industrial scale. Dozens of missiles a day were to be fuelled, prepared and launched in rapid sequence against London and southern England.

During the return drive to Paris you will have time to relax aboard the minivan before to be dropped off at your hotel location in the evening (between 08:00 pm till 09:00 pm).