Harbour

Ouistrahem

3.0Ouistreham, FranceCôte Fleurie and Alabaster Coast

Maximum length: 49 ft
VHF channel: 12
Maximum draught: 6 ft

Tidal harbour at the mouth of the Canal de Caen à la mer in Calvados, Normandy, combining a marina basin, a ferry terminal and the lock giving access to Caen 15 kilometres inland.

Guide

Approach and anchoring

Approach from the Baie de Seine through the buoyed channel between the piers, visible from several miles offshore. Lock opens around high water, with timings published daily by the Port de Caen-Ouistreham. VHF 12 for the lock and 74 for the marina. Strong cross tides run in the approach channel and across the outer waiting pontoon, setting boats towards the channel, so moor with care as no one may be on hand to take lines. The outer visitor pontoon was rebuilt for 2026 with an alongside berth for boats waiting on the lock and finger berths inside; call the marina office for a berth and the gate code. Well sheltered except in northerlies. Maximum draught 2 metres inside the outer basin.

Practical

Around 10 visitor berths on pontoons in the avant-port, managed by the main marina of Ouistreham Riva-Bella, which offers 650 berths 0.4 nautical miles south. The outer pontoon has water and electricity but no other facilities yet; the harbour office and showers are a long walk behind the lock at the main marina, and the berth is priced the same, which is on the dear side. Diesel and petrol at the fuel pontoon. Supermarket, bakeries and restaurants within 300 metres on Avenue de la Mer.

Ashore

Sword Beach, the easternmost of the D-Day landing beaches, runs along the seafront 500 metres north-west, with the Musée du Mur de l'Atlantique inside the former German command bunker at 400 metres. Pegasus Bridge and its memorial museum at Bénouville lie 6 km south along the canal. Caen town centre, castle and Mémorial museum reachable by bus line 1, 15 km south.

History

Ouistreham was the landing sector of the 1st Special Service Brigade under Lord Lovat on 6 June 1944, the eastern flank of Sword Beach. The sea lock and canal were built in 1857 to give Caen direct access to the sea and remain in commercial use today.

Story

French commandos of the Kieffer unit, 177 men trained in Scotland, landed at Ouistreham on D-Day morning and fought their way to the casino, the only French troops to land in France on 6 June 1944.