The Pointe du Hoc landing site in France's Normandy region as seen on Feb. 17, 2026. The American Battle Monuments Commission held a groundbreaking ceremony the same day to mark the start of an 18-month restoration project to revitalize the D-Day site. (Julien Nguyen-Kim/ABMC)
Extensive restoration work in France’s Normandy region got underway this week to modernize and preserve a legendary D-Day site that was showing its age.
Restoration of the Pointe du Hoc Ranger Monument, a tribute to American soldiers who scaled 100-foot cliffs under heavy German gunfire on June 6, 1944, is expected to take 18 months to complete, an American Battle Monuments Commission statement said.
Visitors are advised to expect temporary closures and modified access at times during the roughly $10 million project, but the monument will remain open.
Normandy continues to draw large numbers of visitors more than eight decades after D-Day. Pointe du Hoc, located between Omaha and Utah beaches, remains one of the most recognizable locations of the Allied invasion.
The work is aimed partly at addressing erosion and wear at the windswept promontory overlooking the English Channel, the commission said Tuesday, when the restoration project kicked off.
American Battle Monuments Commission Chairman Michael X. Garrett speaks during a groundbreaking ceremony Feb. 17, 2026, at the Pointe du Hoc Ranger Monument in Normandy, France. An 18-month construction project to stabilize and modernize the iconic D-Day battle site kicked off this week. (Julien Nguyen-Kim/ABMC)
“We cannot stop the forces of nature, but we can take steps today that will ensure the site remains safe and accessible for future generations of visitors,” commission chairman Michael X. Garrett said in the statement.
Roughly 730,000 people visited Pointe du Hoc in 2024, a year that coincided with the Summer Olympics in Paris. In 2025, the site drew about 640,000 visitors, a commission representative said Wednesday.
Improvements to parking areas, the memorial plaza and pathways are planned, along with upgrades to the visitor center. The work will not alter the monument’s historic character, according to the commission.
Pointe du Hoc has been preserved largely in its wartime state, with cratered terrain and remnants of German fortifications left intact as a memorial to the 2nd Ranger Battalion’s assault.
On D-Day, roughly 225 Rangers were tasked with destroying German artillery positions at Pointe du Hoc that were believed capable of targeting Allied landings on the two beaches.
Representatives of various organizations break ground during a ceremony at Pointe du Hoc in France's Normandy region on Feb. 17, 2026. The groundbreaking kicked off a restoration project to preserve the famous D-Day site, where U.S. Army Rangers scaled the cliffs as part of the World War II invasion launched from nearby beaches. (Julien Nguyen-Kim/ABMC)
The unit seized the position but suffered heavy losses, with fewer than 100 soldiers still able to fight after two days of combat.
Their exploits were highlighted in a famous address by former President Ronald Reagan in 1984 on the 40th anniversary of D-Day. His remarks at the monument were referred to as the “Boys of Pointe du Hoc” speech.
Created after World War I, the American Battle Monuments Commission manages U.S. military cemeteries and memorials overseas, including several in Normandy tied to the D-Day landings.
Another site in its care is the nearby Normandy American Cemetery, which receives more than 1 million visitors annually and is the most-visited cemetery overseen by the commission, figures from the organization show.
Overlooking Omaha Beach, the cemetery contains the graves of nearly 9,400 Americans killed during the D-Day landings and subsequent operations in Normandy.
