Cherbourg Manche airport — Cherbourg, France

Perched on a plateau above the English Channel at Maupertus-sur-Mer, Cherbourg Manche Airport gives the Cotentin Peninsula's northern tip a link to Paris beyond the ferries that dock in Cherbourg's harbor below. The field grew during the mid-twentieth century into a long-runway facility, a legacy of postwar planning that left it capable of handling far larger aircraft than its modest passenger numbers would suggest. Farmland and hedgerow bocage surround the runway, and the nearby coastline recalls the region's wartime past near the D-Day beaches of Utah and Omaha. General aviation, flight training, and a small scheduled service toward the capital make up most of Cherbourg's present-day air traffic.