emsmom808

We are traveling to France and England in July with our 14 year old daughter. We fly into London on Virgin and transfer to BA to fly to Paris. We have rented an apartment in Paris for one week. The plans are great up until there.
During our last week, we want to go to Normandy and see the D Day beaches. The problem is, we have an obligation to visit my husband's never met before family for a day in Manchester, England and fly home from London.
Is it possible to do both Normandy and Manchester?
Can Normandy be a day trip from Paris? We won't have a car...so, train or bus.
What is the best way to get from France back to England.
Sorry for rambling, I am feeling confused.
Thanks for any help!

Underhill

You can do the Normandy landing beaches in one long day from Paris, but that's about all of Normandy you'll be able to see.

ira

Hi Mom,

What's your entire itinerary?

emsmom808

We are renting an apartment in Paris for one week. We have been to Paris before and have seen the tourist sites. We want to do a few day trips...Versailles, maybe Chartes. After we check out, we have 6 days left. We would like to see Normandy and go to Manchester, England for 1 day before flying home from London.

UreOSceptic

As far as the Manchester bit's concerned, it's still unclear what your question is. Millions of people fly from Paris to Manchester and travel between Manchester and London every year. If it's price or convenience that concerns you, you really need the advice of the people in Manchester you're staying with.

Only BA and Air France fly from Paris to Manchester, and you might have left it too late to get decently priced tickets. But Easyjet flies cheapos from Paris CDG to Liverpool, and Jet2 dittoes to Leeds: both airports that might be almost as convenient for you as MCR, depending where in the Manchester area you're trying to get to.

Only BA and bmi fly from Manchester to London Heathrow. Again, if you've left it too late to get the best prices, it's worth investigating, though, whether you can still buy a Virgin Trains £12.50 cheapo from Manchester or Stockport to the London area (virgintrains.co.uk). Get off at Watford and get the RailAir bus to Heathrow.

WallyKringen

Mondays and Thursdays you can do a reasonably priced one-day tour of the Normandie; Bayeux (cathedral and museum, entrance fee included), American Cemetery, visiting Landing Beaches - Omaha, La Pointe du Hoc, with multilingual guide, usually in a minibus. 95€ per person, add 22€ for lunch, add €30 for hotel pickup and return. Leaves at 07:15 from 33 Quai des Grands Augustins (across from the Cité, Métro St. Michel). Returns 19:15.www.france-tourisme.fr

The same hours are kept by Paris Euroscope with their Mon. / Wed. / Sat. daytrip to Normandie and Landing Beaches plus Peace Museum in Caen, also goes to Arromanches and Gold Beach (says nothing in brochure about Bayeux). Cost 220€ per person. Lunch and entrance fees included. I think the hotel pickup and drop-back is included - check www.euroscope.fr.

For Manchester look at www.skyscanner.net when it works again. It's currently broken, whichever country you input as "From" is the only country it brings up as destination.

Maybe www.whichbudget.com can help?

WK

janisj

By Manchester - do you mean IN Manchester or just near there? As UOS says - there are other airports besides Manchester that might work for you.

6 days is a relatively lot to play w/. Yes you can do a day trip from Paris to Normandy. OR you could travel to Normandy and stay a night or two.

Then you have several options -

- ferry to Portsmouth and then train or rental car north. If you rented a car in Portsmouth you could take a couple of days to get to Manchester visiting Salisbury/Stonehenge/Avebury, Oxford/Cotswolds, and/or Warwick/Stratford on the way.

- train back to Paris and fly to Manchester as described above, then train into London for a 2 or 3 days before flying home.

- fly to London for a couple of days and then a train up to manchester and back.

- Eurostar to London and then up to Manchester . . .

But for both the Eurostar and flying you have left it quiet late to get discounted tickets.

If it were me - I'd go to Normandy by train stay over night. Then after almost 2 full days in Normandy I'd take the overnight ferry from Le Harve to Portsmouth and pick up a rental car in the a.m. Then take 3 days/2 nights to get to Manchester. (there are also day time ferries from Caen and Le Harve)

Which London airport are you flying out of?

UreOSceptic

janis:

The poster is obviously flying out of Heathrow - the only airport served by both Virgin and BA flights to Paris.

UK travel 101.

janisj

Doesn't necessarily mean she is flying from LHR since the return flight is not out of Paris.

Both BA and VS have flights from LHR and LGW to the States . . . . .

janisj

meant to add - could be an open jaw into Paris via LHR, and out of London

UreOSceptic

Good point, Watson

emsmom808

We are flying home from Heathrow. We have never been to England. The driving seems a little frightening.