lisaud

We are going to be going from the Mont-St-Michel to Paris on a Monday in October. We will have a car but want to avoid driving into Paris so we plan to drop the car off somewhere on route and pick-up a train to take us into Paris. Wherever we decide to stop, the plan is to spend a fe hours before getting on the train.

We will have already visited Bayeux, the D-day beaches and sites and some of the countryside of Normandy. I have no burning desire to see Caen so I'm not considering making that the stop.

So any suggestions/votes for St. Malo or Rouen or, perhaps another location in between? Chartre? I had considered Giverney but there is no dropoff for our rental car there.

FrenchMystiqueTours

Either Rouen or Chartres are probably your best destinations as they have more to offer than Saint Malo. Plus, Saint Malo brings you in the other direction from Paris. If you go to Rouen you could make a stop along the way and visit Honfleur, which is a lovely ancient port town. Personally, I prefer Chartres to Rouen but everyone has their favorites. In addition to the cathedral at Chartres, doing the suggested "tourist loop" shown on the map you get at the tourist office is really lovely. If you've got time on your way to Chartres you might be able to squeeze in a stop to Fougères, which has one of the largest medieval fortresses in Europe and a lovely "old town" quarter.

lisaud

Thanks for your reply. There is so much I want to see - or think I want to see... As you said, everyone has their favorites and its difficult at times to figure out if they would also appeal to me as much as something else and, clearly, I can't do it all.
Chartres has been described to me as a "not to be missed", and as "beautiful but not that different than Notre Dame in Paris" (which we do plan to see along with St. Chapelle.

Perhaps we will stop in Honfleur for lunch and take the train from Rouen and skip Chartres this time.

FrenchMystiqueTours

If you happen to choose from among any of the options I mentioned you will not be disappointed. Of course there are still other places you could go but I think what I gave you are the top attractions for the type of travel you'll be doing that day. Honfleur is just a lovely place and I know you will love it. I don't know what time you may take the train back to Paris and how much time you want to spend in Rouen but there is some lovely countryside south of Honfleur and Deauville in the Auge region that is very pleasant to drive around in your car if you'd like to enjoy some picturesque countryside dotted with tiny and charming little villages. I can outline a drive if you're interested. All the best to you.

julia1

I think one of the thrills-and-chills sights in Europe is seeing the spires of Chartres from a distance as they suddenly appear above the surrounding low hills and countryside. Immediately transports me back everytime to the awe that medieval men must have experienced at such impossible grandeur. And yes, it really does differ greatly from Notre Dame.

AlessandraZoe

I like (LOVE) the Chartres cathedral but am not that big of a fan of the town. Rouen we all thought was very underrated. I want to go back there and spend more time.

HOWEVER, if you will have done the Normandy beaches and so on, you still might want to reconsider Caen as your car drop-off. Why? First:train connections are excellent. Second, and far more important: if all you see in Caen is the Peace Museum, it's entirely worth it.

My entire extended family and anyone else I've ever been able to talk into walking into it thinks the Caen Peace Museum may be the best museum experience ever. It's a walk-through, multi-media, choose-your-own-level-of-experience design.

We saw it at the end of a lot of WW II museums, battlefields, graveyards, and so on and just didn't think it would add that much to the equation. Wrong, wrong, wrong--it was marvelous. My husband, who isn't a history nut the way I am, will still tell people, "You HAVE to see..."

Enjoy your trip.

Sue4

Although Chartres Cathedral is surely not to be missed, I think I vote for the Honfleur/Rouen option. My only concern is that you won't have enough time! There is a lot to see in Rouen - I loved it, and spent 2 nights there. I also spent several nights in Honfleur, using it as a base to drive around the Normandy countryside.

Chartres makes a great daytrip by train from Paris, so that is what I would do. Although it is where I ended up my 2-week Normandy trip, dropping off my car there - I had picked car up in Giverny at the beginning of trip. I think the Chartres Cathedral is more beautiful than Notre Dame de Paris - the stained glass especially.

lisaud

FrenchMystiqueTours - Thank you for your offer to outline a drive for me. I would love that! Actually, one of the reasons I'm having so much difficulty deciding where to go/what to do in Normandy is because I want to have time to see the countryside and spend some time in the lovely little villages on the cider/cheese routes and, possibly, some markets if there are any around. Personally, I'm more interested in that sort of thing than in the tourist sites and museums.
We are leaving Saint-Remy on a Thursday morning to drive to Beaune where we will spend the night before continuing on to Normandy. Our plan was to stop in Les Andelys and Honfleur on the way to Bayeux but I was concerned that it would take up too much time and that we wouldn't have enough time to drive though the countryside on our way to Bayeux so I was thinking of cutting the Honfleur/Les Andelys part, as beautiful as those places are. Its hard to know how long it might take us to get to Bayeux from Beaune.
Once we get to Bayeux we will have two days to see some of the D-day sites (my husband's particular interest), spend some time in the town and at the market (on Saturday)before driving on to Mont-St-Michel in the late afternoon on Sunday for one night. We are staying on the island in order to see it after the crowds have left and in the early morning (and maybe to see the tide come in though I'm unclear if it will change when we are there - Oct 24th).
On Monday we will start to head to Paris which is where my questioning began (Chartres vs Rouen/and now Honfleur). If you (or anyone) have any comments or suggestions I'd appreciate it. I am interested in the Peace museum and things like it (such as the tapestry) but just not at the expense of "being in France" and, with so little time, I feel that I need to make the choice.

FrenchMystiqueTours

Hi lisaud. I'd be happy to outline that drive for you and maybe make a couple suggestions which might make your day easier to plan. I'm going away until late Wednesday night but when I return I'll outline the drive I mentioned and see if I have any other useful tips for you. In the meantime, if you know what time you have to take your train back to Paris from Rouen (if that is where you plan to drop off the car) that will give me an idea of what you can realistically plan to do on that day. Talk to you soon.

lisaud

Hi FrenchMystiqueTours. Thank you again for your kind offer. The basic itinerary is: starting out on Friday AM in Beaune and heading to Bayeux for Friday and Saturday night. Mid-late afternoon on Sunday we will drive to MSM to spend the night. If we get there early enough to see the abbey on Sunday then we will leave MSM early Monday morning otherwise we may spend and hour or two seeing the Abbey in the morning but we plan to leave no later than mid-morning to head to ?? (Chartres or Rouen?) to drop the car off and take the train to Paris. Sometime during those four days, we'd like to see some of the D-day beaches, the American cemetary and, possibly,the museum in Bayeux. We'd like to spend some time touring Bayeux (definitely want to see the Sat. market)and hopefully relaxing. As discussed, we'd like to take a drive through the countryside on the Cider Route.
Other places I was hoping to add in on one end or the other - -if time allowed - -were Honfleur, Chartres, and Les Andelys.
We don't have any particular time we have to be in Paris but is it best to arrive before/after rush hour or doesn't it matter? We will have to take a taxi to meet the owner of the apartment we rented for our Paris stay.
Not knowing how long things really take to drive or see, I'm not sure what to plan to do and when to do it. I'd appreciate any amount of advice or suggestions you have time to offer. Thank you so much.

madlemma

Lisaud - where are you staying on MSM and why did you decide to do that? I hear so much conflicting advice about MSM...stay there and go later in the afternoon to avoid the crowds, don't stay there you'll get ripped off, don't go there at all because its too crowded, go look at it at night from the mainland but don't go onto the island...

bilboburgler

honfleur is lovely but, unless you are going to paint, do major photos or go literally shop to shop I'd move my time to Chartres.

Have you thought of following the route de fromage or the route de cidre? Do you want to the visit the worlds only town based on copper pans. If not I think your plans are pretty good

FrenchMystiqueTours

Hi lisaud,

I've been studying your planned itinerary and let me see if I can make some suggestions. I'm going to start with some general tips.

First, since you seem to be unsure of driving times there are many websites which will give you driving times, such as google, mappy and viamichelin. I use viamichelin.com. It will give you info on drive times and distances, toll and gas costs and suggested routes. The drive times given do not consider traffic delays or stops for gas, food, bathrooms etc. The drive time from Beaune to Bayeux is shown as 5 hours 17 minutes so with stops and assuming no traffic delays (which can occur around Paris) plan on around 6 hours.

Next tip, I suggest that you buy Michelin maps of the areas you want to visit. You want to get the ones with a scale of 1/150,000 or 1/200,000 (which are much more common). They are just loaded with information. Check the map legend to see what all the symbols represent and you'll notice all kinds of interesting things are marked on the map such as châteaux, ruins, churches, abbeys, scenic view points, megaliths (one of my personal favorites), caves, forests, war cemeteries, scenic roads and a whole host of other features. The roads that are highlighted in green are designated scenic roads. Towns that are printed in bolder type than other nearby towns are being designated as touristically/historically interesting or just more populous than other nearby towns. Many times I find it is the former rather than the latter.

If you leave Beaune at 8AM you should be in Bayeux around 2:00. If you plan carefully and have a lunch packed, once you get to Bayeux you would have 2-3 hours to visit the cemetery and associated museum. If you don't mind leaving Beaune at 7AM (I know, that's early) you would have more leisure time at the cemetery and museum. To do both of these places some justice I don't think you want to spend less than 3 hours here, especially if hubby is really into DDay stuff. The museum/cemetery closes at 5PM.

Are you planning on doing one of the DDay tours? If so, a half day or full day? If you do a full day then according to your travel plans you would have to do it on Saturday, your only full day in Bayeux. This would mean cutting out the market in Bayeux. You'll have to make the decision about a half day tour and market vs. full day tour and no market (assuming you are doing a tour).

You said you want to leave mid-late afternoon on Sunday to see the Mont and spend the night. It takes about 1-1/2 hours to drive from Bayeux to the Mont. If you want to see the abbey that day then you should know that it closes at 6PM with the last admission at 5PM. If you do the audioguided tour plan on 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 hours depending on your level of interest. If you arrive in time to see the abbey on Sunday then you can leave first thing Monday morning to make your way back to Paris.

I would suggest you leave Bayeux early enough to try to see the abbey on Sunday. If you stay on the Mont then you can enjoy strolling around on the Mont after your abbey visit. I've been to the Mont twice in the last few weeks and while there are still crowds it is not at all like summertime. And the nighttime is the best time to experience the Mont. Weekend crowds may be a bit heavier than weekdays. I just spent my first overnight on the Mont recently and it is indeed magical at night. And the only people are other hotel guests so compared to the daytime it feels like you have the Mont to yourself.

Now, Monday is your big IF day. Lots of us have given you suggestions as to what you can do but ultimately you should do what you want to do. It's your vacation, after all. I'm going to outline a couple of drives in the Auge region. You said you wanted to enjoy small villages and the countryside and since you will be spending time in Paris then I think doing the country drive would suit you well as you will get the contrast of city/country. If you do the country drive I outline you could go to Rouen and take the train back to Paris. I don't know what time you have to meet your landlord in Paris but I believe the train ride from Rouen to Paris is about 1 hour.

I assume your landlord won't want to meet you too late at night so if you do the country drive then you may not have time to do anything in Rouen other than catch your train. But, as interesting and worthy of a visit as Rouen is, you are going to be spending time in Paris. So, I say do the country drive and sacrifice Rouen (a city) since you will be in Paris anyway (a city). I say the country drive rounds out your visit better than visiting two cities.

One of my favorite vacation activities here is getting lost on country roads. To do this I need nothing more than my Michelin map. If you learn to read the map icons and symbols you'll find it is almost like a non-verbal guidebook as the symbols and icons are telling you what places and things are worthy of visiting. All those tips I gave you earlier about reading the maps weren't for nothing.

Let me give you a couple of scenic inland drives south of Deauville. Start in Deauville and head south on the D677. Just a kilometer or two south of here look for signs to a town called Touques. Just a tiny little place but really cute and worth stopping for a few minutes. Just south of here is another town called Beaumont en Auge you can drive through. Continuing south on the D677 your next stop will be Pont-l'Eveque (a famous French cheese) and also very cute. Stop and stroll around and smell the roses, or buy some cheese. Just south of Pont-l'Eveque on your map you'll notice a whole bunch of roads highlighted in green and they are all nice scenic country roads. Very green and fertile country with lots of farms and rolling terrain and hills. We picked up the D48 heading south out of Pont-l'Eveque and after a few kilometers took a left and entered a small village called Le Breuil en Auge and from here picked up the D264A. After a few kilometers we took a left on the D98 and headed for a village called Blangy le Chateau (very cute). From here pick your route but head east to the town of Cormeilles. Very charming village and one of the larger little towns around. Stop here for just a bit and stroll around. Walk up the hill and see the unusual church. Keep walking uphill past the church and get some great photos of the town below you with scenic country vistas. If you still want to drive around after this drive then you could make your way towards Lisieux and pick up some more scenic roads in that area, or just visit Lisieux.

The next drive I will outline very closely follows the cider route. It starts about 12-15km south of Houlgate. Start in the town of Beuvron en Auge (lovely) and follow the designated scenic road (shown on the Michelin map) to Manerbe and then continue to follow it north to its end. You will pass by a couple of châteaux on this route. You will also notice that this route runs very close to some towns on the cider route. Feel free to leave the scenic road if you want to take detours to see some of the villages on the cider route. I assume you have the weblink to the Route du Cidre but here it is anyway:

http://routeducidre.free.fr/

I noticed the link is not working properly right now but it will redirect you to another link that to the cider route.

I think that since you are interested in doing the cider route that the latter drive I outlined will interest you more than the former. How much time you have to do parts or all of the drives I mentioned will obviously depend on when you have to catch your train to Paris.

One final tip for you is to use tourist offices as they are very useful resources of info. Any place worth visiting will have one. The tourist office is loaded with free info and brochures about what there is to see and do in a region. Most tourist offices have websites and sometimes they have English version. You could find all the info you need about market days/times at the tourist office.

I hope you find this info useful and if you have any more questions just post a reply. I'll be watching the thread to see if you need any more help and I'll be happy to give you whatever tips I can. Best of luck, lisaud.

Gretchen

Having done the drive from Bayeux to Chartres ON Monday, I wil say, taht you may not have as much sightseeing time as yo may think, unless you are doing the autoroutes, which we did not. We were turning our car in at Orly. It was fine, but about 5 PM, and we were coming from Bayeux.
If you are coming from MSM, it is further. If you are using autoroutes it is fast, but not scenic. SO you pays your money and you takes your choice.
We had done the Honfleur swing on our way TO Bayeux, so that wasn't on our return. It would work nicely, but I do urge you to calculate the times. And again, what "speed" road you are on. We didnt' do any supers--why bother.
Get an early start.

lisaud

frenchmystiquetours - thank you so much for all this information!!! I was away without computer access (imagine that??) for a few days and this is the first chance I've had to check this site. There is so much there that I need to study it for a while before I can ask questions but I wanted to thank you for posting all that before any more time passed!

FrenchMystiqueTours

No computer access??? Horrors!!! How did you survive? I'll be happy to try to answer any questions if you need further help.

lisaud

HiFrenchMystiqueTours! I know its been a while so I hope your are still looking. Again, thank you for all the information.

I have purchased the recommended maps and resigned my self to leaving Beaune early (by 8 at the latest but perhaps even at the 7 AM time you suggested)and trying to prepare ourselves to not stop on the way.
I have done some thinking about the sequencing of the Normandy trip and wondered if you would mind commenting on my proposal.
I thought we could drive from Beaune to Honfleur (which I'm not sure if I will absolutely LOVE but I've heard so much about I feel like I shouldn't miss it) and spending a couple of hours walking around before heading to Bayeux.
I don't think we'll arrive in Bayeux early enough to see the cemetery etc but that's OK; it will have been a long day and I'm sure we'll want to check out in to the B&B and relax a bit before heading walking around town for a while then stopping for a lateish dinner (any restaurant recommmedations? Looking for traditional,regional food).
I DEFINITETLY want to spend time in the Bayeux market on Saturday morning (our schedule has us missing most of the market days in other towns)and, despite the fact that many, many recommend doing so, we really do not want to do a D-Day tour for several reasons (so I respectfully request that anyone reading this not spend time trying to convince me otherwise).
I'm not sure how long to plan to spend at the market but I thought 2 - 3 hours or so sounds reasonable (yes?), including time to get some coffee and breakfast and then I thought we'd take the drive into the Auge region. I'm not sure if we want to do the whole cider route? Does it cross the route du fromage?
If we get back to Bayeux early enough, maybe we'd see the war museum and/or the tapestry.
Sunday is the day I thought we'd see the D-Day sights we want to see (American Cemetery, beaches, Pointe du Hoc) since it seems as if on the way to MSM to do so.
Hopefully we'll get to MSM by 3 or so. As mentioned, we booked a room on the island so we could experience the "night magic" and hopefully miss the daytime crowds. I'm sure we'll have to eat bad to mediocre food for dinner (or bring a picnic dinner) and I'm not expected much of the hotel (Auberge St.Pierre) to say the least but I hope seeing the rising tide and the bay at night will be worth it.
So Monday is the big ? for us. My plan, unless you think its too much, is to leave MSM early and drive directly to Chartres (I wanted to stop at Les Andeleys but I think that would be too much) and spend an hour or so there. I don't want to tour the whole church - just spend some time gazing up at the spires, seeing some of the architecture(and I think there is a lot of scaffolding on it anyway) and standing in the main part of the interior.
Next, I thought we might have time to drive on to Giverny and see just a bit there. I'm not sure how much we would have time for but we need a place to leave our car anyway and catch a train to Paris. I plan to arrive at the Paris train station around 7PM.
WHEW! So, thanks for reading all this. If you think the whole plan or any part of it is unwise or unrealistic I'd appreciate your imput. Thanks again!

FrenchMystiqueTours

Hi lisaud,

Indeed I have been watching for you to respond again so here I am. I am going to bed early tonight as I'm taking a train from Paris early tomorrow morning to go to Laon (north of Paris). I'm bringing my bike with me to do about 7 or 8 hours of touring the countryside just south of this city and I'm literally vibrating with excitement as I've been dying to do this trip for some time now.

I've read your message thoroughly and I'll have a response for you possibly tomorrow evening but more likely Monday so I hope you can wait until then. BTW, I just stayed at Auberge St. Pierre a couple of weeks ago with my wife and we enjoyed the hotel very, very much and I bet you will too, as long as you remember that this is a 14th/15th century building and the room sizes are commensurate with this period. I'll write soon and all the best to you.

Gretchen

I think you will find Chartres, Les Andeleys, and Giverny in diametrically different directions. The latter two are north and east of Paris, and Chartres is south and west, on your way from MSM. I would very respectfully say that if you can arrange for a tour of the Chartres cathedral it would be very uplifting. I guess I am just not "getting" your visit to Normandy. You don't want to see the beaches (or maybe you do, and just don't want to do a tour--I think that is fine--we did it).
SO maybe I can offer one recommendation for what was our BEST meal of a 2 week trip to France when we visited Bayeux, Normandy, and paris. Le Petit Bistro (gender?), across from the cathedral. Make a reservation.

grandmere

Another vote for Le Petit Bistro!