That's a tough call; "chances are" a direct flight will arrive on time, but you never know when there can be a delay with take off, etc. And there could be a delay in landing, etc. (I am giving worst case scenario, but it does happen)

To my knowledge you can't take a TGV to Bayeux; it would be a regional train. Since you don't have to make a reservation for a regional, I think I would just wait until you get to St. Lazare and buy your ticket.

Good luck!

The TGV doesn't go to Bayeux. To be safe, I'd book a train after noon, especially if you're checking luggage. If it's a weekday, looks like there's one at 12:10 and one at 13:45.

When you land at CDG it can take a half-hour or more for the plane to taxi to the gate. Then long lines at immigration. Then a half-hour or more to gather luggage. Then the trip to Saint-Lazare (depending on how you go, an hour or so).

I can't give advice on time to book your train (we stayed one night near St. Lazare before taking the train the next morning) however I suggest taking the train to Caen rather than Bayeux. If you will be renting a car to tour Normandie there is a row of rental offices opposite the station. It's a larger town with more car rental choices. On your return to the station you can visit the Memorial Museum.

Hmmm....I am a bit confused! So, it would be better for us to just go to the train station and pick up tickets there to Caen (rent car) than to buy them before hand?

Thanks in advance!

I suggested waiting b/c of uncertainty of when you would arrive at St-Lazare, but the trains that St. Cirq mentions should work. And if you get tix ahead of time, the price would be a little less.
Bottom line: hard to predict "better" way to do this, IMO.

Have you considered just renting your car at CDG. You can be in Bayeux by late lunch time, if you want. It is easy to rent and you are on the sort of "right" side of Paris to get to Normandy.

<<pronounced CAHN)>>

Ummm...no, it's not. Perhaps you're thinking of Cannes.

I agree that taking the train to Caen and picking up your rental car there will afford you lots more rental options. Bayeux has a teensy rail station. It's only about a 20-minute drive from Caen to Bayeux.

Arriving at 8:25 on which day of the week?

We arrived at that time on a Friday morning from Chicago in March 2011. Took RER to GdN, transferred to St. Lazare, and were in Station 45 minutes before the 12:10 train. Unfortunately, we bought non-refundable Prems for the 13:45. I'd second the Caen then drive from there, especially if you're renting a car.

StCirq, how do you pronounce Caen? I always have said Cannes like can, and Caen like con. Is that wrong?

Looking at your itinerary thread, you're arriving at CDG on a Friday morning. I'd definitely recommend training to Caen, You'd arrive by around 2:15 p.m. and be able to rent car there and be at the peace museum before 3:00. It closes at 7:00, so you'd have 4 hours at the museum if you choose. You can then drive to Bayeux for your hotel and be ready for the D-day tour Saturday morning.

apersuader, you can listen here:

http://www.forvo.com/word/caen/

You don't even pronounce the "n."

Cannes is pronounced CAHN, not CAN.

apersuader's day of arrival after a flight would absolutely do me in. 'Way too much, especially the museum, but that's me.
I could drive from CDG to Bayeux--or even Caen (for the night) if that became the plan. But then it is dinner and bed and ready THEN to start the next day. Just a thought.

A last minute, walk-up cost of a train ticket to Caen (I checked for tomorrow) is 33.30€ and one bought three months in advance is no less than 15€ (some are still about 33€) so I would just pay extra to not have to worry about catching a specific train.

Use the website www.tgv-europe.com for train info and make sure it doesn't redirect you to the RailEurope site. If that happens enter another country as your ticket collection country until this stops happening.

con (as I think you are pronouncing that in English, not the French word I hope) or cahn or whatever transliteration you use is fine, really. I wouldn't say the n isn't pronounced, it's not silent (it is definitely not "caw"). It's just nasalized in French, but it's better to use an n than nothing. (That audio clip actually sounds close enough to cahn for my ears.) And there is a big difference in pronunciation even among native Frenchpeople regarding the "a" in Cannes (how flat it is). That is true for many words with an a without a circonflex, actually.

I'm not sure how catching a two hour train ride, THEN renting a car for a 15 minute drive to the Museum would be more taxing than renting a car and taking a 3 hour drive out of Paris to Caen would be, to each their own. I found the train ride particularly relaxing myself and was somewhat recharged when we arrived in Caen. The rest of the family slept on the train, which was great for the first day, but bad for the jet lag the next two days.

I'd probably agree with FMT's advice to buy the ticket when you arrive, assuming there's just two of you. A bigger group may change that equation for me - 30 euros vs 60 euros for an hour and a half delay.

easy - from airport hop RER to Gare du Nord and follow signs for RER E - take it to Saint-Lazare station - terminus I believe and follow signs for Grandes Lignes - mainline part of Saint-Lazare station - buy one ticket at the airport TGV station - one ticket for airport to Paris to S-Lazare to Bayeux - I think you can buy it all at the TGV station in terminal 2, which also has RER trains.

Some trains on the Saint-Lazare to Bayeux route may be Corail TEOZ trains the do require seat reservations and if so it comes with the ticket but many are TER regional trains you can just hop on - some services require a simple change of trains at Caen.

Good sources of info about French trains - www.seat61.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com and www.ricksteves.com. Eschew any discounted tickets as they are train-specific and as French Mystique says not that much less than regular full fare - planes can be late - getting baggage can be longer than expected, etc - you may want to wait to Saint-Lazare to buy the ducat to Bayuex for the next train you can catch.

a check on www.bahn.de - German Railways online schedules for most European trains shows that all trains are "Schnellzugs" or regional trains on which seat reservations are optional and IME not needed - trains about every hour from Saint-Lazare. so a full fare ticket should be good on any train anytime - at least that day!

Thanks to all for your advice.....it is a great help! We will just get out tix when we arrive in Paris.

I'll try once more for apersuader.
When we arrive at 8, we usually go to our hotel by taxi, walk around for a while, have appropriate meals, etc. Do things that we don't really have to remember well like buy museum/Metro tickets.
Or on another trip, drive to Rouen, check into a hotel, and have dinner, walk around the city, etc.
Doing a LOT of train/travel things, plus a museum just seems like a lot--but they can decide.
Just because you "CAN" fit things into a length of time doesn't mean you should actually PLAN it, especially after flying overnight. That is my only point.
It might be interesting to ask apersuader IF he/she has done that itinerary being suggested.

Apologies. Apparently apersuader DID do this.

LOL...we have decided to rent the car from Bayeux...arrive on Friday and just have dinner and a walk....Sat, D Day tour (full day)...dinner and walk in the evening and then rent the car on Sunday and travel on our own`

You will, as noted, have very limited rental options in Bayeux. It's a tiny rail station. No car rental company will station many cars there for rental. Good luck. Renting in Caen is so much smarter.

and it is a short drive from Caen to Bayeux and if not jet lagged too much it is easy to stop by the Caen D-Day/WW2 museum on the edge of town en route to Bayeux - this museum is a great introduction to the whole D-day area - huge relief maps - great first orientation and also to many the finest of several memorial-museums dotting the area.

Gretchen, as you suggest, we didn't plan on doing what we did. We ultimately chose to do it this way because by the time we arrived at Caen, we felt we had plenty of time and everyone felt recharged after the train ride/nap. I suspect the OP is flying in from Chicago, as the listed arrival time in Paris is the exact same time as ours last year. FMT's recommendation to buy the tickets at St. Lazare is sound, as if we would have done the same thing, we'd have been in Caen an hour and a half sooner, with even more time.

I hope the OP has a great time, no matter the final itinerary!

lynnh242- We did exactly last week as you are planning. We took the train to Bayeux from St. Lazare. Left at 1210 hours. Got to Bayeux after only one stop in Caen. We brought first class tix without seat reservatuions, (PREMS), which we printed at home thanks to advice from this forum, no problem getting a seat. Once in Bayeux, we taxied to hotel. (5 or 10 Miniutes) some people walked. Did a tour on each of the next two days that left right from th hotel on Place du Quebec, one D-Day and one MSM, so did not need a car until the third day when we rented one from Hertz at the Total station just outside if town in Vaucelles. Took a cab there to pick up car and then when we turned it back in, the nice Hertz people called a cab to get us back to hotel. Car rented was an Opel sedan with 5 speed transmission. Fun to drive. Overall our plan worked for us.

I've done the trip driving from Paris and taking the train to Caen and renting from there.

I would definitely, personally, take the train to Caen and rent the car there.

At 30 euros times 2 persons that is 60 euros from Paris to Caen by train - this would also be much cheaper than driving - fuel prices now about $9/gal and tolls on autoroutes really steep. Spend a day recuperating in Bayeux and save on a day's car rental perhaps.

Thanks everyone!

Waterdog- that sounds like a good plan...we arrive on Friday and we are taking a D Day tour Sat. morning (full day) so we thought that we would pick up the car on Sunday! I will take your suggestion and pick up the carin Vaucelles. We will go to Caen on Sunday to see the museum....a little backwards but I know that we will want relax a bit after our flight/train/tour!

Make sure the car rental place is open on Sundays, and even if it is, check the hours and how they jibe with your train arrival time. Good thing you decided to take a train to Caen - I doubt any car rental place would be open on Sunday in Bayeux (could be wrong, but it's so small...)

I think the calculation that the train is cheaper than driving is a bit bogus. Add in the RER (not much I admit but relevant to the calculation, methinks), and you don't really (or want to) have to drive on the autoroute and pay tolls.

I don't know why this has gotten so complicated, but why on earth would anyone contemplate picking up a car at a gas station in Vaucelles on a Sunday?? Nuts! It almost certainly won't be open, and how many car rental agencies could there be at a Total station in Vaucelles??

Take the train to Caen and pick the car up there. Rent from AutoEurope or Kemwel. Make sure you know in advance that the car rental agency will be open on Sunday and what hours.

For the sake of clarity, trains from Gare Saint-Lazare to Caen are Intercites trains, not TEOZ trains. No seat reservations are required.

Some of those trains go on to Bayeux. If you have to connect in Caen to get to BAyeux, that short ride will be on a regional train.

When I was in Nice a few years ago I went to the train station to buy a ticket to Cannes. I had read in a guidebook that the pronunciation is like "Madeline Kahn." The ticket agent quickly corrected me and pronounced it like "can."

Definately pick up the car in Caen. The car rental in Bayeux is not near the train station. It is outside of town (Vaucelles as noted above) and is tiny. I would not take the chance that it would be opened on a Sunday.

For what it is worth, we picked up the car at CDG, recovered from jetlag near Giverny (only about 45-60 minute drive). Venured out the next day for Caen - mueum and then onto Bayeux for 4 nights. We returned the car to Bayeux / Vaucelles and took the train to Paris.

Ditto, St. Cirq!

And I as well, ditto St. Cirq and Bette and annw. Car rental in Caen is more convenient than in Bayeux/Vaucelles. By the way, cars with automatic transmissions can be rented in France, but standard/manual transmissions are far more common. (It is quite an advantage to be able to drive standard as gas mileage tends to be better, and gas is $$$, or should that be € € € in France. If you want automatic, be sure to pre-book one (and ascertain that the car rental outlet is big enough to offer a wide selection of vehicles - another reason to rent from a Caen train station depot.)

$9/gal my French friend just said on the phone for fuel!