We will be visiting Normandy in September for a week and am considering basing our stay in Bayeux. Is this a good central location?

Looking for recommendations for accommodation. B&B's, Gites or Hotels. We tend to stay more in B&Bs & apartments/Gites. But are open to suggestions, we will have a car.

We stayed a week in Bayeux and loved the location. We did a 1.5 day tour of the beaches with a guide, went to Mont st Michel as a day trip, toured Utah Beach and St Mere Eglise by ourselves and also stopped in St Lo. It seemed as though there was a museum, statue, cemetery around every bend. There is so much to see there if you are into history. In Bayeux itself, the cathedral, tapestry, architecture, farmer's market, etc are all great to see. Our hotel was Lion D'Or. We chose it based on recommendations from friends and the fact it had off street complementary parking. The rooms were wonderful, food was wonderful and its perhaps 3 blocks from the center on the main street so convenient yet quiet. Be sure to stop at the Peace Museum in Caen on your way back.

We stayed in a Campanile just on the edge of town. With a car, it was fine ( fairly new= no ambiance)and was good for getting out of town and on your way to the beaches.

We stayed at La Ferme du Pressoir in Villers-Bocage. It's about 30 minutes outside of Bayeux and we found it to be a great location for visiting Normandy. A car is essential, though. The innkeeper was wonderful, the morning breakfasts were delicious, and the accommodations were very comfortable. It was lovely to be staying on a working farm. Bayeux and surroundings are the perfect base for exploring Normandy.

We enjoyed our stay at Hotel d'Argouges in Bayeux. Lots of ambiance and charm.


http://www.hotel-dargouges.com/en.php

We enjoyed our stay at the historic Lion d'Or and highly recommend their restaurant whether you stay there or not.

Thank you all for your excellent suggestions!

cmeyer54 & HappyTrvlr, Lion d'Or does look like a great stay and location. It seems they now charge for parking 9e per night but understandable I guess for the location Lion d'Or is on the shortlist.
cmeyer thanks for your sightseeing suggestions lots of the same things we would like to see and visit.

nyc121712 the B&B does look lovely. Would you recommend basing there for a whole week? Or use 2 locations?

rs899 Is a Campanile a small hotel?

Jean Hotel d'Argouges looks very nice too did you stay in a double room? Do they charge for parking?

Campanile is a mid-scale hotel chain. In the US we would call it a motor lodge. That particular hotel , IIRC had perhaps 50 units.

We've never had bad luck with Campanile and have stayed in about 6 of them ...not fancy but that is no never mind if you like the area and the price is right. Lion de Or on the other hand was a big disappointment. One of our friends with us had had knee surgury and we paticularly asked for ground floor or one level up..No luck "We have regulars who return every year" very sarcasticly pointed out!!! As we had made resv. far in advance and had an email quarantee(HAHA) we had to carry our own bags to the 3rd floor and help our friend with every step. We loved Bayeux but not this ill treatment.

I will look into Campanile accommodations. Although if we stay put for a week maybe we would look for something for a little more charm. Not that we are 5 star people, but more like character seeking places. If that makes sense. But certainly good for 1 or 2 nights stays.

But I do appreciate your replies and as we all look forward to our trips it is sad when we are disappointed with our accommodation selections; re your comment amer_can.

I too am looking forward to visiting Normandy and especially Bayeux.

We also stayed at Lion D'Or and highly recommend it. The food was really good, and the hotel booked a small van tour of the beaches and other sites that was excellent.

At Fodorites' suggestions, we ate dinner one night at Le Petit Bistrot, and it was wonderful.

Bayeux is definitely the best base for visiting the D-Day sites and Bayeux itself. Make sure not to miss the Musée Mémorial in Caen, though. Last time we were there we stayed at the Château de la Bellefontaine just a five-minute walk outside of Bayeux central and loved it (though there's no restaurant).

We stayed there for the full week we were in Normandy and loved it. We particularly liked having the advice of Odile on out-of-the-way places to eat and visit.

Oops. And by Odile, I mean the owner!

The Hotel d'Argouges did not charge for parking when we were there, but you should ask.

I have investigated all your accommodation suggestions and emailed several. Heres hoping some may have a vacancy for us.

Thank you for all your suggestions for places to stay and places to visit. Our itinery is looking good!

Other sightseeing ideas are most appreciated.

You CAN use Bayeux as a base for a week but you might find two bases more convenient depending on what you want to visit. Have a look at this thread which discusses some of the things that you can do inland in Normandy in the Suisse-Normande and Pays d'Auge regions:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic....html#37142728

In the above website the link to the cheese/cidre place on the 16th century manor estate in Saint-Hippolyte appears to be broken. You can find info about it on the Lisieux tourist office website.

Here's a website about finding local produce in the Pays d'Auge.

http://www.madeinpaysdauge.com/en/

Here are a couple of other websites to research the Normandy region:

http://www.normandie-tourisme.fr/nor...ism-109-2.html

http://www.calvados-tourisme.com/en

A possibility to break up your stay might be to spend a few days in Bayeux and then head to eastern Brittany to explore near Saint-Malo and Dinan. Here is a trip report I wrote about exploring Dinan and its environs if you want to have a look:

http://tinyurl.com/82azcyh

We stayed at the Hotel Bayeux for several days and loved it. It was VERY reasonable, squeaky clean, situated near the cathedral and the Tapestry, sort of on the edge of town, so it was easy for us to drive out of town for our sightseeing journeys to the beach sites. They had a car park right next to the hotel, and a nice breakfast room. The rooms were larger than most hotel rooms we have had in Franc.
Don't miss eating at Le Petite Bistrot--make reservations. it was the best meal we had in France that 2 week trip.

We spent several days in Bayeux last spring. Explored all the D-Day beaches easily from there, and enjoyed seeing Bayeux also. Don't miss the tapestry. We stayed and highly recommend the Hotel Reine Blanche. Great young and accomodating staff, with an adjacent restuarant with casual, inexpensive food.

Gretchen, JCLB and FrenchMystiqueToues thanks for your suggestions, following them up!

FrenchMystiqueTours thanks for the links and excellent information.
Here is a brief outline of our thoughts / plans:

- train from Belgium to Amiens 1 night - WWI tour of sites
- evening train to Rouen 1 night, morning in Rouen? Pick up car and drive to Honfleur then on to Bayeux OR alternate drive straight to Bayeux (visit Honfleur another day from Bayeux)
- 4 nights in Bayeux (WW11 beaches tour, Tapestry, Caen etc)
- we want to visit Mont Saint Michel - do we add another night to Bayeux? or stay closer to MSM.
- do we visit St Malo? stay?
- from Normandy/Brittany we would like to drive to The Loire stay 3/4 nights.
- we will then end in Paris
- counting our night in Amiens we will have 12 nights before we head to Paris.