Bayeux or Caen as starting point for Normandy Beach tour?
 

We will be in France in early May and want to take a side trip from Paris to see the Normandy Beaches and Caen Memorial. There are a number of commercial tours available. Our plan is to take the train from Paris early in the morning, arrive for a full day's museum and beaches tour, then sleep in Bayeux to see the Tapestry the next a.m. before returning to Paris. We will not have a car, but can utilize a bus if necessary to get to Bayeux in the evening, we are supposing. Any words of wisdom, or experiences with the various tour providers? Is this doable? Thanks in advance!

TexTraveler

You can take a train to Bayeux from the Gare St. Lazare in Paris.
We very much liked our day tour with www.battlebus.fr, which leaves from a central point in Bayeux, very near the Tapestry.

Their tours leave Bayeux early in the morning, so I would not plan to do a Beaches tour plus the Caen Memorial on the same day.

We, too, enjoyed the Battlebus tour of D-Day beaches that leaves from Bayeux.

Personally,I think that it deserves more than one day.We spent one night in Caen and another night in Bayeaux before going on to Mont St. Michel.
The Caen museum took our family over 4 hours because it was so interesting. The battlefields and cemeteries were another half day. We spent the night enjoying walking around Bayeaux while also visiting the tapestry.etc. so I would keep in mind that there is alot to see and do in that area.

I agree I think it would be hard to do both in a single day. We did a driving trip through Normandy, stopped in Caen and saw the museum. Spent quite a bit of time there. We then drove on to Bayeux (stopped at Forbes' Chateau de Balleroy on the way - fun to see) and spent 2 nights there at Hotel Churchill. The first day our Battlebus tour picked us up at 8:00 a.m. (stop is right behind the hotel) and we didn't get back until 4:00 p.m. The next day we saw the tapestry and walked around Bayeux. So I think given your transportation issues, it would be really hard to cram everything in on one day.

Caen and Bayeux are on the same train line, so you can travel between them on the train. I would take the train from Paris to Caen in the morning and spend the afternoon at the Mémorial. We also spent 4 hours there. Then take the train to Bayeux and spend the night and do the tapestry and a full-day tour of the battlefields, etc., next day. I really don't think you can do it all in a day. I've toured the D-Day beaches four or five times in my lifetime and never spent fewer than 4 days in the area - still didn't feel like I covered it all.

Thanks, everyone, for the advice. Unfortunately, we are limited in time. Sounds as if we should give all our attention to the battlefields/war memorial and save Bayeux for next time. The beaches are my husband's first priority.

for Day 1, we can arrive in Caen around 9 AM by train from Paris, then must be be back in Paris in time for the 6 PM Eurostar to London on Day 2. So, that gives us 1.5 days. Other than Battlebus, does anyone have other experiences with a tour service? We would prefer the 8-man vans rather than a large bus with canned multilingual descriptions.

We had a 7-passenger van tour of the beaches suggested by the hotel management at the Lion d'Or Hotel in Bayeux. It was pretty much an all-day trip, but one father-son duo from our trip hired the driver for the next day to take them to some other places they wanted to see. I think you could arrange for most any kind of tour you want if you contact the hotel of your choice and ask.

We enjoyed Bayeux, and I recommend Le Petit Bistro for dinner there.

Battlebus used a minivan with max of 8 passengers. Another company people have recommended is Victory Tours. If you do a Google search you should find a website for them.

Another vote for Battlebus, and as mentioned they use 8 passenger vans not big buses.

Definitely see the Memorial in Caen before you do the day long tour.

We stayed a few nights at the Hotel Churchill in Bayeux and it worked great for us. Location, staff, rooms...everything.

We also had a car. We saw the museum -- wonderful, not to be missed-- same for the memorial. Then we drove to several of the beaches and did all this in one day.

www.ddaybattletours.com/testimonials

We hired Ellwood von Siebold for a private tour. It was expensive, but worth it. He will tailor the tour to your interests.

Stay in Bayeux, small town. We were a family of four so we stayed in the loft room at the Hotel Churchill.It was a nice hotel in a good walking location.