CDG to Bayeux to Chalon sur Saone
Nov 24th, 2011, 07:13 AM
#1
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CDG to Bayeux to Chalon sur Saone
I hope someone has the time to help us (DH and myself, age 60) plan the best way to get from CDG to Bayeux on a Wednesday in May, and then on to Chalon sur Saone on Saturday. Should we rent a car, take a train, fly, or some combination?
We arrive at CDG around noon after a flight from Washington, DC. We have reservations that night in Bayeux.
I'm looking for the least hassle. Cost is secondary
What do you think?
We arrive at CDG around noon after a flight from Washington, DC. We have reservations that night in Bayeux.
I'm looking for the least hassle. Cost is secondary
What do you think?
Nov 24th, 2011, 07:36 AM
#2
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I doubt that there is a train directly from CDG to Bayeux. For the least hassle, take a taxi to the Gare Montparnasse and the train from there.
As for Bayeux to Chalons, check sncf.com for schedules and routing. If that is not convenient, consider renting a car and seeing some of the Loire valley on the way to Chalons.
As for Bayeux to Chalons, check sncf.com for schedules and routing. If that is not convenient, consider renting a car and seeing some of the Loire valley on the way to Chalons.
Nov 24th, 2011, 08:14 AM
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I'm not a car rental expert but let me repeat what I've heard the experts say many times. Take the train to Caen and pick up a rental car there. The rental offices are across from the train station. Caen has the widest choice of rental cars. The direct trains from Paris to Caen depart from Gare Saint-Lazare and take between 1 hour 47 minutes and 2 hours 10 minutes. For rental cars check out:
http://www.autoeurope.com/
http://www.kemwel.com/
Hopefully you can drive a standard because even if you reserve an automatic there is no guarantee there will be one for you when you get there.
Drive to Bayeux from Caen. I'm assuming you'll want to do a D-Day tour in Bayeux but for the rest of your time there, or anywhere in the French countryside, you'll want a rental car to get around. You don't say how long your vacation is or how much time you'll be spending in Chalon-sur-Saône but the possibilities for what you could do with your time after Bayeux are endless. Perhaps if you said how ong you'll have to spend in that area and what your interests are you'll get some good suggestions.
Here's some general advice for you. Get your hands on the Michelin maps (scale of 1:200,000) for whatever regions you visit. The Michelin maps have icons for all kinds of historically/touristically interesting things such as châteaux, ruins, churches, abbeys, scenic view points, caves, Roman sites, megaliths, designated scenic roads and many other things. Usually when I'm exploring various regions in France I just look at the map and I am able to plan interesting and scenic drives just reading the map. For instance, I usually look for a designated scenic road, which are highlighted in green, and I especially look for towns with the historic church and/or château icon. I also try to make sure the route goes through as many small villages as possible. Usually putting all these things together I find interesting and scenic drives without even knowing where I am going and with no assistance from a guide book. Often these places are never mentioned in guidebooks and remain completely unknown to many tourists.
You can buy the Michelin maps from their website and here is a link to the page that shows all of the maps of France: http://tinyurl.com/4bt96ev
And speaking of Michelin, you can go to the website viamichelin.com and get info on drive times and distances, toll and fuel costs and suggested routes (i.e. scenic routes). The drive times given do not consider stops (fuel, food, bathrooms) nor do they consider bad weather and traffic.
Get good guidebooks for whatever region you want to visit. I like The Michelin Green Guides. In addition to the Michelin Green Guides if you need restaurant info then get The Michelin Red Guides, which cover restaurants.
http://www.autoeurope.com/
http://www.kemwel.com/
Hopefully you can drive a standard because even if you reserve an automatic there is no guarantee there will be one for you when you get there.
Drive to Bayeux from Caen. I'm assuming you'll want to do a D-Day tour in Bayeux but for the rest of your time there, or anywhere in the French countryside, you'll want a rental car to get around. You don't say how long your vacation is or how much time you'll be spending in Chalon-sur-Saône but the possibilities for what you could do with your time after Bayeux are endless. Perhaps if you said how ong you'll have to spend in that area and what your interests are you'll get some good suggestions.
Here's some general advice for you. Get your hands on the Michelin maps (scale of 1:200,000) for whatever regions you visit. The Michelin maps have icons for all kinds of historically/touristically interesting things such as châteaux, ruins, churches, abbeys, scenic view points, caves, Roman sites, megaliths, designated scenic roads and many other things. Usually when I'm exploring various regions in France I just look at the map and I am able to plan interesting and scenic drives just reading the map. For instance, I usually look for a designated scenic road, which are highlighted in green, and I especially look for towns with the historic church and/or château icon. I also try to make sure the route goes through as many small villages as possible. Usually putting all these things together I find interesting and scenic drives without even knowing where I am going and with no assistance from a guide book. Often these places are never mentioned in guidebooks and remain completely unknown to many tourists.
You can buy the Michelin maps from their website and here is a link to the page that shows all of the maps of France: http://tinyurl.com/4bt96ev
And speaking of Michelin, you can go to the website viamichelin.com and get info on drive times and distances, toll and fuel costs and suggested routes (i.e. scenic routes). The drive times given do not consider stops (fuel, food, bathrooms) nor do they consider bad weather and traffic.
Get good guidebooks for whatever region you want to visit. I like The Michelin Green Guides. In addition to the Michelin Green Guides if you need restaurant info then get The Michelin Red Guides, which cover restaurants.
Nov 24th, 2011, 11:15 AM
#4
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easiest by far IMO is to rent a car at CDG and drive to Bayeux, avoiding Paris - could do a quick stop in Giverny en route though many will warn about driving after an all-night flight.
By train you'd have to take the RER into Gare du Nord and transfer in a busy busy station with passageways everywhere to the RER E to Saint-Lazare - again a busy interchange to get to the station itself - take a train to Bayeux.
The drive to Chalon is a good day's drive but you could go via the Loire Valley perhaps if you have a day or so to spare or via Chartres
and taking a train Bayeux to Chalons means going back to Paris schlepping between stations and then finally changing I believe in Dijon to get a train to Chalons.
By train you'd have to take the RER into Gare du Nord and transfer in a busy busy station with passageways everywhere to the RER E to Saint-Lazare - again a busy interchange to get to the station itself - take a train to Bayeux.
The drive to Chalon is a good day's drive but you could go via the Loire Valley perhaps if you have a day or so to spare or via Chartres
and taking a train Bayeux to Chalons means going back to Paris schlepping between stations and then finally changing I believe in Dijon to get a train to Chalons.
Nov 24th, 2011, 01:39 PM
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least hassle however means driving rather than doing the for some hectic RER transfers in Paris. But yes better to be sleeping on the train than at the wheel - so I would take an Air France or Roissy Air bus from CDG to the Opera, if they run there still, and walk the few blocks to Saint Lazare station for the train. For lots of great info on French trains - www.voyages-sncf.com; www,seat61.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com and www.ricksteves.com. As the Paris to Bayeux (may as well go to cuter Bayeux IMO than nearby Caen, a large modern city blitzed in WW2) are not that expensive at full price just buy your ticket once you have reached Gare Saint-Lazare - trains go about hourly, some direct to Bayeux but others requiring a simple change of trains in Caen. Then rent a car - do your own D-Day site tours and head via the Loire Valley to Burgundy - could hit wondrous Vezelay easily on the way - but make this a 2-day trip or else it would be all day on the road about I think.
Nov 24th, 2011, 03:34 PM
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My reason for suggesting Caen was not to visit it but because there is a wider choice of car rental agencies there than you would find in Bayeux. From Caen it is a short drive to Bayeux. However, I am not the car rental expert but I am repeating what I have heard the car rental experts say repeatedly when it comes to choosing a car rental in Bayeux vs. Caen.
Nov 24th, 2011, 04:43 PM
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Caen is certainly worth a visit itself, as a WW2 battlefield and a custodian of many centuries of history. More hotel and resto choices than its smaller neighbour, too. Decent train connections to Bayeux for a Normandy invasion tour, although a taxi shared between two people would not break the budget.
Nov 24th, 2011, 06:24 PM
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Thank you so much for your replies and helpful tips. I think our trip is shaping up to be:
Wednesday - Rent car at CDG and travel to Bayeux (and maybe stop at Caen). DH can sleep anywhere and thinks he should be fine to drive. We both drive standard so that won't be a problem, at least.
We have reservations for three nights at the Churchill Hotel in Bayeux.
Thursday - Mont San Michel and area
Friday - Have reservation for all-day Utah Beach/Band of Brothers tour with Overlord
Saturday - Return car at CDG, take shuttle into town and take train to Chalon. We have reservation Saturday night at Best Western in Chalon
Sunday - Embark on a river cruise Chalon to Arles.
What I might do, however, is change the Saturday night lodging to some place in Lyon, as Uniworld would transfer us from the Lyon airport to Chalon for Sunday's cruise. There is a direct train from CDG to Lyon, so we could avoid that trip into Paris to catch the train to Chalon. We would just have to get to the Lyon airport some time on Sunday.
Wednesday - Rent car at CDG and travel to Bayeux (and maybe stop at Caen). DH can sleep anywhere and thinks he should be fine to drive. We both drive standard so that won't be a problem, at least.
We have reservations for three nights at the Churchill Hotel in Bayeux.
Thursday - Mont San Michel and area
Friday - Have reservation for all-day Utah Beach/Band of Brothers tour with Overlord
Saturday - Return car at CDG, take shuttle into town and take train to Chalon. We have reservation Saturday night at Best Western in Chalon
Sunday - Embark on a river cruise Chalon to Arles.
What I might do, however, is change the Saturday night lodging to some place in Lyon, as Uniworld would transfer us from the Lyon airport to Chalon for Sunday's cruise. There is a direct train from CDG to Lyon, so we could avoid that trip into Paris to catch the train to Chalon. We would just have to get to the Lyon airport some time on Sunday.
Nov 24th, 2011, 08:02 PM
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Generally there is no extra charge for returning the car at another location if you rent through Kemwel or Autoeurope. Instead of driving back to CDG, I would drive to Chalon in two days and at least get a glimpse of the Loire valley and Burgundy on the way.
Nov 25th, 2011, 07:37 AM
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caen may be interesting but it is in no way as old world and romantic as Bayeux, about the only town in the Carentin Peninsula not blitzed to bits in WW2 and thus an authentically ancient French regional town - unlike modern to the hilt Caen which is also much larger
Bayeux offers a stunning famous cathedral and Queen Mathilda's Tapestry woven just after the 1066 Invasion documenting events in that seminal event.
Bayeux offers a stunning famous cathedral and Queen Mathilda's Tapestry woven just after the 1066 Invasion documenting events in that seminal event.
Nov 27th, 2011, 04:36 AM
#12
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But yes if renting a car do so in Caen - and do the short drive to Bayeux to make that your base for leisurely drives along the D-Day sites and then over to Mont-Saint-Michel and thence via the Loire to Burgundy. Caen yes do have many car rentals and Bayeux IME a paucity of them.
Nov 27th, 2011, 05:36 AM
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Interestingly, there is a thread on another forum and two posters mentioned a car rental place in Bayeux called Renault Rent. I'll post the link to that thread and look at replies 16 through 19 where a few posters mentioned having positive experiences with this company.
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic..._Normandy.html
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic..._Normandy.html
Nov 27th, 2011, 07:52 AM
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If renting via Kemwel or Autoeurope, the paucity of rental agencies in Bayeux is not an issue since these brokers do not give one a choice of agency. But one or the other does list the possibility of renting in Bayeux.
Nov 28th, 2011, 07:29 AM
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One advantage of renting in Caen to me is that it is then easy to drive by the superb - yes simply the best D-day museum in the area - just outside of Caen and get a good overview of everything as it has a huge relief map of the whole area and then motor onto Bayeux.
