I will be in Paris with 2 other adults and two children (13 and 12) in June for 9 nights. We initially thought about taking a day trip from Paris to the D-Day beaches, but we have seen here that that might be too long a trip for one day. So now I'm thinking about taking an overnight trip from Paris. I would like to see the D-Day beaches, but someone else on the trip prefers to go to Mont St.-Michel. We will have to decide on one. Which city should we spend the night in if we decide to go to the D-Day beaches, and which city should we spend the night in if we go to Mont St.-Michel? Any other advice appreciated! Thanks.

Am I correct in assuming you're American? If so, and travelling with two young people, I'd suggest the D-Day beaches. There's really no better to way to learn about the history and sacrifices of the invasion than to see the area in person.

Many people like to use Bayeux as a base town for exploring the area. If you type D-Day and Bayeux into the search box above, you'll see many threads talking about hotels, tour operators, restaurants, etc. If possible, stop at the Peace Memorial (museum) in Caen on your way to or from your Normandy base.

If you have 9 nights total, I think you can spare 2 days to see both the D-Day beaches and Mont St. Michel. Both are worth the trip.

But if you have to choose only one, and if you are American, then I agree with Jean: definitely see the D-Day Beaches and the American Cemetery.

Try to get your kids to watch some of the Ken Burns documentary "The War" before you go, so they understand what they are seeing. It's really fantastic, if you haven't seen it, and there are interviews with folks who were only young teens at the time.

TGV train Paris-Rennes Couriers Breton bus right to MSMichel - overnight

next morning train to Bayeux - do mini bus tours to D-Day beach and cemetery, train back to Paris

not far-fetched

and if you want to rent a car in Rennes and drive the route all the better and easier - return car at Caen and train back to paris (2 hrs)

another vote for the D-day beaches.

We took a 1/2 day tour and it picks up at the Bayeux train station about 9am. Right after the train from Paris arrives. On our time was a family who were making a day trip of it...

I'll weigh in on with a vote for Mont St-Michel in order to see the amazing architecture of the abbey and its precincts. The setting is also spectacular.

Thanks for all the great information so far! Just to clarify a couple of things. Yes, we are Americans. The reason I didn't want to stay more than one night away from Paris is because we already have a deposit on an apartment in Paris for those nine nights. I didn't want to "double pay" for more than one night. Great idea about the documentary. I will do that whether or not we decide to go to the D-Day beaches.

Well, le Mont-St-Michel is a singular, relatively small venue. The D-Day beaches stretch over quite a large area, and then you have the museums, the Bayeux tapestry, etc., so it's really apples and oranges - they really couldn't be more different.

On a 3-week trip to France in July 2003 with our then 12 and 16 year old sons we were able to take in both Mt. St. Michael and Normandy. If you can, I would try to visit both. We also had a car so could get around easily.

Mt. St. Michael is stunning during the day and at night. We spent 1 night at Hotel de la Digue. It is very convenient and located on the mainland at the end of the causeway. You can either drive to the abbey or walk from here (20 min). We ate at a wonderful place in the village at the base of the abbey called Mere Poulard--wonderful omlettes. Reservations are recommended but we lucked out and were able to get right in.

We then spent 2 nights (Hotel de la Marine, had a nice beach view room) in Arromanches, arriving here on Bastille Day. Very fun with fireworks that night! Arromanches was ground zero for the D-Day invasion. This location was convenient for visiting many of the sights in the area. Our boys had watched many war movies and read lots of W.W. II books so these sights were very meaningful for them.

As another reader stated, if you can, stop at the Caen's Battle of Normandy Museum. There is alot to see here. We only stopped for around 3 hours on our way to Paris but could have even spent more time here.

You have received some good suggestions here. An early train from Paris with an overnight stay in Bayeux and late departure the next day would give you the better part of two days to some of the more important D-Day sights. I wouldn't miss the Mémorial de Caen (not the Battle of Normandy Museum, which is a now inferior museum in Bayeux) to start (plan on at least a couple of hours). In fact the Mémorial runs a variety of tours of the beaches, and has a two day tour with overnight in Bayeux. Check their website:

http://www.memorial-caen.fr/portail/

In my opinion, the best place to stay at Mont-St-Michel, if you plan to go, is on the Mount itself. Others may differ in their opinions.

You will have to decide which is best--some children might enjoy walking the battlements of Mont-St-Michel, while others would be fascinated by the D-Day sights.

BTW to Jean who wrote: "Am I correct in assuming you're American? If so, and travelling with two young people, I'd suggest the D-Day beaches.", why would this make a difference?? D-Day was not an exclusively American operation as anyone will know who has read anything about it or who has visited the cemeteries with the graves of thousands of British, Canadian and other allied soldiers who died landing on Gold, Juno and Sword beaches and in the landing zones east of the Orne.

Laverendrye, oh for crying out loud!, everyone knows D-Day was not an Americans-only event.

I wanted to emphasize what a valuable learning experience this would be for American kids. I don't know who is in charge of the history curriculums in our schools these days, but an embarrassingly large number of our young people (and many older ones too) have little or no understanding of this event and the sacrifices made by American soldiers and, yes, soldiers from Britain, Canada, France, Poland, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Greece and the Netherlands.

Although people from everywhere could learn something about the human cost of war by visiting this area, I'm not going to tell tourists from other countries that they should pick the D-Day beaches over MSM. So I asked the poster's nationality.

Jean: Sorry I took your post the wrong way, but it did seem to me that your assumption was that only Americans might be interested in the D-Day beaches etc. I'm happy to learn that I was wrong.

Laverendrye, that's why I asked the poster my question. I try not to make assumptions.

Jean, thank you for your gracious acceptance of my apology.

I have recently been substituting (although an English major) for kids in U.S. History for a couple of weeks. You would not believe what they do NOT know about our history. Today's high school kids barely (if at all) know who JFK, Roosevelt, Churchill etc were.

I'm an advocate of showing your kids "The Longest Day", "Band of Brothers", (if they are old enough, "Saving Private Ryan", etc. I took "The War" book to class. They ignored it.

Remember the adage that 'history repeats itself'? It's pretty scary. They sit like bumps on logs through video footage of Auschwitz, bombing of London, Pearl Harbor, etc.

Sorry, I know this is a travel board. And, I realize if your child wanted to be an architect, historian, etc, MSM might be a good choice. I apologize for venting.

My recommendation for seeing Mont St-Michel was to introduce kids to far-off history. I'm always amazed at kids AND adults who haven't a clue about the Middle Ages.

We took our two young teens (13 and 15) to Paris for one week and Bayeux for one week. We used Bayeux and were able to do a day trip to Mont St Michel but spent most of our time seeing the D-Day beaches, museums, St Lo, Utah, Omaha, American, German and British Cemetery, Longues Battery, etc etc. My husband woke them up at dawn, drove to omaha beach and they ran from the water's edge up the bluffs...this was after a day long tour with Col. Chilcott so they knew that what they felt running was a small piece of what the soldiers when thru with 100 pounds on their backs and bullets flying. It has stayed with them to this day and I honestly can't say the same thing about Mont St Michel. I guess you could do two very long day trips to see both of your sites but if only one is possible, I would see the D-Day sites.

All of the comments have given me a lot to think about. I will share this information with the others in my group to try to come to a consensus. I have to say that I am still leaning toward the D-Day beaches if we can only see one.

Jean - I don't know if that would fit for all Americans. I would much rather visit Mont St Michel than the D-Day Beaches. I just prefer medieval history to modern, though I don't mind modern at all! If I had a choice, though, I'd go for medieval or ancient.

The thought that school children learn about 20th cerntury history from hollywood movies shown in school is almost equally disturbing than that fact that they don't learn any histroy at all!!!
Pointe du hoc and the beaches would be the places to visit in the morning, St. Michel in the afternoon.