KarenAG

There will be 5 or 7 of us visiting Paris and we want to do a day trip to Normandy. The tours aren't available every day and we wan to go at the beginning of the week. How long and difficult is the drive? Any info you can provide will be helpful. Thank You

rex

Normandy is a big place, spanning from as close as Giverny (less than 50 miles to as far as Mont St Michel - - more like 225 miles).

If you mean the historical sites of the Invasion of Normandy - - they stretch close to 100 miles along the English Channel coastline, and you will need a full three hours of driving (not counting getting from hotel to car rental location and getting the rental started and concluded).

And I would recommend allocating something more like 16-20 hours of daylight to see even half of the places you can visit there. Hard to do in two full days if you are already there, let alone with 7-8 hours of roundtrip commute time.

Last of all, a one-day car rental is hard to find for a price that isn't equal to a three-day car rental.

Why not go and spend at least one night there? The lodging savings alone will most likely offset the cost of car rental.

Best wishes,

Rex

Dave_in_Paris

Seconding Rex: In a day you can see a little bit of one part of Normandy. The hardest part of the drive would be getting through Paris area traffic. Consider Honfleur, a little town with over-the-top charm (and large crowds). (It's also accessible by train and bus.)

Bob_KY

We did a one-day trip from Paris to the Omaha Beach landing areas around Arromanches and Bayeaux in 1994. I recall that the drive was fairly easy, I think it took between 2 1/2 and 3 hours. In hindsight, I would have planned to spend the night somewhere in Normandy rather than try to drive back to Paris at night. That was the hardest part of the drive, trying to find the car rental agency at night in Paris in the rain. (We rented at one of the train stations, it probably would have been easier to find it again if we rented at one of the airports). On a 1 day trip, you would probably only have time to go to one area, but it is doable. We were able to see the large American cemetery, and some of the landing areas nearby (Point-du-Hoc, etc.), and also visited the Bayeaux tapestry. If you have more time, you might consider taking a train to Caen and renting a car there, so you will avoid the joy of driving in Paris.

thomthumb

Try parisvision.com. I used it for a daytrip to the D-Day sites (some), and they were great!