I have business in Amsterdam in September and have decided to extend my trip for a few days of vacation. My husband and I are now booked to fly into Amsterdam and out of Paris. We have been to Paris twice in recent years, and would like to visit the French countryside....we are thinking the Normandy area. I am trying to figure out the logistics of this visit and would love some help with the itinerary.

Would we be better off taking an early morning train to Paris, spending the afternoon and evening there and in the morning take a train to somewhere in Normandy....any ideas. Or we can rent a car in Paris the next morning and drive. Or we can fly from Amsterdam to Paris and then pick up a car at the airport and drive from there to Normandy. However,the only low cost airline that flies Amsterdam to Pais has a once a day flight that gets us in at 5pm which is pretty late in the day to start driving to Normandy. Any ideas?

If we have about 3 to 4 days, what would be the sights we should not miss. I know ideally we would like to visit the beaches, Honfleur, Mont St. Michele, the museum in Caen and the tapestry in Bayeux. Is this doable? Should we make one city our base and take day trips to the various sights.

As you can tell I need help in making these decisions. Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer me!

Hi! I just got back in May from a driving trip thru Normandy. I rented a car and spent a week up north. I did a trip report which you can search for and read.

I would say that I'd wait until the next day to travel. 5pm is kinda late to start out from the airport. You'll also be in rush hour traffic and that's no fun.

I think you should definitely do Giverny, Rouen, Caen (and the beaches), Bayeux and le Mont St Michel. I did not go to Honfleur but I hear that it's worth a visit. LMSM is about 1.5 hrs from Caen, which is a good central place to use as a base.

Hope this helps,
Joliefleur

Joliefleur, did you stay in any nice B&B's or small/charming hotels while you were in Normandy? I am looking for a place to stay for a week outside of Caen (within a 1/2 hr drive to downtown Caen). Thanks!!!

honfleur a must for artist/history of art. The bridge to lehavre if engineer

Regarding small hotels in Normandy... I stayed in small hotels and B&Bs all the time. You can find the contact information for all the places I stayed in my trip report. Just do a search for my handle.

Good luck!

We stayed here last October:
http://www.lignerolles.homestead.com/

It is lovely, The owners are so gracious, the rates are very reasonable and in addition Roel gives highly recommended D-Day tours. He will also make the car rental reservation for you.

We stayed here last April:

http://www.bandbnormandie.com/

We would highly recommend it!

Odile is a wonderful hostess and the breakfasts were amazing.

Have a great trip.

bookmarking (possible 2009 trip

Honfleur is beautiful and should be a must on your itinerary. Why not check out La Petite Folie, recently opened in central part of the old section of the town and very comfy here is their website: http://www.lapetitefolie-honfleur.com

If you took the flight to Paris landing at 5:00 p.m. it would probably be around 6:00 by the time you clear all the formalities and pick up a car. That would give you 2 hours to drive out to Les Andelys, a charming set of 2 towns (one large, one quite small) and check in at the charming La Chaîne d'Or hotel/restaurant. It's right on the bank of the river Seine; rear rooms have good views. The restaurant is excellent, and the dining room has French (of course) doors that look out at the river.

When we stayed there with a friend she said it was the perfect French country restaurant, and she's picky.