Need Help With Paris-Normandy Trip
 

I have a few questions for our upcoming trip.
1.I plan on spending 5 days in Paris and 4 days to see Bayeux,Honfleur,St.Malo and Mont St. Michel. In which order should I plan this if I will rent a car at CDG?
2.What is the cheapest way to rent a car for this trip?
3.Is their a website for good driving directions for the above towns?
Thankyou, Bob

If you are planning to go to Paris first, this is what I would suggest.

Take the train from Gare St. Lazare to Caen. Rent a car in Caen. Rental offices are directly across the street from the train station. Bayeux is about a 30 min. drive from Caen.

You can book your train tickets in advance on-line.

A little tip if you decide to do this. We found that the main departure/arrival boards in Gare St. Lazare did not list the gate number for Caen. We had to go over to the last 2 departure gates which are on the far right.

I agree with Katie2 about renting car in Caen, unless you are doing Normandy before Paris; if so, I would rent car at CDG and drive to Normandy, then return car in Caen.

Cheapest way to rent car is to rent before you get there. Most of us use www.autoeurope.com, which is a broker, not a rental agency.

I think Bayeux would be a good base from which to see all of the towns you want to visit. IMO, changing camp takes time and energy.

www.viamichelin.com is a good website for driving directions.

There is lots of good info here about doing Normandy; put Normandy in the Search box and go1

Have a wonderful trip.

You can get driving directions at
mappy.com and viamichelin.com. If you're going over to Brittany to see St-Malo, add Dinard and Dinan to your sightseeing list.

I second the idea of taking the train to Caen and picking up a car there. Autoeurope.com often has very good prices and is a good outfit.

You must begin your Normandy tour at the Caen museum, for it gives you such a complete view of the history of WWII it makes the visit to the Normandy sites more meaningful. You can easily spend 1/2 a day there, and you will never forget it. Do visit the American cementery, try to be there at noon. Hearing the bells chime in the respectful silence that visitors give this site will give you chills. I don't think any American should visit this part of France without seeing these sites.
Try to reach Mont St Michel on a week day, as a holiday week-end is very crowded. Arrive early.

Hi Bob,

There are variables, and more information would be helpful.

How much time do you plan to spend (what do you plan to do) in each of the four places in normandy/Brittany.

Which comes first during your visit, Paris or Normandy, and what are the start and stop dates of the Normandy leg?

Is there a reason - such as economy or an overnight contemplated near the airport - for thinking of car pickup/dropoff at Charles de Gaulle, rather than in Normandy?

How many of you are traveling?

Do you mind driving in medium to heavy traffic on unfamiliar expressway, with route changes?

Are you confortable in large crowds?

We were there in September. The driving on the Peripherique can be really hairy, I'd rather take the train next time to Bayeux or somewhere else and get a car there. We did the same trip last year.

We didn't go to Honfleur. This year we spent 3 nights on Mont St. Michel, using that as our base. We went to Omaha Beach and Point Du Hoc, and then to Dinard also. I love staying on the Mont!!! IMHO, I'd encourage you to check out the tide information for MSM and then base your trip on that (also, if you are getting the Carte Orange in Paris, you might want to plan around that as well). We bought maps on the way to Normandy, one of them in the Champion grocery store (a huge one near MSM) with great directions to everywhere. Better than anything I found online or in a book I bought. We have photos of MSM, Dinard, Point Du Hoc, Paris, and Omaha Beach on www.neesie.org

If you go to St. Malo, definitely take a trip over to Dinard! We missed St. Malo this time, but I know a lot of people do both in a day.

We rented a car at CDG, drove right to Honfleur (3 nights there)--it is a great town--took day trip to D-Day sites & Bayeux, then went to Mont St. Michel & St. Malo,(actually stayed in Ducey) then to Paris & dropped the car off immediately--it worked great for us.

Wow. We stayed on Mont St-Michel this summer for a night and out experience was the exact opposite of nbodyhome. The Mont has the most over-priced hotels and the worst restaurants in France. Unfortunately the abbey is one of the great sites of the world, so you have to go. My advice would be to stay in Bayeux and daytrip.

Bob:
Much better! ;-) This post should get you what you need.

Rather than backtrack through Paris, my personal preference would be to pick up the car the first day. Just take it slow & easy. If you get too tired, you could stop in Rouen (or maybe Fodorites can suggest somewhere else along the route).

Before you go study up on road signs, maps, roundabouts, words for auto travel, etc. Your "navigator" should do the same. It will give you a lot more confidence that first day. It's really not hard---if I can do it anyone can!

Pausanias -

I am sorry that you didn't enjoy it. This was the second year we stayed on the Mont (the Hotel Auberge St. Pierre) and really enjoyed it both years. The prices was about $120 per night, not including breakfast (which I only took there one morning). I thought that was a great price, considering the location. I love running around the island at night (in May last year, the sun didn't set until nearly 11!) We'd wake up and leave before the bulk of the tourists got there. Much nicer to be leaving when it gets crowded, and there when it's not.

Yes, I would stay on the Mont, in season, so I could enjoy it before the crowds arrive and after they leave, unless I really loved crowds, even though the lodging is not the greatest. And I would take the train to a Normandy town and rent a car there to avoid the heavy traffic around Paris, unless I were going on a Saturday or Sunday, when traffic is easier, or unless I were a family of four to six, which would make the train kinda pricey, or unless I wanted to skid into Charles de Gaulle airport from Normandy on the evening before my early flight home.

By the way, you don't have to take the infamous Paris peripherique to get from Charles de Gaulle airport to Normandy. The Michelin map site shows an optional route, though there is quite a bit of express road switching.

nbodyhome --

Not your fault!

I thought the hotels were overpriced for what they were -- not necessarily expensive. We stayed at Les Terrasses Poulard, and the endless stairs may have colored my judgement.

We had decided to stay on the Mont to visit the Abbey twice, once at night. While waiting to enter in the afternoon, we saw a sign saying that night admission was not offered on Sunday, Bad planning.

After dinner, we saw large numbers of people climbing to the abbey anyway. My wife and son joined them, ever the optimists. I headed the other way, found a bar with a pretty waitress, and had a mediocre calvados for 7€. That's where they found me after they learned that the sign meant what it said.

I'd like to go back to take the in-depth tour offered in French and to finally see the interior at night. I might even stay on the Mont for the sake of convenience. But if I do, I'll skip the restaurants and bring some bread, cheese, sausage and wine for dinner!

My wife and I spent eight days in Normandy this past september, and thanks to Fodorites suggestions, had great accomodations in Les Andelys, Bayeux. Bayeux is my new favorite town - central to lots of stuff in Normandy. We drove to Mt. St. Michel for a day trip there - a weekend, very crowded, but we found the secret( kidding!) passageway around the outside of the Mont and got away from the crowds. Honfleur was on our list, but we stayed extra in Bayeux, and don't reget it. We drove from CDG to Normandy, no problem on the Perifique, which we were on only a short time til we hit the main thruway to Les Andelys.
Auto Europe had the best deal, although we had a 1 hour wait for our auto at CDG
The battle beaches were awe-inspiring, and the american, german and british cemeteries were sobering. The Bayeux tapestry was great, the weather fine, and the trip a great success. Roen was not what I expected, most of the old city was bombed during WWII, and only a small section remained. Our accomodations were great, La Chaine D'or in Les Andelys, and the Lion D'or in Bayeux. Great hotels, great restaurants, terrific trip. Tom

Hi Tom,

Wouldn't it be boring if we all loved the same things? Given a choice between Bayeux and Honfleur I would speed to the latter. Like Baudelaire, I long to settle down there, and I one-tenth have.

As for Mont-Saint-Michel, if I had only four days in Normandy, I would skip it.

WE want to visit the Normandy beaches, but we may not have a car. Probably we will have just come over the Chunnel, and we will be making Normandy our first stop before Paris. I know that we can take the train to Caen. AFter that, are there tour buses that will take us out to the D-Day area?

So I have been debating. Do I really need an extra night near Mont St. Michel. Could I see it on the way from Bayeux toward St. malo? I realize it will be more crowded in the daytime. Am I missing a lot not seeing it lit up at night?

<<But if I do, I'll skip the restaurants and bring some bread, cheese, sausage and wine for dinner!<<

Actually, we really enjoy the Auberge restaurant and it isn't too pricey (though we REALLY like the Buffalo Grill outside of the MSM area, which tends to have decent food and great service).

We didn't even make it to the Abbey this time, and not for very long last time either. We spent a lot of time running around, going to the graveyard on the Mont, checking out all the little nooks and crannies. The pics we took of the sunset while sitting on the beach area of MSM were beautiful, and it was so unusual to even get a sunset. It rains a lot there, or so it seems!

I am a HUGE fan of the Mont. Not of all the little tourist shops, but it's just an incredibly beautiful place, especially at night.

And maybe we'll try driving again if we don't really have to use the Peripherique. It was really, really scary to me this time (breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out!)

I'd never go to the Mont as a day trip. I would only go if spending the night (I am not sure when there isn't a tourist season, it always seems busy during the day!) It is like having your own private island with only a small number of others sharing it. I'm a fan. It was funny, last year a woman asked where we were staying. I love Disney and actually sell Disney trips as my job, and I said "on property". My husband thought it was hysterical, but there are few places that I need to stay "on property", and the Mont is one of them!

From Caen, there are D-Day tours from the Memorial Peace museum. Another possibility if you're going in the summer is a special line of the regional bus company, Bus Verts de Calvados, that follows a route of D-Day sites. At some of them the bus pauses, at others, you can get off, visit, and board the next bus.