Normandy and Brittany itinerary advice, please!
 

I'm hoping to get some feedback from France experts and travellers on the initial draft of our itinerary.

We'll be going in September/October of this year, and we've come up with a bit of a plan. It doesn't include minute to minute or even day to day as of yet, just a general outline so we can get plane tickets booked.

For the first days it will be me and husband, then our daughter will join us for a week, then we'll drop her off, and continue on. So on the day we drop her, we'll need to be near a city so she can get the train to CDG for her 2:00 pm flight.

Day I, arrive from Toronto and take the train to Lille. Leaving maybe three hours from arrival to train departure? Too little/ too much time? Sept 19
Day 2, Lille, Sept 20 (2 nights Lille)

Day 3, pick up car and drive to Ypres (21, 22)
Day 4, Ypres

Day 5 and 6, Arras, where we will meet daughter (23rd, 24th)

Day 7, head to Normandy, stop at Entretat if the weather is good, and stay one night in Honfleur. This is our only one night stay. (25th)

Day 8, 9, 10, Bayeaux (26th, 27th, 28th)

Day 11 - 16 Drop daughter at Caen (29th, Sunday), drive to somewhere along the pink Granite coast. The idea is to rent a gite for a week through Gite de France. I know most start on Saturday, but because we have to drop DD off on Sunday morning, we'll try to rent for the week, and just not come until Sunday. Ocean side would be perfect if anyone has any suggestions???

Day 17 - 18, backtrack to Dinan for two nights. (5th, 6th)

I know this seems backwards, but we'd like to be on the coast for a week to do some hiking and loafing and enjoying a leisurely few days.

Day 19, 20. Head to Rennes, drop the car. (7th, 8th)

Day 21, 24. Train to Paris, and stay for three nights, possibly four. (9th, 10th, 11th, 12th)

Return home on the 13th.

We're mainly interested in scenery, history, interesting walkable towns, and to a lesser extent, food. We'd like to see MSM (very early or very late one day), one of the landing beaches, and Bayeaux Tapestry. DH has driven in France before, as well as England, Scotland and Ireland, so we're familiar driving small, narrow, winding roads and just how long it can take to get from point to point.

Does this plan raise any red flags or huge holes? Too much time in one place, and not enough in another?

I'd rather not change the First World War days too much because of when and where we meet DD. She wants to go to Vimy with us, as well as the Beaumont Hamel Newfoundland Memorial.

We're open to all suggestions, criticisms and helpful advice you care to share.

Many thanks in advance!

Sounds fine to me.

Yes to 3 hours between arrival time and train departure - at least, that's what works for me.

There is no place you're planning to visit that says "small, narrow, winding roads," at least not the kind I'm familiar with in France.

Spelling:

Etretat
Bayeux (makes a big difference in pronounciation, among other things - it's Buy-euh, not Buy-oh)

Can't help with lodging, unfortunately. I like to stay in Vannes and Fougères when in that part of France.

Sounds good!

In the fall, we made a brief visit to Normandy/Brittany. See trip report here. https://www.fodors.com/community/eur...tober-1659892/

We visited the D Day landing sites of US importance, but you may wish to see Juno Beach as the main Canadian landing site. We also enjoyed Mont-Saint-Michel, the Bayeux tapestry and even St-Malo that some people skip (too touristy for some and the fact that it was rebuilt after heavy war bombing). We stayed at airbnbs in Dinan and Bayeux.

I haven’t been to all of the places you mention, but I did love Honfleur, Bayeux, the Côte de Granit Rose, Dinan, and Rennes!

It’s not a gite, but I was very pleased with the Hotel des Rochers in Ploumanac’h.
https://www.hotel-desrochers-perros.com

In this season you may find some gites where it is possible to rent for a few days instead of a whole week.
You could stop in Mont St Michel on your way from Bayeux to the pink granite coast. Or maybe better when you are in Dinan, to better choose the time that suits you, and combine it with Cancale, St Malo or Fougères.

The route des chamières is on the way to Honfleur:
the picture is geo-tagged so that it can be correlated with a road map.

You should try to see one or two of the Breton calvaires.

St.C. yes, I dashed my post off quite quickly, I was certain there would be at least one or two spelling errors!

whitehall, I enjoyed your TR very much. Thanks for linking it.

shamouel, I agree, it doesn't make the most sense to visit MSM from Bayeux, but if our daughter wants to see it, we don't have any other option. If she changes her mind about it, then going from Dinan is more reasonable, so it all depends on what she wants to do.

Michael, I googled Routes des Chamiers, and can't find anything. Can you tell me about it, and where it is? Making a note of Breton calvaires also, thanks.

Misspelling on my part: route des chaumières: La Route des Chaumières - circuit voiture - Normandie Tourisme

book your trains as early as possible to get discounted rates on TGV and fast trains - but those are train-specific and can't be changed nor refunded I believe. But the CDG-Lille Flanders train at full price is not that bad and if landing and training out would be nice to hop the next train - just buy on arrival but if you want to leave a lot of time between plane and train you could save. for lots on trains check www.oui.sncf - French Naional Railways official site - www.seat61.com has great tips on booking own tickets online - general info - www.ricksteves.com and www.budeteuropetravel.com.

That said I'd consider picking up car at CDG and driving on autoroutes to Lille or elsewhere. Many here caution about that but if you sleep on plane it's an easy drive on the autoroute.

Actually, sleeping on the plane does not reduce the risk of an accident after a flight that crosses time zones.

Just an observation - we did a similar trip through Normandy and Brittany last July (some slightly different destinations though). We had a car from Brussels and wanted to drop the car off in Rennes. We found that it was considerably cheaper to drive all the way to Paris and drop the car off there. We were leaving via Paris anyway and the car turned out to be useful as we met friends on the outskirts and did use the car a bit to get around anyway. The point is that you might find it more expensive to drop off the car in Rennes rather than doing a complete circuit back to Paris CDG, notwithstanding different starting points, so do look into that.

Lavandula

If a car is rented in France, at least with Europcar, there is generally no charge for a one way rental. This can be checked out by looking at the contracts offered by Kemwel and Autoeurope.

I've been all over these areas so I might be able to add a little more to the above good comments

I just need to discuss "Ocean-side" which confuses me. One side of Brittany is on the English Channel and the other is on the Bay of Biscay. Neither is technically on an ocean but the Bay of Biscay could be so described, is that what you mean or do you mean on the beach or do you mean with a sea view. Each is different and it would help if you could explain.

While small roads should not be a serious fear you will find that getting around Brittany especially is a slow process and towards the north-west corner can get harder and harder.

To find gites, there are a fair few options, booking.com, airbnb, gite-de-france and then local town websites are the core source of places and in September part weeks may be easy to get, watch out for those cleaning costs and sheet hire elements (though paying extra for towels is becoming rarer and rarer).

So for example at St Malo https://www.saint-malo-tourisme.co.u...-accommodation

kja - I'm curious. Why/how does sleeping on the plane not reduce the risk of an accident?

I too have the same question. Sleeping on the plane and landing in the morning seems to be everything the desychronosis folks say fights it best.

lavendula, thanks, we've always rented Europecar through Auto Europe, and have never paid drop off fees, but we've always stayed within one country. It is something we always check, though.

Bilbo, yes, sorry, I wasn't being specific or accurate. :( We have three oceans, so I just tend to think most briny water between countries in terms of oceans. As I write this, I realize how lazy that is!

What would be ideal would be a sea view rather than a location in the country. Beaches don't really register much with us, but rocky cliffs do. I don't see us getting too far to the north-west corner.

I'm having a bit of a rethink about days for the middle part:

4 nights Bayeux (rather than three)
3 or 4 nights Dinan (rather than two)
4 or 5 nights Granite Coast (rather than six or seven)
2 nights Renne

Thoughts on this? Too much in one spot? Not enough in another?

kja, I had a look at the hotel, it looks good! How long did you stay there, and what did you think of the location?

How does one know they will sleep well on the plane if there are disturbances like bumpy parts of flights? And you do not need a car in Lille, a rather nice city (last I knew a branch of the Louvre was opened) and good one to walk around in - jet lag itself can make one tired earlier than normal. But, yes take train to Lille - or the many van transfers there are. My French son sometimes has to take such a van which may pick up a few others too so not a taxi which would be much more than trains. Just Google CDG-Lille transfers for several - says $44 all inclusive p.p. - can't be much more than train and you have to get from train station to hotel.

Rennes is not all that exciting although it does have a good indoor (food) market and a vibrant shopping district. But it is a good jumping off point for other destinations around there; you could drive to MSM (as we did - a longish drive but adequate for our needs) or to Fougères, which we really enjoyed. So I would say 2 days there is OK with those other activities in mind.

Thanks for the point about Europcar Michael. I don't remember who we had; could have been Hertz. We often book directly with them because I have a permanent discount card with them but we are fickle and sometimes use other rental car companies if it suits us better.

Lavandula