Familyof6Travels

Hello,

Our family of 6 will be spending 12 days in Europe this summer. We are planning 2 nights in Bayeaux to experience Normandy. After much research,we are struggling with how to get to Bayeaux from Paris (train to Caen, rent car seems to be our best option) and how to end up at BVA airport from Bayeaux without going back through Paris (we have an 0900 flight on Ryanair).

Any advice would be much appreciated! Happy Travels

Christina

I'm not clear on why you want to rent a car. If you want to anyway, fine, but trains go to Bayeux all the time, so you don't need to rent a car just to get to Bayeux.

And if you have a car, why wouldn't you just drive to Beauvais? There isn't any reason you'd have to drive through Paris to go there. Just go to Rouen and then take the N31 east to Beauvais. Otherwise, by train you probably would have to go into Paris and then take their shuttle bus or whatever you need to do to get there. I think there is a train but it isn't that close the the airport, actually, so then you'd need a taxi from the station to the airport. So seems like driving would be the best idea. I wouldn't do that the day of the flight as the flight is so early and it's about a 3 hour drive.

Why not drive to Beauvais the day before and stay in some airport hotel? LIke the Ibis http://www.ibis.com/gb/hotel-6889-ib...rt/index.shtml

flpab

We took the train to Caen from Paris, picked up a rental car and returned it there but you might be able to return it in Beauvais or just pick up and return there. Take the train there.

http://parisbytrain.com/paris-beauvais-airport-train/

You will love Bayeux. Great base for exploring Normandy.

Familyof6Travels

Thank you for your response. A car rental seemed like the best idea as our hotel is a couple of miles out of Bayeaux and with 6 of us the easiest way to get around. I'll look into one way car rentals to BVA. Thanks again

StCirq

It's Bayeux, not Bayeaux. I would take the train to Caen and rent the car there - you're less than half an hour from Bayeux there.

nytraveler

You say 2 nights in Bayeux - that gives you only 1 day there. is that really enough time to see what you are interested in? We did 3 nights and that was just a fly by trip of the D Day beaches, cemeteries, Tapestry and town of B.

apersuader65

I would agree with the train to Caen rent car for your visit in the area, then return the car at Beauvais the night before your departure and get a hotel near there for your next morning flight.

Unless your second night in Bayeux is followed by the 9:00 am flight out of Beauvais. Then you've pretty much set your course already.

Familyof6Travels

Thanks for all the advice. Think we'll take the train to Caen, rent a car and drop off in BVA. it will be fast and furious, but as long as we get the Normandy tour in we will be happy.

PalenQ

buy your tickets at www.voyages-sncf.com - can get discounted tickets though Paris-Saint-Lazare to Bayeux at full fare is not that great because it is not a high-speed line with TGVs but traditional trains.

Check these sites for lots about trains - www.seat61.com - good info on discounted tickets and general info www.budgeteuropetravel.com and www.ricksteves.com. I would do like some say above just drive to Beauvais via Normandy - follow the coast if you have time and stop in one of those sweet seaside resort towns like Deauville or Trouville - you should be able to rent a car in Caen and return it in Beauvais without extra charges I think - perhaps at Beuavais Airport there would be an extra charge as at many airports.

When you get the car in Caen stop by the Caen Memorial on the edge of town - the best overall picture of the whole D-Day area on a huge relief map - but base in Bayeux, one of the few towns not blitzed to bits in WW2's invasion and aftermath - great cathedral.

Bayeux to Beauvais by public transit is a long haul - best to go back thru Paris for that.

PalenQ

how to end up at BVA airport from Bayeaux without going back through Paris (we have an 0900 flight on Ryanair).>

You will definitely want to stay in Beauvais the last night - and Beauvais though an unexceptional but nice enough regional town has France's tallest cathedral (one of the tallest in Europe) - the airport is well out of town but I'd ditch the car the night before to get that out of the way and take two cabs to the airport for your flight.

If in Paris Ryan Air runs buses to Ryan Air planes.

PalenQ

check out Ste-Maire-Eglise, a small town not far from D-Day embarcaments where a U S paratrooper famously got entangled in the dangled from the town's tall church spire - dangling for what must have seemed like forever but he survived as Germans were shooting all around. Now memorialized in a stained-glass window in the church:

https://www.google.com/search?q=st+m...w=1745&bih=868

Gretchen

You might want to investigate the Hotel Bayeux for your stay in that city. It is squeaky clean, across from the cathedral, 5 minutes to the Tapestry and VERY economical with quite large rooms.