Hi All -

I'm posting this for a friend who asked for advice for an upcoming trip that he and his wife are taking in March. Having been to Normandy some ten years ago, I fear that my advice would be a bit outdated.

Travelers are a married couple in their 60s who have never been to the region before. Looking for good restaurant suggestions and any hidden gems.

Also - what are people's feelings about the WWII museum in Caen?

Day 1 – arrive CDG from NYC and drive or train to Calvados (is it worth it to drive? i.e. is there any place en route that you recommend as a particularly good stop for lunch, etc.)

Day 2 – Visit Bayeux to see the tapestry, explore the town

Day 3 – Tour of WWII sites – does anyone have a recommendation for a tour operator (we previously used Roel of Victory Tours who was excellent)

Day 4 – Visit Honfleur

Day 5 – drive to St. Malo via Cherbourg (visit French Submarine Museum in Cherbourg)

Day 6 – St. Malo

Day 7 – visit Mont St. Michel

Day 8 – return to Paris for return flight

The Mémorial in Caen is one of the best museums I've visited anywhere.

Your friends would be very foolish to get off a long-haul flight and drive to Calvados. Jet lag can be insidious, even if they think they're fine. They should take the train to Caen, pick up a car there, and drive the 20 minutes to Bayeux.

Where will they return the car?

"Good restaurant suggestions" is really too vague to answer.

They should not return to Paris on the same day as their departure flight - too risky.

Sounds like they need to read a guidebook or two. Suggest they order the Michel Green Guide to Normandy.

We had a very excellent day-long tour of the D-Day scenarios with ddaybattletours.com - they are a husband-and-wife operation based in Sainte-Mère-Eglise (the church where the paratrooper famously got hung up - wait until you hear the "real" story!).

The tour started with the museum right there and ended back there, a small group in a mini-van, couldn't have been better planned and executed.

We liked the town of Granville with the lookout "Le Roc" by the harbor. In case that sort of thing interests you, there is a Christian Dior museum.

The ferry for Jersey leaves from Granville - www.directferries.co.uk/granville_ferry.htm

I agree with StCirq's comments completely. Best museum for military /wwii I've been; train to Caen then rent car.

We used Overlord tours for our May 2016 tour and loved it. We chose the private tour for a group of 4, but saw several regular groups in bigger vans as well.

I'd consider renting the car in Caen and dropping off in Rennes. Train back to Paris from Rennes the day before the return flight.

The Peace Museum in Caen is fabulous. Allow 3-4 hours.

Calvados is a department (like a US county) that includes Caen, Bayeux, and most of the WWII sites.

Bayeux, St Malo, Honfleur, and Mt St Michel are half-day visits - IMO.

You might consider shortening your first-day trip and stay:
- 2 nights in Honfleur and explore Honfleur and the Pays du Auge
- 2 nights in Bayeau & explore the WWII stuff
- 3 nights in St Malo and see the Cherbourg museum on the way there. Visit MSM very early in the AM, and other sites around St Malo,(Dinan, etc)

I just sent someone my Normandy & Brittany itinerary - it might have been you - or the other Fodors person asking the same questions on another post. If you don't have it - e-mail me at [email protected] & I'll attach the itinerary to the reply e-mail

Stu Dudley

Sorry, that should have been Michelin Green Guide, not Michel.

http://www.normandy-battlefields.com/

Keep it simple. Click on this site. We stayed here in May 2014 with another couple. The owners are British (he ex-military) and did all the tours for us in their minivan. Great tours. We covered the beaches, Bayeuz and St Michael during our stay and did not have to move around. You will enjoy the experience.

The museum at Caen is fantastic. We did that on a previous tour in 2000.

Rennes is a great place to return your car -short drive from Mont StMichel and bullet trains to Paris.

Taking train to Caen -to pick up the car makes total sense for what others say after an all-night flight.

For lot of great info on French trains check www.voyages-sncf.com- official site of French Railways (the SNCF)- book your own tickets - at a discount if done early enough; for general info also www.seat61.com -good advice on discounted tickets; www.budgeteuropetravel.com; www.ricksteves.com.

Getting to the train to Caen from CDG can be tiring too after such a flight -consider taking a taxi or private driver or mini-van or whatever right to Saint-Lazare station where those trains start from. Otherwise you have to take potentially crowded RER trains and change one to get to Saint-Lazare.

I echo StCirq on the great Michelin Green Guide to Normandy - get it in advance and study it to better plan your trip and hit such gems at Mere-St-Eglise to see the famous Paratrooper Window where an parachuting American GI got snagged on accouterments of a tower and hung for hours as bullets were whizzing around the town at the center of the battle. Just a short one-hour stop or so.

>>Mere-St-Eglise<<

Ste-Mere-Eglise

Stu Dudley

yes a little dyslexic today -thanks yelduD utS!

Thank you all for the suggestions thus far.

Stu - I just sent you an e-mail with a request for your itinerary.

If my friends take the train from CDG to Caen, do you think it's too much for them to visit the WWII museum that day too? I know that I'm pretty jetlagged the first day.

Here's a revised itinerary

Day 1 - take train from Paris CDG to Caen; visit Caen's Memorial and World War II museum


Day 2 - pick up rental car in Caen and drive to Bayeux as a base to explore; explore Bayeux


Day 3 - World War II tour


Day 4 - visit Honfleur, another town


Day 5 - drive to St. Malo; visit Cherbourg's French Submarine museum en route (overnight St. Malo)



Day 6 - visit Mont St. Michel (get there early in the morning) (overnight St. Malo)



Day 7 - drive from St. Malo to Rennes to drop off rental car; catch bullet train back to Paris; overnight in Paris



Day 8 - return flight to CDG

Day 1 - take train from Paris CDG to Caen; visit Caen's Memorial and World War II museum>

Sure if they feel like it -it is on the outskirts of Caen however so would be a natural to hit the next day when driving to Bayeux, which, being one of the few Cotentin towns not decimated during the war is a nice old city with great cathedral and Queen Matildha's famous 1066 Tapestry in a local museum.

I would not consider flying overnight, taking a train to Caen, and then visiting the Mémorial. I've never spent less than 4 hours there, and I would just want to be settled in for the evening by mid- to late afternoon. Plus, how would they get with their luggage from the train station in Caen to the museums? Public transportation as I recall isn't all that easy.

As I said previously, take the train to Caen after the overnight flight, drive the 20 minutes to Bayeux, get settled in and take a walk around town. See the cathedral and maybe the tapestry. Have a nice dinner and get to bed fairly early

NEXT day drive to Caen and do the museum(s).

>>If my friends take the train from CDG to Caen, do you think it's too much for them to visit the WWII museum that day too? I know that I'm pretty jetlagged the first day. <<

Doubt it

The Museum closes at 6PM. At a minimum, it is a 3 hr visit if you want to get any value out of it. That means you must arrive before 3PM. There is a train from Paris that leaves at 12:10 & arrives at 2PM. You MAY be able to check into your hotel and get to the Museum in 1 hr - but that's rushing it.

To catch the 12:10 train, you'll need to walk out of the airport and catch a cab by 10:30, IMO (any others care to advise?). I would not want to take the RER from CDG into Paris, catch a cab to Gare St Lazare, and then train to Caen all on arrival day. Too much could go wrong.

To walk out of the terminal by 10:30 after going through passport control and securing your bags - you'll need to land (on time) by 9am. Adding a "fudge factor" of 1 hr - I would want to land by 8AM.

I would advise you to do much the same as we did in 2015 and land at CDG, rent a car, and drive 2 1/4 hrs to Epernay - but you'll head in the other direction to Honfleur and stay the night there. Then after visiting Honfleur, drive to Caen for a visit. We're in our late 60s and fly to Paris from San Francisco. 2 1/4 hrs is our limit for driving on arrival day.

Stu Dudley

I think you've already made this adjustment, but to be clear, if there is <b>any</b> chance that your friends will have jet lag – as they likely will, if flying from NYC, then I would strongly encourage them to take public transportation for their first night or two. There is mounting evidence that driving with jet lag is just as dangerous -- to oneself and others -- as driving drunk, and <b>nothing</b> one can do will prevent the microsleeps (which one might not even notice) that are the apparent culprit.

I'm very glad I spent a night in Honfleur -- the harbor area is gorgeous with the reflections of lights after nightfall.

I must admit that I was a bit disappointed in St. Malo, which seemed to “staged” for me – but my opinion seems to be atypical.

I was very glad to have spent a night on Mont St. Michel – I was able to roam it’s evocative streets after daytrippers left, and to visit the monastery before the hoards arrived. JMO.

And I loved Rennes -- so glad I gave it a day!

No bad choices, IMO -- just lots of difficult ones. Enjoy!

>>disappointed in St. Malo, which seemed to “staged” for me – but my opinion seems to be atypical.<<

General Patton bombed it quite a bit during WWII. We felt the subsequent restoration was a but "staged" too.

However it is interesting to view it as a city/village that was destroyed and then rebuilt. Many other cities were restored with not so much "care" (Tours??).

Stu Dudley

The comparison that came to my mind was Warsaw, the Old Town Square of which was meticulously rebuilt after its destruction. I preferred it to St. Malo. Again, JMO -- but glad to hear I'm not the ONLY person who found St. Malo a bit staged.

Just a note that every museum starts shooing people out 20 - 30 minutes before the official closing time, depending on how large the museum is.
There will be jet-lag. Don't take on too much the first day.

Around St Malo, if you feel like discovering more off the road places, there are quite many authentic towns not far away (Dol, Dinan, Cancale, Combourg...) or beautiful hikes along the coast.

I really liked St Malo -certain features could not be bombed away- awesome physical mixture of land and sea:

https://www.google.com/search?q=st+m...w=1536&bih=760