Normandy Tours
 

I'm looking to do a one day tour of the Normandy Beaches....Will be stayin in Bayeaux. Many people have recommended battlebus?.any other recommendations for under 80 Euros? Any suggestions for what we should make sure is included in the tour and what we can pass up (due to only having one day).

Thank you

We used Col. Michael Chilcott. He has a B/B just outside of Bayeux. Is a retired British army officer. I cannot say enough about his expertise and willingness to tailor the tour to our interests. It was just our family of 4 in his mini-van. The day was unforgettable. We visited Omaha Beach, Pointe Du Hoc, British, German and American Cemeteries, Longues Battery. You can google his name and contact him directly. While it may be a bit higher than 80e per person, it was a better use of our time than a bus load of folks with disparate interests and a tour that is geared to the lowest common denominator.

I mean to write a longer review, but your question was so specific I had to answer right away. My family toured with Alain Chesnel of www.overlordtours.com last Thursday from Bayeux. He is a French man with a true love of the history of D-Day and the American people expecially. He speaks excellent English. We had a wonderful half day tour for 40 E per person. He does full day tours too. He has an AC Mercedes van that seats 8 (there were 6 on our tour, the four of us and another American couple). I highly recommend him. He had photos, diagrams and much personal knowledge and involvement with the survivors so he has many stories to tell. He spent every minute of a solid four hours with us. (Be careful as we saw other tour "guides" that just dropped off their clients at each spot and let them see the sites by themselves.) Enjoy planning your trip.

<b>More than 80&euro; per person? How do you say &quot;highway robbery&quot; in French?</b>

We hired a private tour at the Bayeux train station. For &euro;70, he drove the five of us anywhere we wanted to go for almost 6 hours and provided a running commentary, as well as his family's D-day history.

In looking back through my notes, I found the price to be much less than 80e per person. He also extended our tour to an additional half day at no extra charge since we had places to see that we didn't get to due to our lingering at the longues battery.

We did a half day tour and had a rental car to use. (we picked up the car in Caen. The driving was realtively easy).

With a rental car you can add the one or two stops a preplanned tour might not include.

I'm looking into day trips from Paris with Paris Trips and Paris Tours, but both are over 140 Euro per person. I've sent an e-mail to overlordtours (their website is under construction). Do you have contact information for Col. Michael Chilcott?

Also, in your opinion, would it be better to take a train to Normandy and pick up a tour there or go on a one day bus tour out of Paris? Thank you for any help you can provide!