My husband and I will be traveling to Paris arriving on Tuesday, Oct 11 and departing on Thursday Oct 28. We would like to spend several days in Paris and make a 2-3day trip to the Normandy region. We think we would like to start in Rouen where we will rent a car. We would then like to travel to Bayeux, Honfleur, and Mont St. Michel. I'm trying to first of all figure out the best time to do this. Should we go at the beginning, end, or middle of our visit in Paris. I believe I read that the car rental in Rouen is closed on Sun and the sights in Rouen are closed on Tues. Any suggestions on the best way to do this?

Honfleur was a disappointment to us.It's water view was of a refinery in the distance.Deauville would be a much nicer stop only a few miles away.

I think with that nice amount of time you might even want to do more than 3 days, especially if you are including Mt. St. Michel. We did this a year ago--rented the car at CDG, spent 6 days touring Normandy and returned the car at Orly (after stopping at Chartres). When we are doing 2 different areas we like to do the out of Paris part first and then leave from Paris--it just seems to consolidate the trip so there isn't so much moving around and getting re-settled. We spent our first night in Rouen, second in Honfleur (we enjoyed it) and then 3 days in Bayeux. This may be more than you want, but is just an example. Bayeux is a nice "base"--you could go to MSM from there, but it is a bit of a distance. The Norman countryside is wonderful.
I also looked at renting and returning a car at a train station but decided it just added a layer of expense and time commitment.

Gretchen, thanks for your thoughts. However, I would like to spend more time in Paris because I have never been there before and also because my daughter will be studying there for the fall semester and I would like to spend time visiting with her. Any other thoughts out there?
I will check into Deauville.

Gretchen, What route did you take? Did you make kind of a circle or just back tracked?

Honfleur is a pretty little fishing town, and it has a fine folk-art museum. We're spending 5 days in Normandy in September: 2 days in and around Rouen, l for Le Havre (art museum) and Honfleur, 2 at Bayeux, including a visit to Mont St-Michel and Coutances on the last day. I'd be surprised if at least one car-rental agency isn't open in Rouen on Sunday, but there will probably be reduced hours. Have you tried AutoEurope?

We basically did the same trip as Gretchen, except we went from CDG to the delightful little port of Honfleur for our base for 4 days to explore that part of Normandy:Etretat, Deauville, Trouville, etc. Honfleur is still an active fishing village and we enjoyed watching the fishing/shrimping boats unload early each morning. It has 2 basins full of boats and surrounded by many restaurants. Then we moved to the pleasant town of Bayeux, with its famous tapestry museum for another 4 days to visit the D-Day beaches, etc. Mont St. Michel, Caen and Rouen each took up most of a day and were well worth it.

Does everyone agree that we should go to Normandy first (on Tuesday) for the 3 days and then to Paris for the rest of the trip? Can we include Mont St. Michel in that amount of time or is that too much. Any other thoughts from others would be much appreciated.

I think trying to include MSM in 3 days is a little hectic. It would work better if you could add a day. We were in Normandy last year for 3+ days and didn't have time for MSM. We based in Bayeux and saw the WWII sites and the Normandy countryside. Bayeux is a charming town and has some nice restaurants. If you have time, don't miss the Bayeux tapestry.

The more I think about it, I don't think my husband will be thrilled with flying into Paris after a long international flight and renting a car to drive to the Normandy region. He'll probably want to relax a little bit. Maybe we should do Paris first and then end with Normandy. That would put is in the Normandy area Sun-Mon-Tues. Overnight in Paris on Tues and Weds. and fly out on Thurs. Geez, i'm getting even more confused. I just don't know what the best way is to do this. I want it to be relaxing and fun. Not stressful. Help!!! I need to get this figured out so that I can start making hotel reservations.

My advice would be to see Paris first, then head to Normandy. You don't want to take off in a car after a long flight when you're tired unless you're used to driving in France. And I do think that 2-3 days won't leave you time to see Mont St-Michel unless you don't do much else; 3 days would really be the minimum unless you're hurrying all the way, which is no fun.

My suggestion would be to go to Normandy first, for the following reasons.

You minimize the days you are checking into and out of hotels, and travelling. If you first go to a hotel in Paris you will probably do not much else the first day. On the day you go to Normandy, you must pack, check out, travel, and check in. You must repeat this on the day you return to Paris.

If you are flying home from Paris, you can't be in Normandy on your last day, as you probably won't have time to get to CDG from Normandy; from Paris, it is an hour.

If you feel you will be too stressed out on arrival to drive to Normandy, which is probably an accurate guess, take a train to your first destination in Normandy. Trains are a very comfortable way to travel, relatively fast with a chance to see the countryside, and they don't run off the rails if you doze off.

On our trip, we flew into CDG early, found our way to Gare St. Lazarre by RER and metro (its supposed to take an hour, but since we were new it took longer, and our dawdling meant we had to take a later train) and took the train to Caen (I think that train goes on to Bayeux), arriving well rested in the afternoon.

We elected to stay in Caen because we wanted to see two museums there and the WWII invasion sites, but the town was largely destroyed in WWII, so is not as scenic as Bayeux.

Enjoy your trip, and the planning.

Thank you Cleveland Brown. Good ideas. I live in Westlake Oh., so I happen to be a Browns fan.

Thanks Underhill. Maybe we'll add another day to the Normandy trip.

Any other thoughts out there?

I agree with Cleveland, why mess up another day since it is a very easy drive(about 80 miles) from CDG/Roissy to Rouen, which would be an excellent 1st stopover. It is not to be missed with the Cathedral that Monet painted so many times, the Gros Horloge and the spot close by where they toasted St. Joan. You could go by Caen on the way back to Paris. The WW2 museum there is probably the best, plan on hours there, but the rest of the town doesn't hold much allure as stated above. Bayeux was captured early on so it is one of the few spots not destroyed. Another interesting spot is St. Lo, home of the parachute museum and the church made famous in "The Longest Day". There is still a parachutist hanging from the steeple.

Thanks! I appreciate all the advice.

The drive is not too far for the first day (to Honfleur). We did that when we went and we flew from DFW. It hit the limit but was doable.

Our last visit had us taking the train to Rouen - no car needed there but we stayed in Paris for 3 days first. (We were going to the 60th anniversary of D-Day and wanted to end up last in Normandy rather than Paris.)

Personally, I'd skip Caen. The only thing of interest is the musuem and you can get that in Bayeux (across from the British Cemetery and 'around the corner' from the Cathedrale.)

Save Paris for last as you'll be more familiar with the lnaguage in case you don't speak it.

PS: The church that has the parachutist is not in St Lo (where the major breakout was) but in Ste Mere Eglise.

Cleveland Brown has really written out why I like to consolidate our trip--just too much lost time getting resettled.
The drive after landing in France is not bad at all. The distances are really quite small. We rented the car and were on the road by about 11. Stopped for lunch at a little cafe just before Vernon (Giverney). It was raining so we decided to not do Giverney. Continued driving up the north side of the Seine on a lovely little road, seeing the barges on the river. We had reservations in Rouen for the first night. Saw Rouen the next morning--wonderful Impressionist wing at their museum. Drove the Abbaye Road from Rouen--a string of wonderful OLD Norman abbeys. Got to Honfleur about 6--had dinner on the harbor.
Drove to Bayeux on the back roads, sampling camembert and Pont Levecque, cider and "applejack" (WHAT is that!!), seeing the Pegasus Bridge D-Day site.
Stayed in Bayeux for 3 nights and decided not to go to MSM--we spent one pretty long day seeing the D-Day beaches. Anyway, we enjoyed just roaming the roads. For the final day we left early and headed toward Chartres--this time on the more major roads but not the autoroutes. The traffic was quite heavy (MOnday). Got to Chartres, had lunch and had a Malcolm Miller tour of the cathedral. Returned the car to Orly and taxied into our hotel about 6:30.
NOW, DO get a VERY detailed Michelin map of Normandy. And DO get the Michelin Green Guide to NOrmandy. The latter will give you absolutely wonderful ideas of what is available along the way.
And while I commend your wanting "more time" in Paris, you will preserve your time doing it this way (or Normandy at the end, but then you have to mess around with staying at the airport probably--not an attractive thing).
If you spend even 3 nights outside of Paris you have 6 full days in Paris--and you can have seen Chartres. You don't need to do our back road thing the whole way--choose your towns (maybe Honfleur and Bayeux), head out and do the sights. You willhave to decide about MSM--it is very much a time thing.
You can even turn the car in in Chartres, for example, and take the train into Paris.

TMH,

You are absolutely correct, I meant St. Mere Eglise, not St. Lo...brain cramps are getting worse every year.

Wishing you a great trip no matter how you do it. Here is my two cents worth.
1. Rent car at CDG go to Rouen for the first night, Have lunch in Monet's gardens on the way. Lovely first day. Driving is easy. Lovely country side.
2. Forget Mont St. Michel unless you stay the night there. Too many tourist bus loads during the day.
3. I loved Honfleur and would have loved to spend the night there. This is the place to splurge a little. Try La Ferme Saint-Simeon www.relaischateaux.fr/simeon
4. Visit Caen, Bayeaux and leave the car in Caen and return to Paris by train.
Have fun.

Just to make you more confused I am suggesting the opposite of what most of the posts seem to be saying. On our trip last year we did our week in Paris first as couldn't face driving immediately. We then caught a train to Chartres which we wanted to see and picked up the car there so didn't have to struggle with Paris traffic. We then did all our touring, returning the day before we flew out to a hotel at CDG. This meant that we could drop off the car without having to drive through Paris and was convenient as we had an early morning flight. After booking in and returning car, we jumped on the train into Paris for one last memorable day and dinner. This worked well for us.