Paris/Normandy
 

Planning a 12 day trip to France in November, arrive in CDG. Would like to spend two nights in Normandy.
Thoughts as to whether I should travel to Normandy first, either by car or train (I will get some sleep on the trip over) or head to Paris and go to Normandy midway. I would like to be in Paris toward the end of the trip as the Christmas celebrations begin. If I drive, I would like to drive from CDG and drop the car back in a not so congested area in Paris?
Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

My preference is to avoid unnecessary hotel changes if I can, so I'd look into options for leaving for Normandy straight from CDG -- assuming you can go by train. (Being able to sleep on your flight doesn't eliminate the risk of driving after crossing multiple time zones. To avoid the real problem, namely micro-sleeps, your body needs at least a day -- or better, two -- to adjust.)

I think we would need to know more about why you want to visit Normandy if we are to provide more specific advice.

What are you looking to see in Normandy? It's a large region, that takes several hours to get to from Paris, so with 2 nights, you are not leaving a lot of time for sightseeing, particularly if your first night is on arrival day. As everyone else will tell you, driving 3 hours to Normandy on arrival day is a very bad idea, and going in to Paris, then taking the train from St. Lazarre will eat up most of arrival day. If you really are going to stick with 2 nights in Normandy and the rest in Paris, I think that i would do it in the middle of the trip. While you can usually get a better deal with longer stays, maybe you use this as an opportunity to stay in two different parts of Paris. If you do it that way, your travel days to and from wherever you stay in Normandy can be a lot more productive, allowing you to see things along the way (and with short daylight hours, you need to factor limited daylight in as well).

Depending upon when your flight arrives, heading to St. Lazare and taking a train to Normandy (it runs from Mont St. Michel on the west end to a ways east of Rouen, with plenty in between) is definitely doable. An early arrival would put you there around lunch time or a little after. A train to Rouen is 90 minutes, to Caen is 2:15. In late November, you'll only have 8.5 to 9 hours of total sunlight (8:30 to 17:00) so you wont have much time outside in any event. Rouen and Caen would be your best locations for renting a car too. Depending upon your itinerary, you can drop off the car at a different location, so drop it wherever you can and take a train back to central Paris. We've done this three different times (latest arrival was 9:35am) and we had plenty of time to visit the Peace Museum in Caen.

Totally agree, not a good idea to drive after an international flight. I think that we will head into Paris after the flight and enjoy the day. Press though and get a good night rest. So much to do in Paris…cooking class, opera, church concerts, Christmas markets, museums, not sure that I want to venture out for a few days! DH would like to go to Normandy, as we are so close. I like the idea of training to Rouen and renting the car. Spend a the nights in Bayeux. DH has been researching and definitely wants to do one of the tours to include the “must visits”. Moving forward, I think.
Thank you for your support. I welcome any thoughts.

Which bits of Normandy interest you? The artist colonies, the fish, the cidre, the WW2 invasion, the 1066 invasion, the lace, the cheese, ....?

Our interests in Normandy are:
WW II (with a half or full day tour) thoughts?
Bayeux (tapestry and possibly lodging)
Mont Saint-Michel
Seafood:-)
We love driving the countryside
I am thinking that we will leave Paris early one morning, plan to spend two nights, and return to Paris sometime on day three.
Thoughts/Suggestions?

We used Overlord tours for a full day of the beaches and Band of Brothers. It was excellent.

We spent a couple nights outside of Bayeux and the drove to Mt, Saint-Michelangelo spent the day there. It was fun to see it but very crowded.

Our interests in Normandy are:
WW II (with a half or full day tour) thoughts? Doing a tour is a great idea, you can do it on your own and there are plenty of museums but a guide is good. If you do diy then St Mere l'Eglise is probably important. It offers a completely different take to the beaches landing and was almost a disaster so worth time in the museum just to read the diaries of the few days while they held out for relief.
Bayeux (tapestry and possibly lodging). Good place for lodging and do hire the audio
Mont Saint-Michel. Glad you like driving as the roads are not great especially from Bayeux to MSM. You need to decide if you want to stay on the island. The entrance to the causeway has a bunch of tatty hotels (ok for fast food) but the best ambiance is an overnight stay.
Seafoodhttps://www.fodors.com/community/ima...ted/smiley.gif Choose a town, say Ouistreham, choose a restaurant near the fish market. Eat
We love driving the countryside. Slow nd steady is the game after the few big roads.

Driving back to Paris and dropping off the car at one of the big train stations is the easiest option. Dropping off the car somewhere in the suburbs would just add aggravation and/or confusion. The speed limit in Paris is 30 km/h so there is no reason to panic.

When we did a Normandy Paris trip a few years ago in mid-October, most of the restaurants and possibly the hotels were closing for the season but in my mind, seeing Mont St Michel from a distance or closer was better than actually visiting Mont St Michel. We did spend one night there and had a non-memorable meal and a one night stay at the Mercure. It was okay, clean and comfortable room but nothing special.

I haven't been to Mont St Michel for quite a while, but FWIW: IMO, the view of it from the shore is magnificent. Neither the lodgings not the food on the mont itself were memorable (really, rather disappointing), but walking around the mont at night was an experience I was very glad to have had -- almost magically evocative! The advantage of staying there was, to my mind, being able to visit the monastery before day trippers swamped the place.

I think it really depends as when we were there we were in a driving rainstorm. It was dicey walking up the wet stairs on the Mont. I assume if you are there on a clear day/night it would be a spectacular site. Sadly that wasn't the case when we were there. Happy we went but wouldn't return. Sorry that we didn't have an extra night for Bayeux as it was so charming and we stayed in a lovely B & B. We also did a half-day guided tour of the Normandy sites and my husband and I were the most well-informed of the people in our van so we didn't learn as much as I would have liked and I would have liked more time at each site to read the plaques and information although it was a good plan to do the tour so we wouldn't have to figure out the driving ourselves.

Being on Omaha Beach and at the American cemetery was such a moving experience. I highly recommend a visit. Also, the WWII Museum in Caen is outstanding as well.

We have decided to add an additional night to this little birthday celebration so that we can spend three nights in Normandy. I think that we are going to spend the first four nights after an early morning arrival in Paris. Thought is to pickup a car a bit outside of the main traffic area and head to Normandy. Thinking two nights in Bayeux, then a third night elsewhere?? or three nights in Bayeux. My husband loves photography, if the weather is right he would love to get a sunset photo of Mont Saint-Michel.
I want to do a tour of the WWII sites, but also feel that we could do some areas on our own.
After Normandy, we will head back to Paris for six nights. Already filling up the days and nights, but leaving plenty of time to relax and enjoy our time.
I welcome all thoughts and suggestions, thank you!

Hm,m,m. Think about taking a train to Caen, overnight there, visiting the Peace Memorial Museum if you are up to it on your arrival day. Rent car the next day after a good night’s sleep. Please. Or consider Rouen. Read the chapter on Rouen in Paris to the Past by Ina Caro. See side by side versions of Monet’s studies of the Rouen cathedral at the art museum.

We were pleased with our arrangements with Overlord Tours in November 2019. Since four of us were the only ones in the van, our guide was willing to tweak the day’s agenda to meet our requests.

It has been a few years—oh, my, we went to the TI on Le Mont to arrange for a hotel for the night, I could see out to the water if I stood on tiptoe to look out the very small window. The hotel was forgettable but dinner that night was amazing—plateau de fruits de mer with a view of the tide coming in. From one course of the dinner to the next, we could see the dramatic change in the sea level.

We went to Normandy and Paris last September and had a wonderful time!

We scheduled a pickup from CDG through DayTrip to drive us to Rouen - highly recommend! It was perfect
I would not drive after that long flight.

Our itinerary was:
Rouen 3 nights
Honfleur 3 nights (we did a daytrip to Etretat which was amazing)
Mont St Michel: Chateau de Chantore - highly recommend
Bayeaux 3 nights
Giverny 1 night
Paris 3 nights

Absolutely loved Normandy and the countryside. The WWII tour we took was good, through Overlord, and the museums were absolutely amazing. I am well read on WWII but found the WWII Museum in Caen to be very worthwhile. My husband recommended the Pegasus Bridge Museum which was very interesting! ( I do the trip planning and that was a last minute add which was great!)

Have a wonderful time!

I second the above itinerary. We did not stop at Giverny as it was October and felt the floral foliage would have already been over but we did stop at Chartres. I had been there previously but long time ago and my husband had never been. It is one of the great cathedrals, as is the cathedral in Rouen. We really enjoyed our overnight stop in Rouen as a perfect stop to walk around and get acclimated to the environment. Rouen as is Bayeux are foodie destinations so lots of options for dining. Right near the spot where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake there is a modernist church which is so different from the cathedrals you will be seeing.

Thank you for great suggestions.
The reason that we were thinking of 4 nights in Paris, 3 nights in Normandy, 6 nights in Paris was to take a trip out of the city for a short time.
Also, as previously suggested, probably staying in two different areas in Paris.
We know that our stamina after the night over the water will not be our best, so we were thinking that planning an activity in Paris followed up by a good night of sleep might be a good use of a day.
From what I have read, sounds like the drive in the Normandy countryside is lovely. DH wants to be back in Paris for the Beaujolais Nouveau release on 21 November.
We did lease a car during our last trip NW of the Arc de Triomphe and found it easy to exit onto a major highway.
I have looked at 10 day stays in Paris and have not really seen a savings with a stay that long. I have seen a few mentioned with stays over 5 days. Please comment if I am missing something. I must say the hotel rates certainly are better in November!
So, that said we have not eliminated the doing Normandy first, just thought that we might enjoy the drive from Paris.
Hmmm

I think your plan makes a lot of sense! Have fun.