Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Paris to Normandy

Fodor's Travel Talk Forums (https://www.fodors.com/community/)

- Europe (https://www.fodors.com/community/europe/)

- - Paris to Normandy (https://www.fodors.com/community/europe/paris-to-normandy-232423/)

Paris to Normandy

Can anyone tell me the easiest and fastest way to get from Paris to Normandy? We will be staying very close to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

When we were there in January, we wanted to do a one-day trip to Normandy. I can look up the specifics for you but, using the SNCF website, I found the train schedule from Paris to Bayeux; seems like we left around 9 a.m., arrived there around 11:15, had lunch, toured the Tapestry museum (quickly!), met our wonderful tour guide and spent about 4 hrs touring various sites including American Cemetery, dropped off at train station for return, back in Paris approx 9 p.m. I would've liked to have more time in Normandy but our entire trip was only 5 days, and really wanted to take my son to the battle sites so this plan worked well for us. If you want more specific info email me and I'll see what I can find. I did reserve our train seats in advance but didn't pay for them until we were there -- my husband and I went to the train station the day before to purchase the tkts so we could avoid standing on line Sunday a.m. in case we were delayed; this made me more secure that we would actually have seats!

Harriett: I am very interested in the same trip from Paris. How did you arrange the tour guide? Also, approximately, how much was the round trip? Oh, was the ride scenic? Thanks

For a day treip? For an overnighter to see the beaches? Train? Car? If it's a day trip or overnighter, this from my book on Paris: There are several ways to see Normandy and the D-Day Beaches. You can drive and do your own tour, you can drive or train and take a tour out of Bayeux (train takes about 2 1/2 hours from Gare St Lazare) or Caen, you can just take a day trip with ParisVisions or Cityrama. You can take a few other tours. Here's information: Brochures for these two should be at your hotel or if not, just stop in any of the larger hotels and look on the counter. Paris Visions 214, rue de Rivoli 75001 Paris Tel: 01-42-60-30-01 Fax: 1-42-86-95-36 Cityrama 4, place des Pyramides 75001 Paris Tel: 1-44-55-60-00 Fax: 1-42-60-33-71 You can take a train to Bayeux and take a tour with Bus Fly tours which operates van tours of the Normandy Beaches out of Bayeaux. They offer two tours each day leaving at 8:30 and 1:30. The tours are scheduled for four hours. Bus Fly Tours B.P 204. 25, rue des Cuisiniers 14400 Bayeux Tel: (from U.S.) 011-33-2-31-22-00-08 or 011-33-2-33-39-23-52 Fax: (from U.S.) 011-33-2-31-92-35-10 E mail: [email protected] Web site: http://www.busfly.com You can take a tour called Normandy Tours given out of Hotel de la Gare in Bayeux - right by the train station . They give half day tours (in English). The tours are usually about 5 hours, and only costs 140F. It takes you to Omaha beach, the American Cemetary, Pointe du Hoc, and Arromanche to see the WWII Museum. Tel: 011-33-2-31-92-10-70 You can take a private driver with a van who will pick you up at your hotel, drive you to Normandy, and give you an all day tour. Speaks perfect English. He takes only cash. Nice guy - say hello for me if you should go with him. He uses a van that accomodates up to 6 people. Charges by the tour, not per person. Jean-Marie Ceccaldi 44 rue Ginoux 75015 Paris France Tel: Only Cellular: 011-33-6-09-03-31-53 (from U.S.) Fax: 011-33-1-40-93-07-32 (from U.S.) You can take a guided tour from the museum in Caen. You can take a tour by Col Chilcott . He conducts private tours of the Normandy WWII sights. He charges per tour plus the cost of diesel and lunch, for a whole day. The day lasts as long as necessary. He's retired from the British military and owns a 300 year old farmhouse in Bayeux where you can stay also. Contact him at: [email protected] Web page: http://www.vrbo.com/vrbo/352.htm Tel: 011-33-2-31-22-39-09 (from U.S.) Fax: 011-33-2-31-21-97-84 (from U.S.) For more Paris information e-mail me: [email protected]

we have just returned from a trip to france (late may, early june). we picked up a rental car at the charles de gaulle airport and drove to arromanches. it is a three-hour drive if you take the motor route ---- "A" highways. we were spending three nites over there and wanted a car to drive around the area. hope this helps. if you need additional information, let me know. sherrye willis

LuvParis -- Some details I was able to reconstruct from charge cards etc: to find the train schedule, I used www.voyages-SNCF.com; it's pretty easy to navigate if you know where you're headed. As I said before, I made a res but didn't pay until we actually went to Gare St Lazare to purchase tkts (and was so proud that I could ask for them in French, and the cute guy at the window replied in English, of course!!) I did take a printout of my reservation. Our tickets were $126 r/t, but that was with a student (my 16-yr-old son) and some special Sunday fare -- not sure what it would be for summer. And you might want to prepay your res, or at least go to the station to buy your tkts a day or two ahead; the return train was jammed w/students heading back to the city, and I'm sure it's much more crowded in the summer. Refer to Fred's info on Bus-Fly Tours; that's the company we used and I would highly recommend them. Again, I know they stay booked in the summer so definitely plan ahead. Our fees were E32 each for 2 adults, E29 for our student, IN CASH -- they don't take credit cards. Our wonderful guide was Helen, and the driver was Roger; they picked us up in Bayeux and we had the entire van to ourselves (of course it was a rainy, windy January day!). You can make reservations on line with them through email; their website tells you exactly what's offered. We did the half-day tour, which was plenty, but would've done the full-day if we'd had more time and depending on logistics of the train. I've had friends who drove to Bayeux and spent several days there, so it just depends on what you want to do and how much time you have. For point of comparison, our day trip cost about $250 - $275 with lunch, snacks, and gratuity for guide & driver for three people; I think the cost on ParisVision or one of those tours is nearly $150 per person. If you're not comfortable setting out on your own that's probably the way to go, and might be more scenic than the train, but we enjoy finding our own way and haven't had a problem so far with day trips by train to Versailles, Chartres and Normandy. Let me know if you have other questions. Harriett

I can basically second the informationalready given. We were just there on June 6 and 7. The train leaves from St. Lazare. We originally planned on renting a car and doing the "beaches" on our own; but when we arrived late afternoon on the 6th we decided to cancel the car and call BusFly. They had space available on the 1:30 tour. The tour ended at 6. The tour along with the guide, Vincent was very good. The only negative was that they only gave us about 35 min at the American cemetery. They were very flexible (probably could have stayed longer if we had asked), asked if anyone was there to visit a certain grave etc. We went on a big tour bus and there were only about 10 people. One family needed to take the early evening train back to Paris and they drove them directly to the station. The train took only aobut 2 hours(scenic, pastoral countryside) and I would not recommend driving if all you were going for is the tour. If you have time, consider spending a night in Bayeux. Very quaint and nice town. (If you're there for dinner,I would highly recommend l'Assiette de Normande) Enjoy your trip

I went to Normandy on June 3. We took the 8:30 am train to Caen. About 2 hours. From there we took a taxi to the WWII museum, and signed up for a tour at the information desk in the museum. We were able to tour the museum and see the movie (great), have lunch and meet up for the tour at 1:30. There were only 6 of us, the most they would take is 8, in a mini-van. The tour guide was great, we went to about 5 - 7 stops, and she took us back to the train station about 7:15, we had an 8:00 pm train back to Paris. Make sure you find out the times the train travels on the day of the week you are going, departure times vary by the day of the week. Overall, the tour was great and it was a very worthwhile way to spend a day of our vacation.

We took the full day tour with Col Chilcott last summer and highly recommend him. We stayed with him for our first night and the next two days. Two days weren't enough to see all of the D Day sights we would have liked to visited and see Bayeux as well. Like I said we did the tour with the Col and visited the British, German and American Cem., Omaha Beach, several shore batterys, Arromoches, etc. the tour taking about 10 hours which flew by. The next day we saw the Bayeux tapestry and the Bayeux cathedral which is older than Notre Dame and then drove to see Pegasus Bridge and its museum outside Caen. Don't know how much time you have or what you want to see but hope this helps.