I will be travelling to France in Sept with my husband and two adult nieces. We will stay 5 days in Paris then plan to travel in Normandy for 5 days. I was hoping for something on the water where we could stay and travel to all the WWII stuff plus Mont St Micheal. Is this way to much driving? We plan to use public transport in Paris then I thought train to Normandy somewhere central and rent a car but now I am wondering if Versailles and Giverny should be things we pick up on the way to Normandy, rent a car somewhere closer to Paris altho out of town. Should Versailles be a side trip during our time in Paris. I know that's a lot of questions. A

Versailles is very close to Paris and is worth a day so I would suggest doing this while you're in Paris.

I was amazed at the number of visitors to Monet's house and gardens. You had to keep moving around the gardens as there was no place to sit and enjoy and only a few places where you could step off the path and stand for a few minutes. It was lovely but I doubt I would go back because of the crowds. You could do this on the way to Normandy.

You could also stop in Rouen for the day or overnight. I think it's about 2 hours outside Paris. If you pick up the car and do Giverny in the morning you could head to Rouen and stay the night.

Bayeux is a charming town to base yourself for the D Day beaches (about 1/2 hour away). It's also 1.5 hours from Mont St Michel.

If you skip Giverny you can pick up a car in Rouen, see the Peace Museum in Caen and continue to Bayeux.

5 days is a good amount of time for Normandy. The things you mentioned could be covered in that time.

If you decide to pick up a car in Rouen, be sure to get detailed instructions for driving out of the city. We've never had as much trouble getting around a city there.

What do you want in terms of "on the water"? If you want seaside hotels, look at Deauville and Trouville. Honfleur has a nice harbor, and there are some good hotels along the coast in Brittany, near Mont St-Michel.

It takes about 5 hours by car from Paris to Normandy. I’ve done the drive a few times and it’s straight forward so you should have no problems. You can fit in Giverny in on the way no probs. I think it took us about an hour from France and I know Versailles is half an hour from Paris. If you’re looking for a good place to stay in Normandy then have a look at VFB Holidays. They offer self catering cottages and we booked with them a couple of times. You can easily find a good place for your family.

http://www.vfbholidays.co.uk

Lots of lovely towns eg, coutances, st vasst, barfleur on the coast. Honfleur takes the biscuit though and Le havre is an industrial city.

Try to make it to Fougere inland. Normandy has a large number of logis-de-france.com or .fr worth a look

we did a 7 day loop a few years back that included the Loire Valley, so in 5 you will be fine doing Mt St. Michelle, Normandy, Honfleur and Rouen if you choose. We stayed on Mt St. Michelle, drove through Normandy and the overnight in Honfluer - it worked out well.

Dear Ashjen,

I have sort of the same question and I hope you don't mind my piggybacking on your questions...

Is it essential to have a car to see the WWII sites?

We are thinking of taking the train from Paris to Rennes and then a bus onward.

I think we'd like to visit the Caen Memorial and then have some sort of arranged tour of the WWII sites.

We are thinking of Victory Tours or Battlebus.

We can stay 2-3 days and then we'll return by bus and train to Paris.

Is this a silly plan? Should I just rent a car?

We are going to France in June from the 17-22nd.

Thanks for any advice...

gruezi