Traveling from paris to normandy will have 4 full days to explore..picked bayeau as home base but not sure if it is too far out of the way to see all the d- day sites as well as the museums ..will have a car Thanks for ur thoughts !

Bayeux is the perfect base for exploring the D-Day sites, lovely town too. Also famous Bayeux Tapestry. Look at Hotel Lion d'Or.

Thanks,, for ur reply! my concern was i would be doing alot of driving back and forth to bayeux

We really enjoyed our 5-night stay last year. We ended up with 2 nights in Bayeux at the Churchill and 3 nights just outside of town at Chateau de Damingy (neat experience).

trip report and link to photos:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...y-uk-stops.cfm

If you look at a map of the area you have to drive around as the sites are disparate. I've also used Falaise as a base (didn't help much), St Jean le Thomas (no really) and that was better for Brittany and I guess you could use Caen. Ouistreham is a nice fishing port in the way of the Normans and might be ok but I'm not sure or a good hotel, good fish restaurants there are though.

Bayeaux (have to have the x or it sounds like a swamp) is a pretty nice base but the old bits can knock the prices up a bit.

Thanks for the info and links !

And "Bayeux" doesn't have an "a" in either. LOL
We found it a perfect base for a number of days. The distances are not that great in that area. It might not be as convenient for the Canadian/British beaches.
Don't overlook the Tapestry also.

Gretchen, I cannot even spell "burgler"

We spent 3 nights in Bayeux while visiting the WWII sights. It is a perfect base. There are several nice hotels - we stayed at the Hotel d'Argouges which we liked very much. We found driving to the sights to be quite easy and also enjoyed the small town ambience. Don't miss the tapestry and Le Petit Bistro, our favorite restaurant in Bayeux.

We stayed at the VERY economical Hotel Bayeux. It is 5 minutes from the Tapestry and 5 minutes from the Cathedral and Le Petit Bistro (a second!). AND it is very near the road out of town so easy to get to the highways.

"...and Le Petit Bistro, our favorite restaurant in Bayeux."

It is now called Le P'tit Resto. We dined there in October. One of the best meals I have ever had.

http://www.restaurantbayeux.com/reception.php

I quote myself:

"Le P’tit Resto, 2 Rue de Bienvenu, lived up to all the advance press and more. We were seated in the front section of the restaurant near the bar (the trend continues), and we only saw a few more tables seated in this tiny restaurant on a drizzly Tuesday night (we sat between a couple from Cape Cod and a couple from Canada…not Mary).

Tracy and I started with a Kir Cassis, and after that we didn’t have a kir in the world. This is a restaurant for more adventuresome diners, because the menu changes often and is rather limited.

Although limited, our choices were spectacular. We started with the amuse-bouche of warm figs with jambon.

Next up was the appetizer. Tracy had crème fraîche and caviar on soft bread. I sneaked a bite, and it was the first time I ever tasted anything with caviar (not that I dine on caviar often) that I enjoyed. So much for the doubting Thomas. “This is going to be fun, “ I said to Tracy.

I started with an appetizer of foie gras (I didn’t tell the ducks when I got back to the hotel) with cinnamon and apple slices. It was fantastic.

For the main course, I had an incredible pork tenderloin on a bed of risotto with a shot of caramel sauce on the side for 17€. It sounds weird, but the caramel sauce was the perfect complement to the meal.

Tracy went for the smoked salmon in a puff pastry on a bed of mashed peas with a shot of warm gazpacho. It, too, was magnificent.

This was no rime to stop even thought we were rather full, so on to dessert we traveled. Tracy’s Baba-au-Rhum was like no Baba-au-Rhum we’d ever seen (well, we had never seen one in person, but had looked at pictures). I had one little bite, but Tracy liked it so much she wouldn’t share, a unique experience from my usual caring spouse.

The Baba-au-rhum was reconstituted with framboise and a shot of liquor that wasn’t easily recognizable (you’ll have to see the photo when I put it up, because it’s hard to describe), although through our sheer powers of deduction we figured it must have been some sort of rum.

Not to be outdone in the dessert department, I had a scrumptious chocolate mousse in a chocolate shell on a bed of pistachio cream. Our bottle of Saumur vin rouge lasted almost throughout the entire meal.

The total bill came to 101€, and it was totally worth the price. It was one of the best meals we’ve had anywhere."

By the way, we stayed at Hotel Chateau de Bellefontaine, about a 20 minute walk into town. It, too, was wonderful.

We did a 1/2 day Overlord D-Day Tour. Very informative (would have been better if our guide didn't have some sort of Whooping Cough thing going on).

My husband and i were in Bayeux in June 2012 for 3 nights and we wish we had stayed for at least one more night. It was a great base for seeing WWII sites. We stayed at Hotel de Sainte Croix. The breakfast that madam served was great. There is room for 2 cars on the property, but about 2 blocks away there is a municipal lot with free parking.

Another vote for Hotel du Sainte Croix. Lovely, huge rooms, big beds and bathrooms and fabulous breakfast. The owner was so warm and helpful, even though our French was almost at a zero level.

We spent 3 days there too, but were doing a 2 day Battlebus tour. They closed, but there are other tour companies that really do a fantastic job of explaining D-Day.

The museum in Bayeux is a good one and needs several hours, as does the one for the Tapestry. Gorgeous cathedral and nice little streets to stroll around.