flpab

The Churchhill was nice and the Cathedral lit at night was beautiful. Driving to Caen might be a bit much. We loved Bayeux. Great places to eat there. I would do the cathedral and tapestry or just enjoy the town since you are doing the overlord tour.

mjs

Interesting thought about Rennes which has the advantage of having a Hertz office that is open to 2100 instead of Bayeux's 1700. However its only about 20 minutes longer to go back to Bayeux than to drive to Rennes. It also turns dark around 1745 in October and I do not like driving in foreign countries at night when I do not know the area so a later drop off time gives me no advantage. Lastly the time for the train to reach Paris from Bayeux or Rennes is about the same but the cost of the TGV is about 30 Euros more per person than the Intercities from Bayeux. Since I would not plan on spending any time in Rennes, the advantage is to return to Bayeux from Mt St Michel if I do indeed decide to go.

kja

Most rental car agencies have a way to drop off a car after closing hours. Just be sure to photograph the car, with a time-stamp, from every possible angle, and also take a photo of the dashboard.

No reason to visit Rennes if you don't have time to see any of it!

PalenQ

Does Bayeux have car drop-off places - many say no - nearby Caen has many and a shorter train trip - more direct trains from Caen than Bayeux.

kawh

bookmarking

mjs

Am currently in Paris. Having a small lunch of baguette and some cheeses in my apartment. Spent three nights in Bayeux at D Argugues hotel . Decent three star 10
Min walk to the Bayeux Tapestry with free parking out back. Came into Orly at 0900 from FCO but could not pick up my car from Hertz for an hour or more due to some problems at the Hertz Desk for the two people in front of us. Eventually finding out I had Gold status sent us downstairs where we were taken care of and on our way at 1130. Had a perfectly acceptable Golf Diesel. Used a new Garmin GPS model 2559 that I purchased a few weeks ago as our old Garmin had died. New Garmin worked great and we arrived in Bayeux about 2:45. Decided to explore the town, Cathedral and Tapestries instead of going to the Caen museum. Next day full day Overlord tour with Pierre as our guide. Highly recommended. The next day had up up early and we drove to Mt St Michel leaving at 0730 and arriving at 0900. We were one of the earliest people there and were able to tour the island in a few hours. Left Mt St Michel at around 1130 and drove to Honfleur with arrival around 1400. Had lunch than explored the town. Quite a pleasant town. Return to Bayeux was a relatively short drive. We decided on our last day in Normandy to return to Paris early as there had been many strike related problems with SNCF over the last few days. Instead of dropping our car off in Bayeux we decided to drive back to Orly. Sold our 5:27 direct train tickets to Paris to two people we met in our hotel who were trying to get to Paris but could not get any seats as all were sold out for the day. Unfortunately we did not have enough room in our car to offer them a lift. Drive back to Paris Orly was uneventful with our GPS guiding us back to Orly with a short stop to fuel up next to the airport.

kawh

mjs... thanks for reporting back. love hearing how things really turned out. will keep this in mind for our trip in May... we are debating car vs train for the same area out/into paris.