LOL...we have decided to rent the car from Bayeux...arrive on Friday and just have dinner and a walk....Sat, D Day tour (full day)...dinner and walk in the evening and then rent the car on Sunday and travel on our own`

You will, as noted, have very limited rental options in Bayeux. It's a tiny rail station. No car rental company will station many cars there for rental. Good luck. Renting in Caen is so much smarter.

and it is a short drive from Caen to Bayeux and if not jet lagged too much it is easy to stop by the Caen D-Day/WW2 museum on the edge of town en route to Bayeux - this museum is a great introduction to the whole D-day area - huge relief maps - great first orientation and also to many the finest of several memorial-museums dotting the area.

Gretchen, as you suggest, we didn't plan on doing what we did. We ultimately chose to do it this way because by the time we arrived at Caen, we felt we had plenty of time and everyone felt recharged after the train ride/nap. I suspect the OP is flying in from Chicago, as the listed arrival time in Paris is the exact same time as ours last year. FMT's recommendation to buy the tickets at St. Lazare is sound, as if we would have done the same thing, we'd have been in Caen an hour and a half sooner, with even more time.

I hope the OP has a great time, no matter the final itinerary!

lynnh242- We did exactly last week as you are planning. We took the train to Bayeux from St. Lazare. Left at 1210 hours. Got to Bayeux after only one stop in Caen. We brought first class tix without seat reservatuions, (PREMS), which we printed at home thanks to advice from this forum, no problem getting a seat. Once in Bayeux, we taxied to hotel. (5 or 10 Miniutes) some people walked. Did a tour on each of the next two days that left right from th hotel on Place du Quebec, one D-Day and one MSM, so did not need a car until the third day when we rented one from Hertz at the Total station just outside if town in Vaucelles. Took a cab there to pick up car and then when we turned it back in, the nice Hertz people called a cab to get us back to hotel. Car rented was an Opel sedan with 5 speed transmission. Fun to drive. Overall our plan worked for us.

I've done the trip driving from Paris and taking the train to Caen and renting from there.

I would definitely, personally, take the train to Caen and rent the car there.

At 30 euros times 2 persons that is 60 euros from Paris to Caen by train - this would also be much cheaper than driving - fuel prices now about $9/gal and tolls on autoroutes really steep. Spend a day recuperating in Bayeux and save on a day's car rental perhaps.

Thanks everyone!

Waterdog- that sounds like a good plan...we arrive on Friday and we are taking a D Day tour Sat. morning (full day) so we thought that we would pick up the car on Sunday! I will take your suggestion and pick up the carin Vaucelles. We will go to Caen on Sunday to see the museum....a little backwards but I know that we will want relax a bit after our flight/train/tour!

Make sure the car rental place is open on Sundays, and even if it is, check the hours and how they jibe with your train arrival time. Good thing you decided to take a train to Caen - I doubt any car rental place would be open on Sunday in Bayeux (could be wrong, but it's so small...)

I think the calculation that the train is cheaper than driving is a bit bogus. Add in the RER (not much I admit but relevant to the calculation, methinks), and you don't really (or want to) have to drive on the autoroute and pay tolls.

I don't know why this has gotten so complicated, but why on earth would anyone contemplate picking up a car at a gas station in Vaucelles on a Sunday?? Nuts! It almost certainly won't be open, and how many car rental agencies could there be at a Total station in Vaucelles??

Take the train to Caen and pick the car up there. Rent from AutoEurope or Kemwel. Make sure you know in advance that the car rental agency will be open on Sunday and what hours.

For the sake of clarity, trains from Gare Saint-Lazare to Caen are Intercites trains, not TEOZ trains. No seat reservations are required.

Some of those trains go on to Bayeux. If you have to connect in Caen to get to BAyeux, that short ride will be on a regional train.

When I was in Nice a few years ago I went to the train station to buy a ticket to Cannes. I had read in a guidebook that the pronunciation is like "Madeline Kahn." The ticket agent quickly corrected me and pronounced it like "can."

Definately pick up the car in Caen. The car rental in Bayeux is not near the train station. It is outside of town (Vaucelles as noted above) and is tiny. I would not take the chance that it would be opened on a Sunday.

For what it is worth, we picked up the car at CDG, recovered from jetlag near Giverny (only about 45-60 minute drive). Venured out the next day for Caen - mueum and then onto Bayeux for 4 nights. We returned the car to Bayeux / Vaucelles and took the train to Paris.

Ditto, St. Cirq!

And I as well, ditto St. Cirq and Bette and annw. Car rental in Caen is more convenient than in Bayeux/Vaucelles. By the way, cars with automatic transmissions can be rented in France, but standard/manual transmissions are far more common. (It is quite an advantage to be able to drive standard as gas mileage tends to be better, and gas is $$$, or should that be € € € in France. If you want automatic, be sure to pre-book one (and ascertain that the car rental outlet is big enough to offer a wide selection of vehicles - another reason to rent from a Caen train station depot.)

$9/gal my French friend just said on the phone for fuel!