Hello all
We are planning a trip to visit friends in southern England in mid-September and would like to take a side trip to Normandy. This will be our first trip to France. Out friends live very close to South Hampton and we wanted to take the ferry over to Normandy and spend some time. The D Day beaches are a must as well a few other sites.
Before I get into all that my first question is concerning the crowds because of the Olympics. The Olympics will be done by mid August and I'm wondering if Normandy will be very crowded by the end of September?
Secondly, our wish list includes visiting (besides D Day sites) Mont St Michele, Bayeux, Honfleur, and Rouen. How much time would we need to visit the D Day beaches? Is one day too ambitious? And for the other sites, where would be a good base to travel from? How much time do we need? We do plan on renting a car.
This is the very beginning of our planning.
Thank you all in advance!
Susan

In 1996 we were visiting my brother in Canterbury, & they asked if we minded going to France for the day. Oh, OK, we said. Took ferry, had lunch at Boulogne sur Mer? or so. Shopped a little. Done.
BUT the limited time lit the spark in us, that we returned to France subsequently 5 times, 3 weeks each
IF.....you left VERY early, you might get to D-Day beaches for 2 hour visit or so. Not much more.
Not enough time to see the tapestry (from 1066) at Bayeux, etc
I suggest you use Google or viamichelin.com to check the travel times.

We spent a good 90 minutes just looking at the Bayeux tapestry.; maybe 2 hours at Chartres Cathedral, maybe 4 hours, maybe more, at DDay beaches....then Mont St Michelle is almost two hours south of there. BUT, as I said here before, it's beautiful in a photo, or from the shore, but once there, meh! nothing to write home about

When? After Labor Day, crowds are gone.

See attached

Stu Dudley

Sounds like a wonderful trip!
How much time do you have for this portion of the trip?
I would highly recommend a guide for at least half a day for the WW2 sites.
Where are you continuing on to? That would affect the route and the places to stay.

I would think you would want at least a week to visit the Normandy beaches, Bayeux, Honfleur, Rouen, Mont St Michel. You would want to hire a guide for van trip to the Normandy beaches and would have choice of full day/half day tours depending on which beaches you wanted to visit, as well as the U. S. Cemetery. Our trip originated at the CDG Airport and we began our trip in Rouen with close to a full day of touring and then drove to E'tratat and Honfleur for most of a day stopping at the museum in Caen which I highly recommend before arriving in Bayeux. We spent two nights in Bayeux but could easily have spent another night. The cathedral rivals Notre Dame, the tapestry is incredible, the town itself is lovely to stroll around and just like Rouen, it is a foodie location with lots of fine restaurants and lovely patisseries. We drove from Bayeux to Mont St Michel in driving rain and spent the night there. The Mont is most interesting to see for the views of the Mont itself, both from a distance and especially at night. It might have been because it was rainy and misty and you had to be very careful walking up the outside steps to enter the Abbey itself, the Mont itself was not all that interesting a destination. As it is a working monastery, there are limited areas to visit inside and not many artifacts on display. It was also in mid-October and we found most of the restaurants closing down for the season with limited options or set up specifically for tour groups with prix fixe menus.