Hi everyone,

Thanks in advance for any suggestions you might have to offer here. My wife and I have tickets to and from Paris and our original plan was to go to Warsaw for a conference, stop in Krakow for a few days then head to Prague for eight days for another event before making my way back to Paris for a week, and finally heading home. The event in Warsaw has now been cancelled, so I have 6.5 days and 6 nights available in between arrival in Paris and when I need to be in Prague. I've been to Poland numerous times so don't feel the need to go there again at this point and would like to explore outside of Paris. We've been to Paris a couple of times but not to the country side.

So... here's what I am thinking for the six days/nights, I would welcome feedback or alternative suggestions. We're in our 50s and love old historical places, exploring sites on foot, the cafe culture, things like that. We plan to rent a car from CDG and return it there.

Day 1: Giverny (morning/lunch) and Rouen (afternoon/evening)
Day 2: Juno Beach (Canadian military memorial) and rest of day/night in Bayeux
Day 3: Mont St-Michel (hotel nearby in Ardevon area as the hotels on Mont St-Michel seem to have blehh ratings)
Days 4/5: 2 nights in Tours/Loire Valley/Amboise, hotel in Tours?
Day 6: Chambord/Chartres, night in Versailles area
Day 7: Visit Versailles in morning then head to CDG for a late afternoon flight to Prague

Thanks, all.

do you like driving?

I'd use the time to visit Normandy and Britanny before adding in all those other places.

Like Honfleur, Dinan or Fougeres

Tours is hardly worth visiting

I've never stayed on StM, I would do it just for the experience. I do know the hotels on the south side of the causeway are dumps.

Yes, we'll be picking up a car. I'm a big fan of exploring via car.

The hotels on StM are all in the 7.1 to 7.4 rating range with some reviews describing insect infestations. There are a number of B&Bs about 5-10 mins south of the causeway that are highly rated, so I might do that instead of staying on StM even if the experience wouldn't be quite the same.

We've visited MSM 3 times as a day trip from elsewhere. Once we drove there & arrived at 8am before the mobs descended. This was in the early 1980s. We thought it was OK, and worth a visit. In 2019, we stayed overnight on the Mont - and it was magical. Totally different experience in the early morning when the crowds are not there. By 10:30am when we departed - it was a mob scene again.

Tip from a 74 year old guy who has visited Europe (mainly France) twice a year for 1 month each trip since 1999 - VISIT PLACES FOR THE SITES - NOT FOR THE HOTELS. it is a completely different experience when you can wander the ramparts at 11PM all alone (except for my wife).

Attached is my Normandy & Brittany itinerary. Look for the details on MSM

Also my wife's Shutterfly book of the MSM portion of our visit.
https://stududley.shutterfly.com/57
Click "Full screen"

Stu Dudley

I stayed at the Mercure MSM hotel very nearby. Across the road, the free shuttle to MSM had a stop. The hotel was quite fine and I’m pretty much a hotel snob! LOL! It has free parking and free Wi-Fi.

No elevator in the hotel so if you have a problem with stairs or luggage, request a room on the ground floor.

I arrived at MSM about 3pm and it wasn’t very crowded in September 2019. So that may be a better time than in the morning or early afternoon.

I too would switch out what you listed for Days 4/5/6 and spend more days in Normandy: Dieppe, Honfleur, Bayeaux, Etretat, Deauville (not in any driving order), leaving MSM for next-to-last day before cutting down to Versailles and heading to CDG, the Citizen M Hotel there is a fun, modern scene, very reasonable too. Loire/Burgundy is another itinerary for another trip IMHO.

Hi

My husband and I are planning nearly exactly this same trip in June (soon!)

Wanted to macgyv13 if you followed through with this itinerary and any comments?

Our plans:

Day 1 - arrive in Paris evening in Paris
Day 2 - morning in Paris and then move on to Amboise (with a stop at a Chateau on the way)
Day 3- Loure Valley area -
Day 4 - Loure Valley and drive towards Mont St Michel so we can explore in early evening / evening (i've heard it's less packed then)
Day 5 - move on to Normandy area, visiting Bayeux on the way or one of the beaches - staying in Arromanches Les Bains
Day 6 - Spend the day in the area, visiting other memorials, beaches
Day 7 - drive to Etratat (and I understand this may be too ambitious, but it looks amazing) - spend the day in that area, drive to arrive closer to Paris
Day 8 - Visit Versailles and then head to airport for late afternoon flight

Thoughts?

Sounds exhausting to me. Driving in France takes a lot longer than people realise. Also booking places so popular this late in the day may be a problem.
You would be better starting your own thread, but in any case skip Etratat as there are now severe restrictions on visitors due to vast over tourism damaging the cliffs and making them even more dangerous than they were.

https://www.bluewin.ch/en/entertainm...s-2696094.html

Thank you for that Etratat update, and the suggestion to start another thread

My favorite D-Day related spots are:

Arromanches
Pointe du Hoc
American Cemetery at Colleville sur Mer
Museum of the Atlantic Wall, Ouistreham

I highly recommend watching The Longest Day, historic fiction about the landing, an anecdotal film and Hollywood blockbuster.

My other favorite spots in Normandy:

Honfleur
Beuvron en Auge
Ruins of the Jumieges Abby
Ruins of Chateau Gaillard

You need more time in Bayeux to explore the D-Day sites, see the Bayeux tapestry, the Cathedral which rivals Notre Dame, the British and American cemetaries, Pont du Hoc and just enjoy the ambiance of this lovely spot. I would also recommend Honfleur which we stopped at en route to Bayeux after visiting E'Tratat, as we had spent the night in Rouen. Both Rouen and Bayeux are somewhat of foodie destinations. Between Bayeux and Honfluer is Caen with the outstanding WWII Museum. You can easily spend several hours there.

We drove from Bayeux to MSM and what is most memorable to me is seeing the Mont from the distance, as you approach it. The whole time we were there it was raining, sometimes quite heavily and so you needed to be careful on the wet stone steps which you climb up. We stayed the night at one of those hotels on the strip, it was a Mercure. No problems but more like a US chain kind of motel and we were sorry that we didn't spend the night on the Mont itself, although as it was in October, several inns and many of the restaurants were already closed for the season,

Yes to stopping in Chartres as the Cathedral is amazing. Versailles requires more time than you might expect as the grounds are huge but it is a worthwhile place to visit but it will of course be crowded.

I love this reply! I will try to watch The Longest Day before our trip (which is already next week).

I also will be googling all the items you mentioned here, the ones i had not heard of are:

Museum of the Atlantic Wall
Beuvron en Auge
Ruins of Jumieges Abby
Ruins of Chateau Gaillard

What do you recommend we see in Arromanches (as current plan is to be sleeping there).
What do you recommend we see in Honfleur

thanks

The most important thing to see in Arromanches is quite simply the vista. This is where the allies constructed mulberries, massive temporary piers and an entire port for the invasion. You only see sticks of wood protruding from the water, but until you go it's hard to fathom just how huge an undertaking this was.

Beuvron would be my vote for the most beautiful village in France. So much amazing architecture. You can stand anywhere, and in every direction there is a gorgeous view.

Honfleur is a very beautiful port with its half-timbered houses and two important wooden structures, St Mary's is the largest wooden church in France, built by shipbuilders. And you can tell once you enter. Thoroughly unique. The separate bell tower is also of wood.

Musuem of the Atlantic Wall is the opposite of a big, beautiful museum. It is an old, dowdy museum located in a former German commend HQ. If you see the movie, you will see it prominently. It gives you a quick but thorough understanding of just how strong the German defenses were and how much effort they put into repelling an Allied invasion. It's a stimulating

The ruins are breath-taking.

The port is lovely, an ideal spot to sit at a cafe and enjoy a drink, and it was painted by several artists including Monet, Coret, Seurat and others. Same with E'tratat which was the reason we headed there, to see the cliffs and the rock formations painted by Monet. After seeing the rock formations, it was special to then see Monet's work in the Musee D'Orsay.

The church is incredible to visit and when you walk to the church, you will pass under an archway with a ceramic tile centerpiece in honor of Samuel de Champlain who sailed from the port of Honfleur to explore the New World.

Thank you everyone for your replies! shelemm Thanks for the comment about Beuvron. When watching the olympics recently, I noticed during the bike race that they drove through so many beautiful villages. This was my reason I immediately said Yes when husband suggested a trip to France. If Beuvron feels like that type of village, I would probably prefer it to the sweeping vistas of Etratat. Hard to say though

And the ruins of Chateau Gaillard are in Chartres? That seems like it makes sense on way from Paris to Amboise

Madam397 Thanks for your notes, I had planned to visit all you listed, but dont want to drive 3 hours to spend one hour in Etratat... so either I cancel other places or give that one up

Gaillard is nowhere near Chartres, it's between Giverny and Rouen.

@ andreayager: I wonder why you haven’t started your own thread, as hetismij2 recommended in post #8? Many of us don’t bother to read new posts on threads that are years old.

Now that I’ve bothered to look, I’ll offer the following comments:

· It sounds like you plan to pick up a rental car the day after an evening arrival in Paris. Please note that if you are crossing multiple time zones, you will not be safe to drive – safe for you or anyone else on the roads – for at least 36 hours.

· Versailles is immense. Whether you can meaningfully visit it on the same day as an afternoon flight is not clear to me.

· It sounds like you would benefit enormously from a good guidebook. The Michelin Green is excellent, as is the Rough Guide.

Seriously – do start your own thread! I'm sure you will get some helpful comments if you do.

The rruins of Jumieges Abbey and Chateau Gaillard (both spectacular) are close to each other along the Boucles de la Seine (Buckles of the Seine River), which flows from Honfleur to Paris.

andreayager has started her own thread:
A week in France. Need Advice, thank you