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Day trip to Normandy beaches from Paris

Greetings,

We will be on the June 7-13 Best of Paris tour, and would like to make it over to the D-Day beaches as a day trip after the tour ends. Leaning now toward the half-day Overlord D-Day tour, traveling via morning rail to Bayeux, returning that evening, then flying home the next morning. Has anyone done something similar? We're willing to have a long day to work this in, but just wondering how this itinerary has worked for others.

Cheers!

Posted by
10344 posts

I've had the luxury of spending 2 days seeing the D-Day beaches, so I haven't done the 1/2 day itinerary you're considering--hopefully someone will answer who has done only the afternoon 1/2 day tour.

Given what you've said above, you'll of course get back to Paris late, and you're flying home the next morning--so obviously this would be a long and tiring day for you, returning to your Paris hotel late on the night before you fly back to the US.

In a 1/2 day tour, of course you'll only get an overview, of course. You'll have to decide whether that's better than not doing it sometime when you have more time. It's an amazing experience.
Happy Travels!

Posted by
41 posts

We did the half day Overlord tour back in September 2012. We enjoyed it immensely. We too, were also on a time constraint, so did not want to do the full day tour. We took the train from Paris and spent the night in Bayeux, which we loved. We took the morning tour and took the afternoon train back to Paris.

The tour guide was wonderful and it was just a small group of us on the tour. I have to say that touring Normandy was a highlight of our first trip to Europe and I recommend it to anyone travelling to France.

Good luck and enjoy!

Jackie

Posted by
687 posts

We did a one day tour thru the Museum in Caen - picked up at train station, excellent tour of Museum and lunch and then a guided tour of the beaches with a stop at the American Cemetery. We stayed overnight but others on the tour did return to Paris that evening. Long day but well worth it.

Posted by
1059 posts

I did the all day Paris Vision tour. It left at 7:00 am from Paris and returned around 8:00 pm. It was a big bus with about 50 people. We stopped at the Caan Peace Museum and actually had a great lunch which surprised me. From there we went to Point du Hoc, Omaha Beach and the Cemetery, and then to Juno Beach. The tour guide was great on the Bus, but we were on our own when we got to the sites so it helped that I was very familiar with the invasion. The price was the most reasonable of all the tours, but it probably was far from the most informative. If price and ease of travel are important to you. You might want to look at their website.

Posted by
51 posts

We did this a couple of years ago. Got up early and had enough time to see the Bayeux tapestry before the tour and eat a quick lunch. It was a really long day and unfortunately we did not have the best weather but it was a great way to see the D-Day beaches. If you are really a World War II buff, you might not be satisfied with the half day, but for me it was enough.

Posted by
51 posts

We did this a couple of years ago. Got up early and had enough time to see the Bayeux tapestry before the tour and eat a quick lunch. It was a really long day and unfortunately we did not have the best weather but it was a great way to see the D-Day beaches. If you are really a World War II buff, you might not be satisfied with the half day, but for me it was enough.