Fastest travel from London to Normandy

When are you going? There is a ferry from Portsmouth, England to Normandy: https://www.brittany-ferries.co.uk/ferry-routes/ferries-france/portsmouth-caen/about. There’s even an overnight crossing meaning you can reserve a sleeping cabin.

Well, there's swimming but it's awfully cold.

Ryan Air or similar?

The Fastest travel will be to charter a small plane to fly you to airport in Caen.

I'm not kidding. It will be the fastest way. Since it's private there is no arrival three hours ahead of time. With a private charter all you have to do is show up and then show them identification (passport). No security. Look for charters out of London Biggin Hill airport. It's only about 160 miles. Shouldn't take more than an hour and a half.

Otherwise your choices are train to Paris then train to Normandy area or ferry from the UK.

If we are looking at solutions like chartering a plane then Lydd Air are one solution. They fly from any airport but are based at London Ashford Airport.

Biggin Hill is a problem airport as they are not allowed to operate any flights which require payment of a fare.

Thus business flights can run, but an actual charter which you have paid for is likely to be a problem.

Until about 20 years ago there was commercial service there from airports in Northern England (including Carlisle Lake District) until legal action by the local council stopped them.

Weston Aviation from Brighton City Airport is another possibility.

But in actual real life the ferry from Poole or Portsmouth to Caen or Cherbourg is your best (only) choice apart from the train. National Express run a bus direct to the ferry terminal from London Victoria.

Biggin Hill is a problem airport as they are not allowed to operate any flights which require payment of a fare.

When you charter a plane, you are not charging a fare. You are paying for the whole plane. Charging a fare means you can't sell seats individually.

And since there are companies based at Biggin Hill who make a lot of money chartering their planes, I think it's allowed.

https://bigginhillairport.com/services/aircraft-charter/

You could fly to Paris and then travel on to Normandy. That would take longer than the Eurostar but if you don’t want to go through the tunnel for whatever reason it’s a viable alternative.

Or you can fly from London to Rouen.

There are no flights to Rouen now.

debbi, I see this is your first post here. Welcome. Is this your first trip to Europe? You may not understand how poorly London and the D-Day Beaches (a tiny section of lovely Normandy) go together. Your best plan is to assemble ( just for example, these are not specific numbers) a full two-week vacation, and spend 7 nights in London, and 5 nights in Paris. You could spend one or two nights near the D-Day Beaches. You would buy a Multi-City air ticket into one country and home from the other.

But there are issues of whether you want to do the Beaches independently with a rental car, hire a guide, or a guide with their car or van. Those are expensive and book up heavily in the summer. Even with a rental car, you have to search and wait for a parking space, repeatedly, sometimes.

The Search Box top center can show you some of the many discussions of these issues. You need to tell us if you refuse to take the long-established train under the English Channel, under any conditions whatsoever. You have only named the criterion of "speed" for the trip.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/france/london-to-bayeux-and-back-again-by-rail

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/general-europe/landing-in-london-then-eurostar-to-paris

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/france/day-trip-from-paris-to-d-day-beaches-acf8ace3-7773-4e57-b464-b178dcd45e1f

Edit: Links corrected

There are direct Easyjet flights from Gatwick to Rennes, which is a 1.5 hour drive to Mont Saint Michel (and even less at low traffic time) and less than 2.5 hours to Bayeux. You would need a car, though.

Any past reference to a Southend-Caen flight is obsolete, alas.