10 Days in France..Paris and Normandy and what else???

I'd extend your nights in Bayeux to at least 3 if your son is fascinated by WWII. 2 nights just gives you 1 full day. If he wanted to see the American sector (Utah, Omaha, St-Mere-Eglise, Pointe du Hoc, the American Cemetery) that will take a full day, then another for the Allied Sector of Gold, Juno, Sword plus Pegasus Bridge, the German battery at Longue-sur-Mer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longues-sur-Mer_battery), the museum and remains of the Mulberry Harbor at Arromanches.

You could add a night or two for Mont-Saint-Michel and/or Saint-Malo.

To me 3 days = 4 nights so that is barely enough for Paris, I'd make it 5 nights for 4 full days. BTW, I am NOT a city person and love Paris! The big issue with Paris this summer are the Olympics. Hotel prices are awful! Depending on your dates, I might do Paris first if that lands before the Olympics then get out of town, coming back to spend your last night at the airport.

This gives you 9 or 10 nights with not as much driving as going to the Pyrenees. To me the Pyrenees is too far for this short time frame.

Everything Pam wrote is right! (She's usually right, but this time she aced it.) You don't have time for the Pyrenees this trip. Normandy is worth more than one full day, two is better and three would be better still. Try to take a D-Day tour (I haven't, but Overlord and Dale Booth get good reviews in this forum). Paris is worth all the time you can give it, with or without the Olympics to drive up prices and fill up hotels and restaurants. Try to spend your time in Paris before or after the games if that's possible.

If you can't work around the games, or don't need to, then I'd suggest Paris before Normandy simply because driving after an all-night flight is unsafe for you and others -- even the short distance between Caen and Bayeux. Get over the jet lag in the city, then drive later.

Many would suggest that flying overnight (don't expect to get much/any sleep...), arriving in a foreign country (it's disorienting...), then taking a train to a car, jumping in and driving off when you're exhausted and foggy...is a recipe for a major accident. Please take it seriously.

I'd spend your first few days in Paris, get over "jet lag" (and general sleep deprivation and exhaustion which usually comes with flying half-way around the world). Then train out to Bayeux, pick up your car, and enjoy Normandy. For "10 days" (be careful how you count....only count full, non-travel days) you don't really have enough time to add the Pyrenees. I'd simply expand your time in/around Normandy (maybe add a day or two in Brittany). Given the normal busy summer crowds AND the Olympics...it's time to get your plans firmed up quickly.

Thank you all for the very helpful insight. I was reading someone's itinerary and thought maybe I could take some of her ideas. We're definitely nixing the Pyrenees idea. I think I would still like to start our first part of the trip with Normandy and end in Paris. This is what I've come up with. Please let me know your thoughts/suggestions:
Day 1 - Arrive to Paris (approx 8:15am, take taxi/uber to Gare St. Lazare and catch train to Rouen (1.5 hr trip). Check in hotel @ Rouen. Rest, walk around Place du Veiux Marche
Day 2 - Explore Rouen (Cathedral Notre Dame de Rouen, Joan of Arc Museum) take train to Caen to pick up rental car (visit Caen Memorial Museum?). Drive from Caen to Bayeux
Day 3-5 - Bayeux / Normandy Tour / MSM?
Day 6-10 - Paris

Does this sound more doable?? Thanks again!

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Given the Olympics, what about deferring Paris to another trip, another year. From Normandy head on to Brittany? Or down to Tours and the Loire Valley and chateaux? The Loire is not that far. Brittany (and perhaps Nantes) will be less touristy, but the Loire is awfully nice.

From either Brittany or the Loire, you could then spend your last day and night in Chartres. You could see “Chartres en Lumiere,” and you would then be within striking distance of returning your rental car to the airport (CDG), if your departure is not too early in the morning. Driving from Chartres to CDG is 2 hours, per Google Maps.

BTW, You need to consider spending more time than you think you should when you depart CDG. Last year, we had a terrible experience trying to get out, via British Airlines. The only good thing I can say about that is that others on this forum encouraged us to file a claim, so five months later BA not only reimbursed us for cost of an extra day in Paris (about 210 Euros), or $225, they also coughed up another 1200 Euros, roughly $1300, for the delay we experienced.

Anyway, enjoy your vacation and Bon Voyage.

I was in France May 2023. I was on a RS Paris tour for a week and then took a train to Rouen. It is a very walkable cityI took the Bus to Caen. Since you have WW2 interests I would suggest the War Museum in Caen it is a must see. You can book full day guided tours that include the Museum as well as the beaches American Graveyard. The tours include Train station pickup, small group (4-5 people) Driver and guide. Well worth it.

I disagree with visiting the museum in Caen unless you have already been to Normandy several times and have run out of things to see and do. I visited on my sixth trip and found it a supreme waste of time. There are several, much better museums that are in nicer parts of Normandy and that don't take a whole day to visit. Caen is the best place to pick up a car, but I would then head out immediately to better areas once you have it.

Opinion on the Caen Memorial Museum is sharply divided. It is really indisputable that it is large, relatively expensive, and often very crowded. I spent essentially the entire day there; I'm slow in history museums, but others have made similar comments. The reason the museum takes so much time to see in its entirety is that it isn't just a WWII museum, much less a Normandy invasion museum. It covers a much longer historical period--the time leading up to WWII, the war itself and the Cold War.

Few travelers posting questions about Normandy have enough time available to justify spending a full day at one museum. The invasion museum in Bayeux is more focused and much smaller. It's a modern museum and very enjoyable to visit. I think most people could see the whole thing in 2 to 3 hours, and some could finish up faster than that if they didn't want to read every bit of English explanatory material offered.