2 weeks in France

Hi Rocky, regarding the tour, I guess it depends when you are going but I would book in advance. Normandy Sightseeing Tours (http://www.normandy-sightseeing-tours.com/) has a variety of options.

Would you be taking the tour from Paris or would you be staying in Normandy? I will be in Normandy in late September and some tours are already booked up for my dates. I would advise you to book as soon as you know the date you want to do the tour.

We did an Overlord all day tour of the beaches from Bayeux and it was excellent. We did book well in advance and our particular tour was booked full when we were there. Hotel Churchill does a day trip to Mont St. Michel and it is always booked up weeks in advance; they use a small van and I think it only handles 8 or so tourists.

We were there off season; I imagine during the summer, the tours get booked up well in advance.

If you have a car, you can also organize your own tour (as long as you aren't there during the 70 year anniversary festivities when outside cars are banned from the area.) We did the tour in late October and it would have been easy to drive and park at the various destinations. We were happy to have someone else do the homework and the driving on this particular trip although we generally don't use tours.

We booked well in advance a D Day tour from Bayeux a few years ago. It was great but like all tours, scant time was spent in some places we wanted to explore in depth, namely the American cemetery behind Omaha Beach. We had a rental car and returned the next day, spent 4-5 hours at the cemetery, picnicked along the beach, and spent around 10 hours+ exploring more in depth other sites, British and Canadian beaches, and museums we had skipped on the tour. If you know a great deal about D Day history you could likely do your own tour if you can't book a formal tour. We happened upon some British veterans of D Day and got photographed with them, with their chests full of medals and their commando berets--priceless.