Advice for a trip to Normandy from Paris

Renting a car: Caen or Bayeux

Hotel in Bayeux: Rhein Mathilde

In, 2019 we rented a car at Paris Airport and drove to Bayeux and stayed at (Churchill Hotel ) downtown Bayeaux , spent 3 days, visit Caen WW2 Museum a must see and visited the Beaches and Cemetary American and German a must see and drove to St Mount Michele and stayed 1 Nite, visit after 3 pm to miss day trippers and visited Walled city of St. Malo, ( from the movie and book " All the light we do not see", both a must, see ? Then drove to Charte and started a RS tour, great trip.

Yes, there are car rentals at Train Station Caen , Enjoy

If one of you is not an expert on WWII and neither of you intends to become one before May, I highly recommend taking a one-day tour of the invasion sites so you understand what you're looking at. It's fine to use your car to go to museums (many tours go to the Airborne Museum at St-Mere-Eglise, but the area has many additional museums) and re-visit places where you wished for more time, but the outdoor sites would not have been meaningful to me without a guide. There are several companies doing small-group (van) tours in the area that depart from Bayeux. I used Overlord, but there are other good options.

Worthwhile sights in Bayeux include the Bayeux Tapestry, the Cathedral, the historic center and the invasion museum on the outskirts of town. When I went to Bayeux in 2017 the tourist office offered a good walking tour.

I liked the museum in Caen, but many people do not. It is extremely large and covers the entire period from the lead-up to WWII to the Cold War. Accordingly, it takes a full day to see the entire thing. It is rather costly, and it tends to be very crowded. I can understand why most people not spending a lot of time in Normandy, and wanting to focus on the invasion itself, consider it not really worth their time.

we did 5 days in Normandy a few years ago when our flights and apartment didn't match. We had one night in Paris because I had booked an opera and so headed for NOrmandy the next day. WE trained to Caen and picked up a car and drove to MSM and spent one night there. We visited the Mont in the afternoon the first day strolled and had dinner; we returned the next morning to visit the Abbey before heading for Bayeux. I regret not staying at a hotel on the Mont.
https://janettravels.wordpress.com/2014/01/21/mont-st-michel-is-that-a-real-place/
We had a one day tour of the American beaches with Overlord from Bayeux and visited the tapestry on the afternoon before.If you do your homework you can easily tour the beaches and museums and cemeteries on your own with a car. My daughter did that with friends from school. We had not had time to plan so we took the easy way out and let a tour take us to the sites.
We stayed at the Hotel Churchill filled with WWII memorabilia which we liked a lot.
https://janettravels.wordpress.com/2013/12/21/bayeux-bringing-1066-to-life/
We then headed for Honfleur for two nights and spent the full day on a side trip to Etretat which I also highly recommend. We dropped the car in Caen. https://janettravels.wordpress.com/2013/01/01/etretat-the-impressionists-had-an-eye-for-a-beautiful-place/

Take the train from Gare St. Lazarre to Caen. There are at least four different rental agencies within a block of the station. Make Bayeux your home base and be sure your hotel provides parking. If you've never been there, consider a night at Mont St. Michel instead of day trips to Honfleur and L'Etreat. These coastal towns are sweet, but can't match the magnificence of the Mont.

Caen is the good place to rent a car BUT when we did this, all the rental agencies closed for a long French lunch, so be sure you know what hours they are open in timing your journey -- There is nothing much to do in the area around the train station while you wait.