Arriving by car from CDG and Planning 4 nights in Bayeux Sept 8-12.
Need rec on hotel or air bnb for two people in the $250 per night range in a central location.
After we spend one full day w/ D Day tour, what is the best use of the remaining time.
MSM looks like something not to miss?? The cities of Honfleur and Rouen?? Etretat for hiking? Calvados tour??
We are 50 yo couple who like to move, hike, tour, observe local life, eat and drink and learn about new places.
Thanks!
If you have a transatlantic flight into CDG, I wouldn't like to rent a car and drive all the way to Bayeux, potentially sleep-deprived and jetlagged. A lot of people recommend taking the train to Caen, which is very near Bayeux and has several car-rental agencies very near the train station.
I haven't visited Europe by car, but I enjoyed all these places I was able to reach by public transportation:
Bayeux: The town itself has close to a day's worth of sights--walking tour offered by tourist office, some extra time walking around the historic center, cathedral, Bayeux tapestry and invasion museum on the outer edge of town. There's also a British War Cemetery.
There are a number of invasion-related museums in the area. My Overlord Tour stopped for lunch in St-Mere-Eglise, giving me just about enough time to see the Airborne Museum if I wolfed down a premade sandwich. That museum will be of interest to many, but it is old-fashioned, and I much preferred the museum in Bayeux. Others can advise of additional museums in the area that may be of interest.
There's a large (full day needed) museum in Caen that many people find too big, too expensive and too crowded. I liked it, but with only 4 nights (that's just 3 days) and a desire to go as far west as Mont-St-Michel, I think you should skip the museum in Caen. Caen has a few old landmarks (a castle and I believe a couple of abbeys). With your limited time, I'd skip it.
There's a museum in Falaise covering the civilian experience during the war, including Resistance activities. I liked it a lot. It's at least a 2-hour time commitment (excluding travel time), I'd say.
Honfleur: Cute town, fun to wander. Time required from 2 hours up, depending on your interests.
Rouen: Absolutely gorgeous. Has 3 museums I found interesting, plus one or more Joan of Arc-related sights I didn't see. I spent a full day there.
Cabourg and Deauville: Coastal resorts worth walking around. I don't know about driving conditions; Deauville would probably be OK, but I remember Cabourg as being smaller. Expect late-19th-century and early-20th-century architecture.
Fougeres and Vitre: Lovely, not-too-touristy towns you might be quite near as you leave Mont-St-Michel and head back to Paris (?).
These are suggestions are very helpful :)
Not a hotel or air bnb, but we loved Le Petit Matin which is an upscale b&b. Beautifully decorated rooms, fantastic breakfast with multiple options, and friendly helpful hosts who made restaurant recommendations and reservations for us.
https://www.lepetitmatin.fr/en/
We loved a.B&B Aggarthi in Bayeau. It was fantastic. I think it was no more than two blocks from the tapestry and some very good restaurants. Breakfast included eggs fresh from owners chickens. I think the main building is over 600 years old. Great comfortable beds and very quiet in the annex where we could open the windows and were in the treetops. We took train from Paris which I think took about 2 hours and then cab right to the place. The next day we took a private tour with HQCompany tours. It was the highlight of our trip. Very informative. We were picked up at nine AM and dropped off after 5PM at our B&B. Enjoy. And try to watch the movie Longest Day as part of it was filmed in the area and it was good overview of DDay.
I stayed at the Rhein Mathilde in Bayeux. It was right in the center of town and just a couple of minute walk to the pickup point for many tours.
I stayed in one of the annex buildings and enjoyed it. Convenient to everything.(About a five minute walk to both the Tapestry and the Cathedral.)
There's a coin laundry one block north of the hotel.
If you haven't booked a D-Day tour yet, let me suggest Overlord Tours. Excellent.
I would devote some time to seeing D-day sights you saw on the tour which you wish you had more time. Plus there are several good museums. IDK how much time or how many museums the tour will include, but I can't imagine they spend many hours at any one museum. If you are interested in American sites, some of my favorites are The Utah Beach Museum, The Airborne Museum in Sainte-Mère-Église, The Overlord Museum outside of the American Cemetery entrance, The Bayeux Museum and the Azeville Battery. You will likely stop at two cemeteries briefly on your tour. I recommend seeking out others. Two that I find contemplative but aren't on everyone's trip are the Bény-sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery in Reviers, and the German Cemetery in Orglandes (not the one right next to the highway that everyone goes to).
Non-WWII sites I recommend that are within reach of Bayeux are the Bayeux Tapestry, Mont-Saint-Michel (spend the night on the island), and the town of Avranches. Further East and heading towards Paris, are Rouen and its medieval center, the ruins of Abbaye de Jumièges, and the Castle of La Roche-Guyon.
We loved the top floor of B&B Logis des Remparts in Bayeux. Reasonable cost, filling breakfast (for extra $), and only a short walk to the center or town - we made the walk multiple times a day to drop things off or pick things up. We dropped our car at the Hertz a half mile-ish from the center of town and left by train the next morning for Paris. You could take a train to Bayeux and a quick taxi to the Hertz - located at a gas station, they were very nice but do have more limited hours than airports. Definitely wander Bayeux, it was delightful! We did our own drive around Normandy, also day-trip to Mont St Michel. MSM is beautiful, but if you decide to go, read up on how to avoid crowds and take your own food - there are quite a few posts on MSM. We got up very early to get there early and avoid SOME of the crowds.
I second La Petite Matin, it was a charming little place and the host was lovely. He also was full of useful recommendations. Sometimes host can be over bearing and pushy but the stuff that he shared with us was fabulous. He also told us, which is useful advice, to make sure you make reservations for your meal because many restaurants in town are very small and only prepare a certain number of meals for the evening and when they’re done they’re done. So if there’s someplace you’d really like to eat make sure you get reservations in advance. We wandered around one night looking for a place to eat and we finally did find a place and the food was good but we were just lucky.
We also enjoyed our stay at des Remparts B&B noted above.
