Bayeux to Mont Saint Michel with car rental

Does your D-Day Tour include the British and Canadian beaches or only the American ones? I highly recommend the others too and the museum at the British Beach.
And the Bayeux Tapestry is a must see! Made in 1066, well displayed and so interesting.

Suki, our tour only includes the American beaches and cemetery. Unfortunately our time is short and we can only do so much. We are definitely going to work in a trip to the Tapestry.
Thanks!

I did the exact route you describe, although took the coast en route to MSM and the direct route back (arrived at MSM at 5p, wandered with it almost to ourselves for 2 hours until 7 when it closed, ate dinner on the rock, then drove back to Bayeaux. July 2017). There isn't much of note, but I love to explore areas of countries that are not 'of note' but just random places. We ate lunch in a small, deserted beach town, drove through - ack - a larger town that was home to some famous guy (sorry, two years ago), then drove southeast from there toward the monastery, which you could see protruding from far off. It was a great day.

The Tapestry was so cool! Loved that

You can't really follow the coast from MSM to Bayeux, unless you spend way more time than you have (one would have to travel a considerable distance up the peninsula to Cherbourg, and then back the other side). The direct way is across the Cotentin Peninsula. However, if you follow the coast for just a short stretch, you can find yourselves in Avranches. It is a wonderful little town where you could have lunch, or possibly visit the Scriptorial d'Avranches—which houses the original manuscripts which were made on Mont-Saint-Michel by the monks living there. You could possibly then go North to Granville and Coutances before heading East—both of which figured heavily in the battle for Normandy post D-day. But I haven't visited either of them (yet), and my understanding is that there isn't much to see in your limited time.

We stayed in a B&B outside Villers-Bocage, about 12 miles east of Bayeux, and drove via the motorway to MSM early one morning. We arrived when they opened and spent about 2 hours there, then drove around the bay to Cancale, about 20 miles and in Brittany, for a scrumptious lunch on the waterfront. Cancale oysters are quite famous as some of the best but there were many other fresh choices if oysters are not on your personal menu. We had a Michelin map and our own GPS so we drifted back to Bayeux on the back roads, stopping in little villages for local foods, cheeses, and the all important Calvados or wine to enjoy back at the B&B. It was one of our most enjoyable road trips.

Jessica, was the large town Granville, home to Christian Dior?