Best way to fit an evening stay at Mont St Michel in this itinerary?

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/france/travel-to-mount-st-michel

Which is it? “Evening stay” or “day trip with tour company”?

This is kind of a short trip, to two cities worth 5 to 7 nights each. Huge time spent on the bus or van to MSM.

You didn’t mention Eiffel Tower, Orsay, or Rodin museum. Or Normandy landing beaches. Make some notes like that the Louvre is closed Tuesday.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/france/recommended-side-trips-in-france-with-no-car

MSM isnt really a day trip from Paris. It's at least 4 hrs each way by road. If such a tour exists, you would have precious little time on site, and certainly not during an evening. It's possible to travel by train/bus combo, but you would want to stay overnight and return to Paris the next day. On such a short trip, and with Paris/A'dam the main attractions, I'd save MSM for a future trip.

Agree that you are spending too much time moving from place to place. If MSM is a must on this trip I think you need to drop Amsterdam and focus on France. To spend a night in MSM you will use most of two full days.

If Paris and Amsterdam are both must do, then IMO you can get a good feel for Paris from Saturday to Thursday traveling to Amsterdam on Thursday evening. Leaving two full days for a quick overview. If you are going for spring flowers you will need one less day in Paris and one more in Amsterdam.

Tell us more about what you want to experience in a French village, please.

Hi, I stayed in Bayeux and the drive to MSM took 1 hr and 40 min from there. There’s an additional period of time standing in line waiting for the shuttle bus. You could certainly walk but it’s 1/2 hr to walk. The bus line doesn’t move too quickly. I was with a tour & we didn’t get any special “skip the line” advantage. So plan on roughly an hour of waiting to actually get to MSM from the parking area. I would never attempt to do it from Paris. I did Paris/AMS on a prior trip so this trip is just Paris and Normandy.

Also, my opinion is that it might be boring & a waste of time to sleep there. There’s not much to do there except eat & drink. The shops likely close at a reasonable hour. Most of the shopkeepers don’t live at MSM and have to commute back to the mainland. You can’t really walk around randomly in the tidal area due to tides & quicksand. I toured the abbey, ate a quick lunch, shopped a bit and was satisfied—about 21/2-3 hrs is plenty.

I’ve done MSM both ways. First arriving late afternoon, staying the night, then leaving mid morning. Second, arriving about noon, touring for a few hours, and then being done. They were both satisfying experiences. I think it really depends on what your goals are for your visit. Do you a quiet, contemplative experience with the possibility of attending the morning service at the Abbey? Spend the night. Do you want to visit, explore the abbey, climb the ramparts? A few hours during the day will work.

You could consider dropping Amsterdam and adding a few days to Normandy/Brittany instead. You can get reasonable day tours from Bayeux or St Malo.

If you book with Keolis you can take an afternoon bus from Rennes to Mont St Michel [MSM] at 1300, and a morning bus back next day at 1135.
That arrives back at Rennes at 1250.

They can be booked as single journeys.

The 1300 bus to MSM connects with a 1057 train from Paris.

You could then route via and changing station in Paris to Amsterdam, or there is a train at around 1600 where you change once at Charles de Gaulle Airport (instead of Paris), arriving at Amsterdam at around 2200.

Equally there is an 0845 bus daily from Rennes to MSM which connects with a 0648 train from Paris, and a 1045 bus daily connecting with a 0843 train from Paris (train times may slightly differ, these are tomorrow's times).

The afternoon return bus from MSM connects with a Paris train at Rennes.

Agree that you are spending too much time moving from place to place.
If MSM is a must on this trip I think you need to drop Amsterdam and
focus on France. To spend a night in MSM you will use most of two full
days.

I totally agree with this (as much as I love Amsterdam). As far as staying the night on MSM, there is nothing like it. Yes, after hours really feels magical. And those who say staying off island is "just as good" likely have never actually stayed on island (I have done both). How set against driving are you? The simplest way, and one I have done a couple of times is to take the train to Rennes (TGV) and rent a car there. This will save some transit time and driving in rural France really isn't that difficult. If you drive in your home area you can do it there.

To make Mont Saint Michel work, I think you do need to rent a car.
Having just been to Mont Saint Michel, I also think that spending the night there is unnecessary. There is nothing to do at night, and the Mont is quiet enough in the morning if you get there at 9 or so. It was magical, and there was nobody around.

You could do the following:

• Sat: fly into Paris
• Sun: Paris
• Mon: Paris
• Tue: Versailles, or more Paris
• Wed: train to St Malo, visit St Malo in the afternoon, rent car before the office closes
• Thu: Visit Mt Saint Michel from St Malo in the morning, then travel to Rennes for the Rennes-Amsterdam flight in the afternoon, returning the car at Rennes airport
• Fri: Amsterdam
• Sat: Amsterdam
• Sun: fly out of AMS

If renting a car in St Malo and returning it at Rennes airport is troublesome, you can also rent the car at Rennes station and drive the rest of the way to the base of your choice (St Malo, Dinan, or other).

If you choose to spend a night in Bayeux, Hotel Churchill has daily shuttle busses to and from MSM. This is what I'm doing in a couple of weeks.