Brussels to Paris in August

Patrick,
If you arrive in Brussels on the 17th after flying from the US, that day will probably be subject to jet lag, so I wouldn't count on seeing or doing much in Brussels that day. That leaves just one day, the 18th for Brussels. If you rent a car and drive to Bruges and stay 2 nights, that leaves just one full day in Bruges, the 20th. Of course you will have a half day there on the 19th.
Be aware that renting a car in one country and returning it in another country will prpbably incur a large drop off fee (could be up to $1000.00). You might do better to skip a car in Belgium and take a train to Caen and get a car there on the 21st. Caen is very close to Bayeux, a good place to begin a tour of the Normandy beaches, so maybe you would want to do that first, and drive to Mont St Michel the next day. It's up to you. Either way your drive to Paris will take about a good half day (checking out of lodging, etc.). I would return the car somewhere in or near Paris (Orly?) as it is a real pain to drive and have a car in the city (Parking costs alone!)
It seems counterintuitive, but it is best to count nights. E.g.
8/17 Brussels 2 nts (8/19 train to Bruges in a.m.)
8/19 Bruge 2 nts (8/21 train to Bayeux in a.m. or to Caen if better for renting car; short drive to Bayeux from Caen)
8/21 Bayeux 2 nts (8/23 drive to MSM in a.m.)
8/23 MSM 1 nt (8/24 drive to Paris and return car)
8/24 Paris 2 nts.
(Since you have been to Paris before, and if you have no plans there, you could stop in Rouen on the way to Paris, return the car there and stay the night, and next day the 25th, take the train to Paris for the return flight on the 26th....just a thought)

Judy - thank you for the reply.

I looked at the car rental cost and you are right. It costs a lot to rent a car in Belgium and drop it off in France. I looked at the cost of a train from Bruges to Caen/Bayeux, but I don't know anything about the trains in Europe. The prices are all over the place, from $50 to $150 per person. Do you have any idea what it would cost for a standard class ticket from Bruges to Bayeux in August?

Calvados II - thank you for your comments.

The map I'm looking at shows it takes about 5 hours to get from Bruges to Caen/Bayeux, if I drive the autoroute. From experience, have you found that it really takes longer than that to make the drive?

Patrick,
Alas, I have no info regarding train fares and routes. The RS website has a section on transportation and travel tips. Also, themaninseat61 has lots of info. You may want to post another question here about how best to take the train from Bruges to Caen. There are lots of very helpful and knowledgable people who can probably answer your question. (We almost always have a car when in France, and it has been decades since I was last in Belgium, and since I last took a train between countries.)
Best of luck with your plans!

Patrick,
Another thought when comparing train fares with car rental, you would need to add in cost of gas and tolls, and sometimes parking, plus any insurance costs you may have. This may make the train costs seem better in comparison.
Just a thought.

Best is taking the train from Brussels to Bruges instead of a car. Is faster and much more convenient, the historic center of Bruges is about 15min walking from the train station. No worries this way about finding a parking or traffic jams mostly around Brussels.

I have driven several times in recent years up and down from my home near Bruges to Normandy. But I have my own car, in your case if you want to drive it’s best to take the train to Lille in France and rent a car there for the drive to Caen. Lille is an easy train ride from Brussels. In case you want to leave from Bruges you can take there a local train to Lille with a change in Kortrijk.

According Viamichelin you can do this following the A1 (direction Paris) and A29 (direction Amiens and Pont de Normandie near Honfleur) in about 4h and 11min. But that’s in theory. So no delays, no reststops, waiting at toll gates, driving through Lille and Caen, etc. Think more about 6 hours or maybe a bit more. If you don’t combine it with sightseeing it will be for the rest a boring experience. The scenery is with large stretches of agricultural land in general not so exciting.

Most of the time my first stop is in Arras drinking coffee and enjoying it’s hisitoric main squares. Further you can visit Amiens for it’s cathedral. The same for Rouen and it’s historic streets and the abbeys downstream along the Seine river. A stop in Honfleur is nice too and for instance Beuvron-en-Auge closer to Caen is worth seeing. You can’t all do this in one day, you have to make a selection.

Once I haven driven in one go to Le Mont-Saint-Michel and arrived late seeing it during sunset and later being beautifully illuminated. At that time the crowds are gone and the huge car park free and the shuttle to the island too. But check if the first is still free as it can be changed in the meanwhile.

So with some sightseeing think about a whole day you are on the move. Without sightseeing it’s better if the expences of travelling by train are comparable. You can use the Belgian website: SNCB International https://www.b-europe.com/EN for planning and tickets. As highspeed trains are involved book as early as possible, but think with four travellers anyway much more expensive compared to a car.

Paris has exceptionally good, fast, train connections to Brussels and to Antwerp. Since you will usually have to change train stations in Paris anyway, it could make sense to go to Bayeux or Caen via Paris, and rent a car there. Traffic, medieval streets, and parking costs make driving to Bruges a poor plan. There are five or so unreserved local trains per hour from Brussels to Bruges. I personally would not pair Bruges and Normandy.

Have you used Google Maps for a very rough outline of your imagined car plan? (Add 15% to Google's times.) The drive from Bruges to Caen is very long and boring, and you don't have time for imagined stops along the way.. I do prefer to have a car in Normandy, but it's unclear if you have plans for a professional one-day tour with their transport. MSM is annoying by public transportation, especially from Bayeux. (There is at least one bus day-trip to MSM, at the Hotel Churchill in Bayeux.) D-Day parking lots will require waiting for a space to open, all summer. And you have multiple lots to use in one day, rain or shine.

It is quite late to be booking these popular destinations for the busiest month of the year. (European vacation-month, too.) You might do some trial hotel booking inquiries. You might also benefit from the Search box top center, because Bruges and Normandy are discussed almost weekly on this newsboard.

Bruges to Caen can take 5 hours, but my guess is that would be leaving Bruges at midnight. The traffic around Bruges and Brussels can be horrific and time consuming (although admittedly better than anywhere near Antwerp).

I would catch a train to northern France and hire there. Lille is probably easiest.

Don't restrict yourself to the autoroute. You won't see anything except the back of the truck in front of you.

Thanks for all the responses. Here's an update. The basic plan stays the same, but we will take the train from Brussels to Bruges, and then from Bruges to Lille. We will rent a car in Lille and the rest of the trip is basically the same.

I realize we get into Brussels after a long flight. We travel quite a bit and we usually just drop off our bags at the hotel and go out for a few hours. There's not much we want to do in Brussels except see the Flower Carpet show, and eat frites and waffles. And we have all day on 18 Aug to do just that. We have been to Bruges several times and a day and a half should be plenty to go back to the belfry and take another boat ride on the canal. After Bruges, we will be staying in Bayeux. The Musee de la Tapisserie is right there in Bayeux and we will visit it the morning of 22 Aug and then drive to Mont St Michel that afternoon and stay to see it during sunset and later being beautifully illuminated. That gives us all day on 23 Aug to see the beaches of Normandy. Yes, we could spend several days there, but we think one full day will be enough for us. We hope to have time to stop off at Monet's Garden on the way to Paris on 24 Aug.

Since we have been to Paris previously, we will just spend all day on 25 Aug there. We plan to see the d’Orsay museum, St Chapelle, and do an evening river cruise on the Seine. We fly home on 26 Aug.

I would like to hear any comments you might have. Other than the hotels, we haven't booked anything yet. Thank you.

Patrick - Your plan looks good to me. Assuming still having the car and enough time and energy after visiting Giverny you can make a detour to La Roche-Guyon along the Seine. Lovely village about 10 minutes driving from Giverny.

However coming from Le Mont-Saint-Michel and visiting the beaches of Normandy the same day will be too much to my opinion. The area is huge and there is so much too see, you can’t squeeze this in one day unless you join a guided tour. For this you need to be on time, so leaving Le Mont-Saint-Michel early. You get only an idea what you want to see once you are there and with one day you will certainly have to skip several places if you do everything on your own. Something to consider to my opinion.

Last but not least is that for the longer distances toll roads are safer than the national roads which are from time to time quite or very busy with slower driving trucks and campers saving costs.

Enjoy your trip.

Wil - We will visit Le Mont-Saint-Michel on 22 Aug and we will visit the beaches of Normandy on 23 Aug. We are still deciding whether to do a guided tour of Normandy beaches or do it on our own. We will hear (learn?) so much more with a guide, but with four of us, it's pricy to hire a guide at about $150 per person.

Patrick,
We always drive ourselves around the DDay area in Normandy, but I wonder where you got the $150.00 pp cost? Is that for a private guide? Overlord Tours is very popular and recommended by forum members, and I can't believe it is that expensive. Can anyone on the forum give the OP (and curious me) an idea of the cost for an Overlord Tour?
Thanks in advance.

I believe a half day tour with Overlord that we are signed up for in July is around 90? So it might be a bit more for a full day, but I am almost positive not a ton more....looks like 130 euro for the one we were looking at....that's normally a decent price for a full day tour though, we are waiting to jump on it in case anyone else wants to sign up (cuz 2 of us aren't able to take it unless other people sign up).

Patrick,
Are you spending the night of the 22nd at Mont-St-Michel? That will cut into your Normandy beach touring time on the 23rd. If you do a tour, it may have to be a half-day one in the afternoon only. Remember, checking out of your lodging at MSM, the time it takes to get to the parking lot (not real close), and having a meal somewhere before/along the drive to Bayeux, all this will take up a half day.
If you are planning on going to MSM and returning the same day, it will be a lot of driving in one day and half of it after dark. Please do work out your travel times between Bayeux and MSM (plus checking in and out of a hotel at MSM if staying there). On the A84 viamichelin says 1 1/2 hrs (just driving time). Tolls about 12 euros. In find it best to work out these mundane logistics ahead of time to save time and anguish on the trip.
This seems to me to be the only under planned portion of your trip. Bonne chance and bon yoyage!

Judy,

No, we are not spending the night at Mont-St-Michel on the 22nd. We are driving to Mont-St-Michel and then driving back to Bayeux on the 22nd. Everything I see says it is about a 1 and a half hour drive from Bayeux to at Mont-St-Michel. So we will plan for 2 hours. We are thinking about staying to see Mont-St-Michel at night, but we really don't want to drive after dark. My guess is that we will decide to leave at Mont-St-Michel in time for us to get back to Bayeux before dark. We plan to spend all day on the 23rd at Normandy beach. And yes, a full day guided tour from Bayeux to the Normandy beaches is about $140-150 each with tips. And there are four of us. Ouch. We will probably just drive there and do it on our own. Thank you for your comments.

Your day sounds well-planned out. You will be very impressed with MSM. And I am glad you will have the whole day for the beaches, etc. We have always done them on our own and it is very doable. With those tour prices per person, I think we made good choices to do it ourselves. (Also, we feel well-prepared...I have a degree in history with lots of background in WWII, and my husband spent seven years of his childhood living in Normandy right after the war, playing around abandoned German guns and living with his grandparents whose house was occupied by the Germans during the war.) If a person educates themselves reasonably about that part of the war, they will get a lot out of the museums, etc. Last time we were there we visited Omaha Beach, the museum at Utah Beach, and the American Cemetery. It was a memorable day, especially as we were there for the lowering of the flag at the American Cemetery. If you want to find out about that, check the website abmc.gov. It is not a day to rush through. It is a day of remembrance and respect, and that atmosphere imbues the area and sites. You will be touched.

Enjoy all your destinations and amusez-vous bien!

Our host, Rick, has plenty of suggestions for people who do the D-Day beach area on their own. Between heat, crowding, parking lots, and road traffic, you would do well to prepare a list of places you hope to see. If you just drive around, you won't make the most of the day. Note that many public libraries have copies of Rick's books, and the D-Day sites don't change as the publication date of a book recedes!

One little comment, if for any reason you find you need to drive to Paris on Sunday, the 25th instead of the 24th, do it as early in the day as possible. That will be an extremely heavy traffic day driving into the Paris region.

Thanks for all your comments. We decided to spend all day on 22 Aug at the beaches of Normandy. Then drive to Mont Saint Michel on 23 Aug and spend the afternoon and evening there. We will stay overnight at a hotel near Mont Saint Michel on 23 Aug and drive to Paris on 24 Aug. This way we can see Mont Saint Michel in the evening without driving back to Bayeux in the dark. We realize this adds some driving time to Paris, but it seems doable.

Pagrick,
Switching your MSM and DDay beaches days is a wise decision, and more logical. Good thinking!

Do you have considered the more southern route from MSM back to Paris with a stop for instance in Le Mans and Chartres? The historic center of Le Mans is very attractive and think Chartres with it's cathedral needs no introduction. Fougères and Vitré are worth a stop too, ofcourse you can't visit them all in one day, but a few can add to the experience. Depending the agency you can drop the car for instance in Chartres and take the local TER train from there to Paris, takes around 1 hour to Montparnasse. No or lesser worry about traffic jams.

Wil - Thanks for the suggestion. Yes, we considered the southern route to Paris. One person in our group (not me) would really like to stop off at Monet's Garden, even if only for a short visit. So the southern route was ruled out. I will run the southern route past them again, with your suggestions, and see if they will change their mind.

We just returned from France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Our trip was reverse than yours, but maybe this will give you some ideas in reverse.

We took the train from Paris to Rennes. Picked up a rental car, drove to Mont St Michel. Stayed one night, then drove to Bayeux, Stayed a few nights in Bayeux, took the Overlord Tour. Then visited Honfluer and Beuvron-en-Auge on our way to Rouen for a couple of nights stay. Drove to Lille, and dropped the car off in Lille, then took the train to Belgium.

Also, I think in doing my early planning, there was a car rental location one train stop prior to Giverny (between Paris and Giverny). If you rent from someplace that has a drop off location, there, then you could take the train into Paris rather than drive into Paris. We didn't end up with time to do Giverny, but I do recall researching that.

Enjoy your travel.s Also, we encountered lots of toll roads in France. We just tapped in and out with our credit card. Very convenient.

KD - Thank you for your comments. You said you drove to Mont St Michel and stayed one night. Where did you stay and would you recommend it?

Our plans are still on, we do want to spend one night on MSM island.

Looking for recommendations of hotels and restaurants?

We understand that the rooms are costly and small but we are wanting the experience of staying at MSM.

Well, we went on this trip, and it was great!

The Flower Carpet in Brussels was awesome, especially the laser light show. Brugge was beautiful, as always. The beaches and the flag lowering ceremony at the American cemetery at Normandy were breath-taking. Mont Saint Michel was unbelievable, but the hotel was not that great. Monet's Garden was gorgeous. The stained glass at Sainte Chapelle in Paris was mind blowing. We ended our trip with an outstanding sunset dinner cruise on the Seine river. The trip was much better than we could have imagined.

The only thing that didn't go as planned was buying gas for the rental car in France. We stopped at one very well known brand of gas station and it would not accept the same credit card we had been using the whole trip. We went to a different very well know brand gas station and had the same issue. We tried four different credit cards and two debit cards, and none of them worked. We had to find an ATM and get Euros. It wasn't a big deal and just cost us some time. We thought it was strange and wanted to let other know about it.

Our next trip? A Windstar cruise in November from Lisbon to Barbados on a 4-mast sailing ship.

Patrick,
I am glad your trip was successful. Felicitations!