So we will come by train from spending our time in the south of France, back to Paris. One couple has to catch a plane to go home (Canada) and hubby and I will carry on as we wish to tour Normandy and Brittany for another week. Suggestions on train travel, where to stay for the 4 of us when we arrive back in Paris, before we split up, do we carry on and leave them,etc. Can we train on through to bayeaux, say. Or what. Just looking for some suggestions while we get our s***t together.
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Chicago
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They need to be in Paris the day before their flight; if you want to spend a night in Paris with them then any central hotel is fine. If they will arrive fairly late in Paris then it might make sense for them to get a hotel at the airport and for you to just head for Bayeux. Trains to Bayeux depart from St. Lazare; your train from the south will arrive,probably at Gare du Lyon but that will be clear on your ticket. Be sure you give yourself plenty of time to make the transfer. A hotel we like which is near the RER B for them to head for the airport is Henri IV Rive Gauche. It is near the river and Notre Dame and near many good restaurants (and also near many bad restaurants on Rue Hutchette, so avoid that.)
I would pick up a car to tour Normandy in Caen or Bayeux. Rental agencies have limited hours in those places so if you are doing this on a Sunday for example, you might want to pick up the car in Paris and drive north. Here are some of the things we did when we had 5 nights for Normandy:
https://janettravels.wordpress.com/category/normandy/
We also did a full day Overlord Tour of the beaches and even though we had the car, were happy to have the tour. It is something you could easily do yourself with a little homework -- we had planned the trip at the last minute and hadn't organized ourselves to drive to the beach sites and so did it the easy way. I had not yet read 'All the Light you Cannot See' and now wish we had also added St. Malo to our touring.