We are very excited to go visit D-day beaches in Normandy in early Aug. from Paris. After researching, it seems like most full day tour start around 8-9am so we are planning to stay 1 night in Bayeux. We are hoping to get to Mont St. Michel as well during that trip.
Anybody know who can do half day trip for Mont St. Michel ? We are thinking to take train to Bayeux in the morning on day 1 and take Mont St. Michel half day trip and over night at Bayeux and next day 2 , full day D-day beach tour and go back to Paris in the evening.
Is this something doable?
and What is your recommendation for tour company to do both?
Thank you.
Posted by
Chicago
8164 posts
It is doable but you should overnight at Mont st Michel instead of Bayeux. That way you can experience it without the crowd. I would avoid being at Mt St Michel between 10 am and 3 pm when all the other folks doing day trips are arriving.
The D Day area won't have the crowd spoiling it since there is more space to cover.
Posted by
OP
32 posts
Thank you, Jazz-Travels. It seems like you need to have car to get to Mont St. Michel from Bayux. We are trying to avoid renting car. Do you know any way to stay over night at Mont St. Michel without renting car and back to Bayeux for D-day tour?
Posted by
Chicago
8164 posts
Book a hotel on the Mt St Michel . Take the train yourself from Paris to the stop Pontorson Mt St Michel. There are shuttle buses waiting at that train stop that take passengers arriving on regular trains from Paris to the outside of Mt St Michel and then you walk in to your hotel. I took the train from Pontorson Mt St Michel to Bayeux. But I stayed a night in Bayeux after touring the D-Day beaches. This might not work for you. Not sure if there are tours of the D-Day tours from Mt St Michel. Someone on the forum will chime in.
Posted by
Ohio
1601 posts
@Jazz, that is not going to work for Sunshine. She will need to be back in Bayeux by 8 or 8:30 to take her D Day tour.
If you can train to Bayeux the evening before, you could take the Bayeux shuttle, it leaves Bayeux at 8:30 am to MSM and then back at 3:30. Then you could spend the late afternoon seeing sites in Bayeux (tapestry and cathedral), have a nice dinner and have a full day D Day tour the next day.
The other possibility would be to hire a private driver to meet you at the Bayeux train station to take you to MSM and back.
I am taking a private tour with Overlord. I haven't gone yet so I can't give you a recommendation.
Have a great trip!
Posted by
OP
32 posts
Thank you Vandrabrud. Taking train night before sounds good, but then that would make 2 nights trip. And I like the private driver idea as well. Do you have any idea how and where to find to hire private driver?
Posted by
Ohio
1601 posts
mydaytrip.com?
Posted by
OP
32 posts
@Vandrabrud. Thank you for that info. But it seems over budget for us. Maybe renting a car needs to be considered after all.
Posted by
Wyckoff, NJ, USA
7885 posts
Neither place is, say, a suburb of Paris. The Invasion beaches are actually a variety of nearby locations, which can easily fill a full day. Have you used Google Maps to learn that it is 71 miles or almost 2 hours between Bayeux and MSM? How much would an all-day, 150-mile Uber be at home? One night is an insufficient allocation for your itinerary. I found our drive from MSM to Bayeux to be tedious, even though we broke it up with Coutances and Vitré.
Pre-pandemic, some posters here who didn't want to rent a car used a daytrip van product run by the Hotel Churchill in Bayeux.
Posted by
Middletown, RI
1227 posts
What Tim said.