We are planning a day trip from Paris in May to the D-Day Beaches and American Cemetery. It looks like there is no direct train from Paris and every search I do, suggests a different route to get there.
Any suggestions as to the easiest way, if there is such a thing?
Thanks in advance!
It's not just a matter of the easiest way; it's a matter of how early you want to start out in the morning. Unless a member of your travel party is highly knowledgeable about the subject, I recommend that you take one of the guided small-group tours, most of which are offered from Bayeux. That will be a lot more informative and more efficient than trying to drive yourselves around the expansive area. (Was that what you were thinking of? Public transportation doesn't work very well for this purpose if your time is limited.)
It's far easier to pull this off if you spend at least the night before the tour up in Bayeux. However, I know that Overlord Tours offers a tour designed for people who are traveling up from Paris (on quite an early train) on the day of the tour. That tour picks people up right at the Bayeux Train station and drops you off back at the station at the end of the day. It will be a long day, but you will see a lot.
I don't know where you have been looking at rail schedules, but for this purpose you should be using the SNCF website. I believe it's too early to buy May tickets, but you can check the schedule for the appropriate day of the week in the first week of March. You should be able to see all the trains running for the day you select. Perhaps a few more will be running in May; I don't know about that. If you buy shortly after they go on sale and are willing to commit to non-refundable/non-changeable tickets, it appears that you may pay as little as 30 euros round-trip, per person.
Edited to add: I see multiple direct trains, but only the 7:06 AM departure would get you to Bayeux early enough for the tour I mentioned above. Which incidentally probably is not offered every day.
Please read the 1st reply carefully, it has about everything you need to know.
The main take-away from the 1st reply is: you can't go from Paris to the "D-Day Beaches" by train, there's no train service out to the Beaches or the American Cemetery.
Just read the 1st reply.
I agree with acraven. It's doable as a day trip as she described, but I wouldn't recommend it. The D Day beaches are spread out over 60 kms from Sword to Utah beaches, and there is very little in the way of public transportation once there. If one of your group is a WW II expert, you could always rent a car in Caen, and travel DIY. Otherwise you are better off with an organized tour out of Bayeux. Having spent several days exploring this area (with an avid historian), I'd recommend trying for at least an overnight stay in Bayeux to have more time.
Seeing the beaches and the American Cemetery from Paris is a very long day trip and is best served by staying over night. You can easily spend three full days exploring the WW2 museums and seeing the beaches in this area.
It’s about 2.5 hours each way from St Lazare rail station to Bayeux, plus you have to get from your accommodation to the station plus find your platform, which will likely take,say, another hour.
Bayeux to the American Cemetery is about half an hour’s drive. That means just getting to and from Paris to Normandy will take about 8 hours door to door. Taking a tour would be the best use of your time whilst there, if the timing coincides with your trains.
Thank you all for your replies.
Unfortunately we only have one day with which to do this visit, if we choose to do so. I had heard it's a long day, as just a day excursion.
I will definitely look up the tour groups from Bayeux. Neither of us are experts on WWII or have been to the area before - - and getting up and going early is not a problem -- so that may be the best option for us.
Thank you again!
I took the train direct from St. Lazare to Bayeux. I'm not sure if they have a train that leaves early enough to get to Bayeux and to be able to catch a tour on the same day. If you can't spend a night in Bayeux before your tour I would highly recommend skipping the trip. That would be too bad because there are some great tours. I used Bayeux Shuttle and would highly recommend them. http://www.bayeuxshuttle.com/summer-service/1.htm
Thank you, threadwear. I checked out the link you provided and it looks like most of the tours for the day we will be there are already sold out. The few that aren't leave at 8:45. From my search of the train website, the first train that leaves Paris would put us in Bayeaux at 9:16. So too late.
I'll definitely think hard on our options.
Thank you.
I think the Overlord tour may be the only full-day tour that works for people coming up from Paris. I've never heard about any other companies that offer such an option.
I'm a bit surprised to hear that May tours are sold out. I wonder whether some companies haven't set their 2019 prices yet and just aren't ready to take bookings yet. Of course, it could be spill-over from the 75th-anniversary celebrations in early June.
I'm a bit surprised to hear that May tours are sold out.
Could it be the ramp-up to the 75th anniversary in early June?
We did this one https://www.pariscityvision.com/en/normandy-landing-beaches in 2006 on our first trip to Paris and for a day trip it was a great way to see what you can in a day. The museum in Caen is great, one of the best I have been to. One day is tough to see much but this one certainly hit the highlights for us.
Hi psychoticbooks, we did a day trip to the D-Day beaches two years ago and it worked out great. We booked in advance with Normandy Sightseeing Tours. It was easy to take the train from Paris to Bayeux. We had a quick sandwich at the little café across from the train station, then waited a few minutes for the tour company shuttle to pick us up. The afternoon tour hit the highlights, not optimal but it was all the time we had to spend there. We took the train back to Paris in time for a late dinner. My friend said it was the best day of our 3 week trip to France. Have fun!
https://www.normandy-sightseeing-tours.com/d-day-tour/tour-a2-omaha-beach.html
What about renting a car for 24 hours? The roads are well marked we used a gps. There are tolls on the highway.
This is another way but , as usual, there is a price which you have to consider whether this option is worth it or not.
My 2 star hotel at Gare du Nord has the usual brochures on Paris, Versailles, and so on. One of these brochures deals with a bus tour from Paris to the D-Day beaches. Like other brochures I've only looked through this particular one, never took this option so I can't tell you of any experience.
I've not visited the D-Day area per se, only to Caen and Bayeux by train from Paris. In visiting the D-Day beaches I am not interested in going with a guided tour, will do it with family members and a rental car when I am not traveling solo in Paris.
If you're looking for a private tour with a very knowledgeable guide, Dale Booth has an option where he meets your party at the train station. Actually there are three options: Full Day American tour, British tour or Canadian tour. But he sells out pretty far in advance.
https://dboothnormandytours.com/index.php/day-tour-arriving-from-paris/
My family wound up choosing to do a week in Normandy (and skipped Paris) on our first trip to France, spent a week in Paris on another trip. We looked at guidebooks and videos and ended up splurging on Dale's two-day American tour, worth every penny.
A bus tour from Paris will mean more time in transit than taking a train to Bayeux and picking up a tour there. In addition, I think the tours from Paris are big-bus tours, so more time spent unloading and reloading at every stop. The tours I'm aware of from Bayeux use vans.
Since you only have one day, would you consider a private tour? On our first trip to Normandy, we took the earliest morning train to Caen. I hired Sylvain Kast as our guide and he was amazing; fluent English; passionate & knowledgeable about the history; great advance communication' flexible as to schedule and accommodating for what we wanted to see. Truly the best money we spent! http://www.d-day-experience-tours.com/
I agree with Donna. The day trip is totally do-able. I had the same issue trying to book a direct train well in advance. By the time those tickets were on sale, most of the recommended tour agents -- Overlord, Dale Booth, etc. -- were booked. We went with Normandy Landing Tours.
https://normandy-landing-tour.com/
It's not the slickest operation, but we were perfectly happy with the welcome we received from Jean Marc. Guide Ramon took about half a dozen of us around to a few of the major sights -- Arromanches, Omaha Beach, the American Cemetery, Pointe du Hoc -- efficiently and knowledgeably. It was definitely a quick-hits-highlights-tour, but that's what we had time for.
Upon arriving on the morning train from Saint Lazare to Bayeux, we made our way to the nearby Hotel de la Gare, where Jean Marc assured us we had time to walk into town to see the Bayeux Tapestry before the tour. We were so glad we did, as the Tapestry is one of the most well-presented artifacts I've seen, and the town is lovely. We walked back to the hotel, had a quick lunch and were off on the afternoon tour. Afterward, Ramon dropped us off near the Bayeux Cathedral (Our choice. We could have gone back to the hotel). We had time to grab a gelato, walked back to the train station in plenty of time and were back in Paris for a final dinner before flying home the next day.
As many have said, it would have been wonderful to have more time to see these sights, but we had only one day and I'm very, very glad we spent it this way. It was for certain a long day, but most worthwhile.
I did what Curt did but with City Wonders - because of the train strikes it worked wonders. https://citywonders.com/paris-tours/normandy-tour-from-paris
I booked early and got a discount.
We did an excellent tour given by the Peace Museum in Caen. very early train to Bayaeux- picked up at train. Morning at Museum with excellent guide and lunch, then mini van to American cemetery and beaches. return in evening to train. We did an overnight in Bayeux which I would recommend as it is a lovely place. We took an afternoon train back to Paris- but you could easily take a morning train back.
I did a day trip to Normandy in 2017. Started from Paris Gare L'est to Caen where I met the tour group guide (had already booked to tour in USA before heading to Paris). Mini-bus took us the the Museum in Caen then to Pointe Du Hoc, the Normandy American Cemetery, Omaha Beach and Arromanches-les-Bains. The ride back to Caen from Arromanches-les-Bains was breathtaking. Also a shout-out to the French tour guide who was superb. A lot to do in one day. Glad I went, would do it again, but if I ever had to chance to return I'd make it a 2-3 day stay in Caen and rent a car. The mini-bus tour was a little rushed getting us from one site to the next.
(No insult meant to the OP, this is for future readers of this thread.)
As noted, this cannot be done independently as a same-day trip without a car. Even as an independent overnight, local public transit would take hours away from touring time. There are more possible visits than you can do in two daylight days, and almost none of the sites are walkable from the previous stop. In summer, the parking lots are often full.
Even in years when there is no big invasion anniversary, the, expensive, guided tours book up and sell out way in advance. This is not a last-minute project.
The small-group van tours offered by Overlord are about 100 euros for a full day. To me that isn't expensive, but YMMV.
