Day Trip Paris to Normandy

shea,

I assume the purpose of the day trip is to see D-Day historic sights? I've never taken any of the tours you mentioned, but have researched Paris City Vision on a couple of occasions. To add to your sentence above, it will not only be a long day, but also an expensive day.

You'll only have a short time at a few of the sights, which will only provide a brief glimpse of the landings. If that's all you're looking for, a tour should work fine.

AFAIK, Viatour does not provide tours on their own, but contracts with other firms such as Paris City Vision.

While I've never done this particular trip, I can say that I really don't care for Paris City Vision. I prefer Paris-Trip because they have smaller groups.

I don't have personal experience except watching others on the bus tours at the D-Day beaches. Some companies use large buses and the driver makes everyone sweep the sand off their shoes before re-entering the bus after a stop by the beach. Large bus is probably cheaper than small-ish van, and you get less service from your tour guide, so it depends how much you're willing to spend.

One thing I would make sure of is to choose a tour that gives you at least 2 hours at the American Cemetery, preferably 3. There's lots to see there, both outdoors and inside the museum.

We used Victory Tours to visit the Normandy beaches, and loved it. We actually took an overnight ferry from Portsmouth, England the night before, did the tour, and then took the train back to Paris that night.

My observations from the day of the tour: 1) our tour guide (in a van with a handful of passengers) had been touring people forever and had a million stories to share - stories that had been told to him by the D-Day veterans over the years as he took them around. It was that level of experience that really made the day. 2) there are big bus tours, and I saw them in some of the places we visited. Young tour guide, bullhorn, big group of people. They were not at every stop we made, and I think it's because it would be hard to get that many people off the bus, to the beach, talked to, back to the bus, etc. - ie. the big bus folks didn't see a lot of what we saw, which is a shame, because I can't pick which stop I would have given up visiting because they are all very different 3) it was really easy to get to and from Paris for a day trip via the train.

In 2013 it was 170 euros for the two of us, I think six of us in the van. Doing a quick train ticket search, it's under 100 euros to get out there and back (Bayeux in the case of the tour company we used). A quick google search makes me feel that that's a really good deal.

Point is....I think there are several highly recommended small tour companies out there that will provide you with a better experience than you would get on a bigger tour.

I hope you have a wonderful day. We used the coke bottle we had leftover from lunch to bring some wet sand home, as well as some beautiful rocks from the beach - and I rarely bring home souvenirs.

Forgot to mention actual companies. I believe I got these from this forum way back in 2013, so I'm just re-gifting :)

We originally were going to tour with D-Day Battle Tours, but our plans changed and they were booked on the new date. They were highly recommended, both by RS and by some friends.

We toured with Victory Tours. Loved it. He was such a good story teller that four years later I find myself re-telling many of the stories he shared, details and all.

I was happy with my full-day Overlord Tour, which departed from Bayeux. There were nine of us, but some groups are a bit larger, I think. The company website indicates that it has a slightly shorter full-day tour that picks up at the Caen train station. You can get there from Paris by train the morning of the tour, though it would mean a rather early start. I don't know how often the Caen tour runs, but I believe it would allow you to see much more than a trip from Paris because the tour time doesn't include all your travel time between Paris and Normandy.