Day trip to Normandy from Paris

It will be a 14 hour day with maybe 7 of those hours on the bus traveling to and from Paris and between sights.

Anything is possible! Maybe not that enjoyable after trains, and buses and cars and people and cold weather. We have returned from several days in the Bayeux area and feel, that while we saw everything we wanted, there was more still to see. Exhaustingly so, such incredible stories that can't be appreciated in a short fly by. As a suggestion, train to Caen, and do their war Muesum , it was fantastic, and don't miss the Invalides in Paris. If yu do these, you will appreciate the day and take a small idea with you of the amazing stories of people , war and history,

Hi rp, Normandy really deserves more than a day but, if that's all the time you have, it can be done.

We visited the area as a day trip from Paris in May 2014. We took a morning train direct from Paris to Bayeaux and arrived at noon. There aren't many options for a quick lunch so we had a sandwich at the café across from the train station.

The tour company picked us up at the train station at 1 p.m. and we did a half day tour that included Omaha Beach and the American Cemetery. There were about six other people on the mini bus tour. It was brief but informative. The company dropped us back off at the train station at 6 p.m. and we were back in Paris by 9 p.m. Just in time for dinner and to see the Eiffel Tower illuminated.

Everything worked out perfectly and my friend said that this was one of the best days of the entire vacation.

We booked the tour with Normandy Sightseeing Tours (http://www.normandy-sightseeing-tours.com). They also offer full-day and multi-day tours.

As Donna said, the D-Day beaches and other sites deserve and could well fill more time, but if you have one day and one day only, it's a totally do-able trip.

We took the RS Best of Paris tour last June and spent one extra day in order to visit Normandy. You can book train tickets direct from Gare St. Lazare to Bayeux. We arrived in Bayeux mid-morning, had enough time to quickly walk into town to see the famed Bayeux Tapestry (well worth the effort) and have a bite for lunch before our half-day tour. Many people have recommended Overlord tours and that would have been my first choice, but it and several others were booked. We reserved with Normandy Landing Tours -- http://normandy-landing-tour.com/ -- and were perfectly satisfied. I would love to go back again and spend time on a more in-depth experience, but if that never happens, I'm glad we made the effort to do it in the time we had.

After the tour, we still had a little time to stroll briefly around Bayeux, poke our heads into the lovely cathedral as a choir was singing, grab some gelatos and hoof it back to the train station with time to spare. We were back in Paris by 8 p.m. or so and had pizza and wine for our last meal at the Italian bistro near our hotel.

Was it a long day? You bet. Do I regret it? Not for a moment.

We had a week for our first time in Paris, and barely had a day for Versailles. Are you certain you will never return to France? I'm lucky enough to have visited other areas on later visits. BTW, there are plenty of traces of WW II in Paris itself. (Not to mention many other wars.)

Just want to confirm what several other posters have said. It's much better to stay a few days in Normandy if you can. But if you can't, then take the train to Bayeux and have a tour company pick you up there for a half-day tour. Don't try to do it yourself, and don't book a bus tour from Paris since you'll spend more time on the bus than you will at the D-Day sites.

There is also a tour company that will pick you up at the Caen train station for a full-day tour and drop you at the Bayeux train station when done. You have to get train Paris to Caen and Bayeux to Paris. Tour picks up at Caen station at 9:40am so you would need an early (7am) train from Paris. It drops at Bayeux station at about 5:30pm so you'd have to get a later train than that from Bayeux back to Paris. It can be done. Company is Bayeux Shuttle and is recommended in RS guidebook. It's an alternative worth looking at. Personally, I'd take approx 2 hrs on the train over a 3 hour bus ride any day but it all depends on whether you want to do things on your own or leave it to a tour company.

We did this on Monday last week. We used Normandy Sight Seeing Services, a private guide service. We had 4 people so this was about the same per person as the pay by the seat guide services. Duncan picked us up at Carentan station at 930(left Paris about 7 by train) toured us around and then dropped us at the station a bit after 5, had time to grab a snack and got the train back in time for a late dinner in Paris. It was an early rise morning and a long day, but we had a great day. I am sure we could have spent a few days there, but in our limited holiday time this is what we could do and it worked well.

I took a Paris Vision tour from Paris to Normandy. It was a 12 hour tour and I really enjoyed it. The tour guide narrated the tour on the bus but let us explore the sites on our own which I really liked. If I had to stay with the guide, I would never have had time to get down to Omaha Beach from the Cemetery. Ponce du Hoc was amazing, but visiting the cemetery was the highlight. It was so moving. I was in Paris for nine days and the tour to Normandy and the invasion beaches was the highlight of the vacation. I can't recommend it enough. It was a long day but well worth it.

My mother, daughters, and I did a one-day D-Day tour from Paris in July. It was a long but wonderful day, and if one day is all you have, it is manageable and worth the trip. We booked the all-day tour through Bayeux Shuttle. Link here: http://www.bayeuxshuttle.com I chose this tour after a bit of research. It got great reviews on Trip Advisor, had the itinerary we wanted, fit our budget, and included a delicious lunch at a little Normandy cottage. We took the train from Paris to Bayeux in the morning and met the tour there. Our tour guide, Lloyd, was amazing--an encyclopedia of knowledge. It was a moving and incredible day, truly a highlight of our trip, and we are glad we made the trek.

It is realistic but not ideal. If you have not already, you should consult tripadvisor.com for recommendations tour company from Paris to Normandy.

A day trip to The Normandy Beaches is like a day trip to the Grand Canyon. You look over the edges ... go wow! ... and leave, but never really experience the place.

We stayed 2 nights in Bayeux. Did an all day tour (booked thru Viators) to really see Normandy, the beaches, cemeteries, small towns where historic events happened on D-Day or a couple days after.
Got to walk on a few of the beaches (just short walks to say we did it). It filled the day 9:00 - 5:00.
We did a similar tour the next day to Mount St. Michel - also really amazing and had a great lunch there (crepes and omelets)
If you could possibly schedule more than one day - I would recommend it.
We took the train from Paris to Bayeux ( train change in Caen).
Viator is a consolidator and they book with several of the tour companies. I think we were booked with Normandy Tours? our guide really made both trip .... he was so knowledgeable about all the history, sites, things to look for. I'll look for my previous post on this subject to get the name of the company we were booked with.
Found my previous post -
"We booked a full-day tour of Normandy (beaches, cemeteries, villages, scenery.....) through viators and they booked us with a local company named Normandy Sightseeing. Our guide was a young man named Adrian and he was excellent He picked us up at our hotel in Bayeux and we spent the day in a nice 8 passenger van. We had plenty of time at each site and his info was great.
The next day we had booked a tour with the same company/same guide for Mount St. Michel and again, It was perfect. At the end of the second day he took us to a small wine bar in Bayeux and we all enjoyed tasting several wines and were served delicious appetizers"