I am traveling with my husband to tour the WWII sites of Normandy June 18-22. It seems that reservations are expected in France, but I don't know how to go about doing this in Normandy. We are staying in a vacation home in St. Come-de-Fresne near Arromanches, not a hotel. We will be traveling by car at our own pace, so it will be difficult to be in a particular town at a particular restaurant at a particular time. Most of the restaurants I have looked at only offer a phone number for reservations, and I'm terrible at making reservations in French from the U.S. We will be jet-lagged on the Wednesday June 18, staying around Arromanches Thursday June 19, in Bayeux the evening of June 20 but going back to Arromanches, and our longest daytrip to Utah Beach and back on Saturday June 21. Are there enough casual dining places that we don't need reservations? Should we plan on eating near Arromanches every night Looks like about a 15 minute drive to Courseulle-sur-Mer, but i see several restaurants there.
Posted by
Normandie
391 posts
A few thoughts:
You will be traveling in a highly touristic area with close ties to people who speak English.
You will be in an area generally lacking destination restaurants, which generally require reservations long in advance.
Some restaurants may accept reservations online; some may not.
My recommendation would be to call them after you arrive, working through a day or so before you hope to visit the restaurant, and once they answer say "Bonjour. Parlez-vous anglais?" (bone zhur, parlay voo ahn glay)
And when the person on the other end of the line says oui (wee) or yes, proceed to make your reservations. It may not work at 100 percent of the places you hope to dine, but it will work at most of them.
Posted by
Somewhere out there
150 posts
I was out with company last June in Normandie and had no problem with no reservations for casual dining. Arromanches is full of very touristy eateries. Down the road in Port en Bessin there were a number of pleasant places to eat. Go early (by 7pm or earlier) and you should get a seat. Everyone will give you examples of haute cuisine but in the end if you want a casual meal it’s still going to be a pleasant experience.
If you want a nice meal in Bayeux try Hotel Lion d’Or . The staff at the well known Rapiere, down the street, recommended it when they were booked up. A reservation there would be appropriate and can readily be made in English.
Posted by
11 posts
We had Bayeux as our home base It's important to make reservations in advance -- you should not feel insecure about calling. Most people speak English anyway as that whole area is used to American, British, and Canadian tourists!
We celebrated my birthday at L'Angle Saint Laurent in Bayeux, Michelin rated and it was wonderful!
We also ate at Moulin de la Galette and Pommier which were also fantastic. Do your restaurant homework by check opening days, times, and locations. Remember, French gastronomy is rightly among the very best in all the world, so enjoy! Unfortunately, lunch is usually 12 - 2pm and dinner 7pm-9pm at many lovely restaurants -- so it is best to be prepared and make reservations in advance (not to mention many restaurants take one or two days off during the week, like Sunday and Monday or any other combo of days).
Posted by
Chicago
8883 posts
The time windows are important. We have had the unhappy experience of literally not being able to get lunch in a small French town because the cooks go home in the afternoon. Lunch is 12-2 and there is none served after that. In Paris, it is not problems as there are many options for getting something to eat off hours when restaurants are closed. In small towns there may literally be no place for lunch at 3.
Posted by
Long Beach, Ca, usa
1766 posts
MJinNC,
Since you are staying in a vacation home and have a car, I would get a cheap cooler (if possible) and take some food along with you for lunch. Keep a stash at the hone where you are staying. Bread, ham, cheese, premade quiches or sandwiches, wine, fruit, even granola, some sweets, bottles of water.....Voila, lunch! And in a pinch, dinner. For me, I wouldn't necessarily want to look for a restaurant for 2 meals each day. (Well, yes, I would love to eat that way, but if I am sightseeing, I may not want to take two hours out of each day for lunch.)
And as far as driving to dinner, here at home we will readily drive 30 minutes for dinner out. Longer for a special restaurant. Fifteen minutes is no big deal to those of us from the land of freeways. (As you probably know, when asked how far away something is in southern California, we answer by saying how long a drive takes, not how far away it is. I know, we are a bit weird here.)
You will have a great trip! Amusez-vous bien!
Posted by
239 posts
lf you can make your way to Bayeux, they have a lot of good restaurants there. So if one is full, you can go to another one. You are likely to get a table, especially if you arrive right at opening time (often at 7 pm.) but parking is a little difficult in Bayeux, althto there is a pretty big municipal parking lot at the edge of town closest to the train station. Peter
Posted by
Wyckoff, NJ, USA
8201 posts
I'd make the observation that it is difficult to have dinner in Vero Beach, Florida, in the winter, without a reservation. When we were sleeping in Bayeux, it appeared that the sit-down restaurants simply were too busy to get a table without a reservation. It wasn't a matter of snobbery or desire to exclude anyone. You simply could not get a table in the summer without a reservation. I agree that it's not that hard to do, but you might ask your hotel to make some of your reservations for you.
Yes, we walked around until we found a less ambitious restaurant that had space for us. But it was stressful. It's not like there are McDonalds to fall back on in the worst case.