We will be arriving at CDG at approximately 7 AM on a weekday in late March and picking up a rental car. Our initial destination is Bayeux (we're coming back to Paris later for six nights) where we plan to stay several nights while making day trips around Normandy. Assuming we clear Customs without trouble and get the car with no complications, we may be on the road between 9 - 10 AM. We would like to avoid driving in Paris. Can anyone suggest a more northerly route and are there some interesting sites along the way where we might stop? We can't check in to our accomodations until later in the afternoon so we don't need to get to Bayeux right away.
*****I probably should have added that we didn't really have the option of picking up the car in a smaller town. We're on a Delta "deal" that was way too good to pass up but it locks us into picking up and returning the car to CDG.