Ferry from UK

If you're renting a car from the UK intending to take it to France you may find that most rental companies won't allow it.

Here is a link to information from P and O ferries.
https://www.poferries.com/en/routes/dover-to-calais/travel-information/travelling-as-a-foot-passenger

DFDS no longer accept foot passengers without a car. I wouldn’t touch P&O with a barge pole after their disgusting behaviour last year with their staff.

I would take the Eurostar then head to Normandy.

It is true that on the Dover Calais route only P & O take foot passengers. I won't go within an astronomical unit of them. I have no faith in them at all since their abysmal actions and flagrant disregard of safety.

But Brittany Ferries, which go from Portsmouth to Caen and Cherbourg, both in Normandy, do take foot passengers. It isn't a short journey, but it does take you where you are going. You can get to Portsmouth by train from London, and Portsmouth has plenty to see and do.

Probably the fastest and possibly and overall easiest is to take the Eurostar train under the Channel to Paris, change by taxi, Métro or RER-E to gare St Lazare station and get the train for Caen if you want a car in Normandy or Bayeux if you don't.

Are you planning a WW-II tour of the invasion beaches or instead other parts of Normandy, like its farms, cidre, cheese, etc.?

How long have you got? Where in the UK are you starting from?

Also be aware that if the weather is bad, the sea can be very rough and the ferry could be canceled.

When I needed to get from London to Normandy, I took the Eurostar to Paris and then a train to the Normandy area. Exactly as Nigel pointed out.

I took the ferry years ago before Eurostar. I prefer Eurostar.

I've crossed the Atlantic with the tail end of storms rocking the ship, but that was nothing compared to crossing the channel in rough seas. How immune to seasickness are you?

We did it one year in late April in the opposite direction. It seemed to make sense at the time and lots of people do it, but I get VERY seasick and I would never do it again. One thing that we ran into on both ends was trying to get to and from the ferry terminal. It was a Sunday and taxis were scarce on either end. I know Portsmouth has ferry terminals close to town and trains, but our ferry did not dock there. We’d do the Eurostar/train if we were to do it again.

Thank you all for your help. We decided to do the train. We will start our journey in London where we would spend 5 days, then we will have 5 days in Normandy, then Paris and we will end our trip in Nice. I wanted to do a stop in Loire valley while we in Normandy, but not sure if we will have enough time. Any thoughts on this. Thank you

We took the ferry in the opposite direction, leaving our rental car in France because we wanted a UK-configured car for our UK leg of the trip. We had booked Caen-Portsmouth, but it was canceled on about 4 hours' notice and we had to race to Cherbourg to catch the only boat going that day, Cherbourg-Poole. We didn't find out until later the reason for the cancellation: labor dispute. It had nothing to do with the weather, which was fine and calm.

As for the Loire Valley, we loved it, but getting there from the Normandy coast takes a few hours, and you really need a car to enjoy visiting the various chateaux. I had dreamed of going there since childhood, so was very happy we got to do it, and I'd love to have more time there on another trip in the future. Just be aware the chateaux are fairly far apart and (as I think Rick says in the guidebook) you can only do justice to 2 per day, maybe 3 if they are close together.

I likewise had a ferry cancelled due to a strike. My ferry was Poole to Cherbourg, but we had to hoof it last minute to Portsmouth to catch a ferry to Ouistreham. I really like the idea of a ferry, but not the reliability of it.