We would LOVE to spice our UK trip with Normandy D-Day beaches and perhaps Mont St. Michele. Is it doable to catch ferry from Portsmouth to Cherbourgh or Le Havre or Caen or St. Malo and rent a car to drive to a gite I would love to rent for five nights for a group of 6? If so, which port would seem the best for my goal? How difficult is it for Americans to drive around the Normandy region to above sites? Theoretically, I love the idea of renting a Gite with 3 baths, 3 bedrooms, taking daytime drives to small quaint villages and stocking up on market goods for dinners back at Gite with a day set aside for D-Day beaches and another full day for Mont St Michele. And in a perfect world, a day in the Loire Valley as well. I would have to tack on a couple nights in that case, though. Thanks for any guidance.
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Check out this website:> http://www.brittany-ferries.co.uk/ferry-routes/ferries-to-france
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We took the overnight ferry from Portsmouth to St. Malo and loved the trip. But we bungled our car rental in St. Malo, so wound up taking the train to our next destination (Paris.) By not fully confirming the reservation, we faced an outrageous "day-of" fee. But the car rentals are right in the ferry terminal, so the first part of your plan looks good.
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Kansas
1175 posts
We left from Portsmouth toQuistreham, the actual port. There is a bus to Caen rail station where we had a reserved car from AutoEurope. We drove 12 miles to Churchill hotel in Bayeux the first night. We stayed at www.banbnormandie.com and drove all round easily from there, MSM is but 90 miles via motorway from Villers-Bocage. Odile has a separat house to rent that you might find fits your needs. Driving was so easy with our own gps on which we had loaded addresses and map coordinates of hotels, museums, D Day places, etc before leaving the US. Normandie villages are wonderful to explore and buy local goods for picnics along the way, drifting along the back roads ross country or along the coast. Go to tripadvisor.com Normandy forum for great tips from locals.