France trip advise needed.

Your plans are far too aggressive. Upon arriving CDG, take a train to Rouen, or Bayeux, spend the night, and rent a car the following day or, better yet, the day after. It would be virtually impossible to complete the itinerary you have suggested in 3 days. You'll see nothing other than autoroute. This is a 5 or 6 day itinerary at the fastest.

My dad and I now splurge and book a room for the day before our arrival so that we can check in as soon as we arrive. So if we are arriving on Tuesday am we book our stay starting Monday . We just let the hotel know that we won't arrive till the morning. You might want to consider that. Also have you looked into package tours for Normandy. You might find those easier. We did one sponsored by the Peace Museum in Caen. We stayed overnight in Bayeaux and traveled by train

Driving after a long overnight flight not advisable
( unless you are coming from somewhere other than SF?)

First 3 days in your plan is trying to cover far too much ground, lots and lots of boring driving
Too much for 3 days

MSM to Amboise is about 4 hours
You won’t have time for much mire than the chateux there

At least take a train to Rouen and pick up car next day

I am in France now and the itinerary that you have is doable, it might be too much for your parents, especially if they do not sleep on planes. I would recommend that you focus on at most 2 areas, either Normandy or Loire and Paris, not try to do both. You will all be more relaxed if you stick to fewer areas. It will reduce the amount of time you are in transit.

Thank you both for your reply!

I am coming from SF.

Regarding packing too much in 3 days, we are not considering visiting Honfleur and we are keeping Bayeux optional during this trip (will decide based on how much time we have on Day 2 after leaving Rouen). We plan to stay on MSM on Day 2 of our Normandy+Loire trip. We also likely won't be visiting any D-day beaches, as it doesn't make any sense to rush from one place to the other.
Also in Loire, we will likely not visit all the chateaus, as that can be a lot of walking for my parents even with a car. On Day 3, we will drive from MSM to Amboise, and explore the town in the evening. On Day 4 of Normandy+Loire, our current plan is we will visit one or two chateaus based on what time we leave our Airbnb, and how much time and energy we will have, before heading to Paris in the afternoon. We are totally fine with only Rouen, MSM, and just one or two of chateaus near Amboise.

Ami,
The following drive times do not take into consideration time to find your way to your destinations in a town or city, locate parking (not always easy in France), stopping for gas/meals/bathrooms, and checking in and out of lodgings:
Rouen to Mont St Michel -3 hours
Mont St Michel to Amboise-4 hours
Amboise to Paris (Orly airport, e.g.)-3 hours.
And these are optimum times.

You will spend half of each day traveling from one town to another, and haven't given yourself any chance to adapt to a 9 hour time difference and possible jet lag, plus a possible loss of one night's sleep on the flight from the US. This sounds like a one week trip, and I fear there is too much packed into it. When I was in my 20s I might have been able to do this, but still wouldn't have enjoyed it.
What do your parents expect from this trip? Are all of you aware of the size of France, the distances involved, and the time it may take to see the things you are traveling there to see? You may want to have a discussion about your plans.

We are all different, and this may work out best for you and your parents, but please take a look at the suggestions here on the forum.
Bonne chance!

Wow! This is much. The itinerary is a lot about getting from place to place but not leaving room for experiencing and enjoying. So with your plan you get to Rouen in time to check in to the hotel exhausted and leave the next morning for MSM about 3+ hours away.

I'd spend the first 3 days in Paris. If you land at 10am, you'll likely be at city center by noon. So likely 3 hours until check in. Drop off luggage then explore for 3 hours or do what we do, reserve your room for the night prior (let the hotel know your plan) and check in to your room that day of arrival as soon as you get there.

Thanks so much, Judy! You're absolutely right to raise these points. I'm not very familiar with France myself, apart from a short 5-day visit to Paris a few years ago and this will be my parents' first time there. Based on our past trips together, I know they’re not too keen on visiting every major site, church, or museum.

For this Normandy and Loire trip, the idea is to give them and myself a taste of France beyond Paris (and Nice which we also plan to visit), more of the countryside, and some cultural flavor. So if we decide to visit France again, we know a bit more, and decide where we want to spend more time during our next visit. That said, your note about the drive times, logistics, and jet lag is really helpful.

KD, thanks, also considering your advise to stay in Paris after landing. Thanks!

The problem then becomes losing a day at the end of the trip. Assuming you're leaving out of Paris, you'll need to be IN Paris the day before. You never want to depend on getting to another city for a departing flight on the day of.

I'd do the train to Rouen or Bayeux on arrival, rent the car there etc. as recommended.

Rouen to Mont St Michel is more realistically a 4 hour drive. To Bayeux is 2.5 hours. I've done both in the past month. And Rouen is a great city to spend some time in. At the tempo you're planning it would be best to avoid it all together. (If you're hotel doesn't have a specific parking place reserved for you it can take a long time to find one in the city.) You'll spend the better part of an hour just getting around Paris from CDG. It's at least 4.5 hours from Paris to Mont St Michel. This time of year there's a fair amount of road construction, lots of motorhomes and caravans, and the times in apps like Google just don't work that well. Understand too that much of those routes is regulated by "average speed zones" monitored by cameras.

Ami,

After reading the rest of the posts and your response, I have some more detailed suggestions based on our time thus far in Bayeux and Amboise. We too arrived from California (SFO) mid morning. I would suggest that you take the train to Bayeux when you arrive. You can take a taxi to the Saint Lazare train station and then it is 2 hour 15 minute train ride. If you decide to do this, PM me and I will give you the information on how we timed our trip so we had little wait time. Have your hotel arrange a taxi or if you need a good service, let me know and I will provide the name of a really good service that uses What’sApp, so easy to reserve and communicate. Arrange to stay at a hotel in the center of town to reduce the amount of walking. Bayeux is a lovely town and a good relaxing place to stay your first night. You can then perhaps stay in Bayeux as a base town and take a shuttle to Mont. St. Michel (is it about 1.5 hour drive and Churchill Hotel has a good shuttle service which gives you 3 hours in MSM. Note that MSM is very hilly so it may be challenging to get up all the way to the Abbey if your parents have mobility challenges. If MSM is too much, then you can stay in Bayeux and there is plenty to do.

You can then rent your vehicle in Bayeux and drive through to Amboise. It will take you about 3 hours and 15 minutes if you don’t stop. If you can stay in Amboise a few nights, then you can use it as a base camp to visit some of the Chateaus and Amboise is a lovely town to explore with its own Chateaus and Clos Luce, the home of Leonardo Di Vinci and has an amazing park and museum as well. Drop your vehicle off before you leave Amboise and take the train to Paris.

SandyO, you have come up with a great plan that minimizes driving, which is especially important after a long flight.

I also travel from the West Coast and learned to limit driving on arrival in Europe to 1 hour. I’ve been to Bayeux twice and it’s a really nice town to explore. I’ve heard good things about the shuttle to MSM from the Churchill Hotel. The center of Bayeux is very walkable. You might also consider taking the train from Bayeux to Tours (Saint-Pierre-des Corps station) and pick up your car there. Amboise is less than a 30 minute drive from there. Return the car in Tours and take a direct train to Paris. If your only goal is to see a couple of chateau you could probably find organized trips from Amboise, so just take the train to Amboise from Bayeux and eliminate the need for a car all together.

SandyO has solved it for you. You eliminate having too many hotel changes and too much driving by following her plan. You need to drop Rouen and go directly to Bayeux by train the first day. Bayeux is interesting, too, and Rouen will be there for the next trip. Sign up in advance for the Hotel Churchill day trip to Mont Saint Michel from Bayeux as SandyO said. Limit your driving the way she suggested and then return to Paris by train from the Loire Valley.

What you have planned doesn't give you a taste of the countryside because you are spending so much time driving. Relax in the train from Paris to Bayeux and from Amboise back to Paris and let Hotel Churchill get your to Bayeux and back.

Unless your parents are alumni of Flixbus in the US and say they want to take one, I wouldn't put them in a Flixbus. The drivers always claim the toilets aren't working and you are cramped in a seat smaller than a plane economy seat. We've had drivers who spoke neither English nor French, no working toilet. Not ideal after crossing the Atlantic, a situation where it's important to keep drinking water.

And you asked about luggage at Versailles. This eliminates that problem because if you want to go to Versailles, you do it for the day from Paris. No lugging luggage.

Thank you so much everyone! I am very grateful for all your help!
After reading all your feedback and thinking this through, I have decided to stay in Paris after landing.

@SandyO, thank you so much for suggesting the saint pierre des corps station from Bayeux. I was trying to find a public transport or train from Caen to Tours, and was having a real hard time.

So now, this is a plan:
Day 1: Land in Paris
Day 2 & 3: Paris
Day 4: Take an early morning train to Tours. Rent a car for a day. Visit Château de Chambord. In the evening, explore Amboise.
Day 5: In the morning (before noon), visit Château Chenonceau. Return the rental car at Tours. Catch a train from saint pierre des corps to Caen. Pick up the rental car. Drive to MSM (will try to stay on MSM or nearby).
Day 6: Visit the MSM Abbey. Drive back to Caen. Return the rental car. Take a train back to Paris. Catch an overnight train to Nice.

During our next visit to France, we will visit rest of the Normandy places. As much as I wish we had more time to spend in Loire and Normandy, in this trip we only have enough time for a quick visit to get a taste of both these regions.

Does this sound more reasonable/doable?

Ami, you have made some sound decisions. Bonne chance et bon voyage!

After a long flight, trying to rent a car and drive 1-1/2 hours to Rouen in an unfamiliar country would be extremely stressful. Yet getting from CDG to Rouen by train isn't a straight shot, since you have to go into Paris to get the train at Gare St. Lazare which will entail a lot of dragging your luggage off and on trains when you're punchy from the long flight. Taking a three hour bus trip coming off of a ten hour flight would be the most stressful of all (at least to me!)

IMO, staying in Paris the first couple of days is probably the less stressful option, even if you can't check in early at your hotel. Keep in mind that by the time you collect your luggage, clear customs, get on the train and into the city, it might be closer to check in time than you think. If not, you can relax in the hotel lobby or stroll around and have some lunch while you're waiting. That is still FAR less stressful than any of the above options.

After that, it still sounds like a whirlwind to drive 1-1/2 hours to Rouen, then drive from there to Mont St-Michel the next day (about a 5 hour round trip assuming you're going back to Rouen that night), then driving another 2-3 hours the day after that to Amboise, and the very next day drive 2-1/2 hours back to Paris. Add in the time to find and check into your hotel at each place and get settled - that barely leaves you half a day in each of those places.

This schedule sounds kind of rough, and if you're traveling with your older parents, you might want to consider choosing Normandy OR the Loire Valley, but not try to fit both of those, plus Paris, into a five or six day trip.