Itinerary Help Needed for Normandy

I've been to Normandy several times. Your destinations are spread all over the place--there's going to be a lot of driving no matter what you do. Keeping to your plan on renting a car in Caen and spending two nights in Bayeux, here's what I suggest.

Skip Giverny and do it as a day-trip from Paris.

When you rent the car in Caen, drive to Honfleur. If time, go on to Entretat on the other side of the river (but you may get tied up in traffic in Le Havre). Otherwise, skip Entretat and drive from Honfleur to Bayeux.

The next day visit the American Cemetery and enjoy Bayeux (there's more than the tapestry to entertain you).

On your drive to Mont St-Michel the next day, stop in Granville for the Dior Museum.

Have you thought about picking up your car at CDG and driving to Honfleur (stopping at Rouen on the way)? Spend the night in Honfleur - it is a lovely little town. The next day you could drive to Granville with a stop along the way at the American Cemetery. Spend the night in Granville and on the third day, drive to Mont. St. Michel. Make sure you stay on The Mont - not in the little town on the causeway. Staying on the Mont is absolutely magical. Then on the 4th, drive to Paris, drop your car at Orly and take a cab to your apartment in the city.

I was there in Feb with a group of 8. We booked a full-day tour of Normandy (beaches, cemeteries, villages, scenery.....) through viators and they booked us with a local company named Normandy Sightseeing. Our guide was a young man named Adrian and he was excellent He picked us up at our hotel in Bayeux and we spent the day in a nice 8 passenger van. We had plenty of time at each site and his info was great.
The next day we had booked a tour with the same company/same guide for Mount St. Michel and again, It was perfect. At the end of the second day he took us to a small wine bar in Bayeux and we all enjoyed tasting several wines and were served delicious appetizers
I don't normally book these types of tours - but my travel buds wanted to do these and I can't tell you how much I learned and enjoyed the 2 full day tours .
I think you can book directly with Normandy Sightseeing if you would prefer not to book thru a tour consolidator.

Especially as 1st-time travelers I think this is ambitious. So give it a try but don't be averse to making changes on the fly as you travel and see how things are going.

I'd echo the advice about renting the car at CDG . There is no direct train to Caen; you'd take the RER into Paris, make your way via metro to St Lazare station, then get on another train to Caen. Including buying RER/metro/train tickets and the inevitable waiting between connections this is probably at least a 4 hour journey, then you have to get the car. And I hope you're traveling light, you don't want to be wresting a lot of luggage doing this. If you want to do train planning https://www.bahn.com/i/view/USA/en/index.shtml is a good place to start.

The other poster suggested going from CDG to Honfleur by car. Since you're staying in Bayeux I'd go to Etretat, then to Honfleur to walk around and perhaps have dinner, then Bayeux. See https://goo.gl/uQ2fNZ Or you could play with other options like CDG -> Rouen -> Etretat -> Bayeux. By morning arrival I'm assuming you mean something like 8:30am so you can be behind the wheel driving by 10am.

Mont Saint Michel is very crowded during the day, especially in August. So Wed. is a great day for driving around and aim to be pulling in to MSM around 3-4pm as RS suggests. Drop you bags, go visit. We stayed across the bridge and thought it was fine with the frequent shuttles, but some like to stay right on MSM. In either case, eat dinner early since area restaurants like to seat people by 7pm. After dinner go back for the night views (it's beautiful lit up!) and the next morning you can even go back again before the crowds.

General advice: Either rent a car with a GPS, or (my suggestion) buy one in advance with European & US maps installed so you can practice with it at home. You should plot out a route that skirts Paris, the GPS may not do that, but it will be handy to have driving thru rural parts of Normandy and for guidance in general. Make sure you have a cellphone that will work in Europe in case you have car trouble.

I have considered renting a car at the airport, but so many people advise against this.

So, rethinking everything: Day 1 - Rent car at CDG, drive to Giverny, tour, eat lunch, drive to Rouen for the night. Day 2 - Drive to Honfleur, tour and have lunch, drive to MSM. Day 3 - Spend the morning at MSM and head to Granville for the afternoon. Drive to Bayeux for the night. Day 4 - Tour cemetery and beaches. In the afternoon either drop the rental car off in Caen and take the train to Paris or drive some place closer to Paris and drop the car. Thoughts?

As it make sence to avoid driving directly after a long distance flight, I am thinking more doing the trip in opposite direction. As your main interest is Le Mont-Saint-Michel you can take the TGV to Rennes (±2h 15) for picking up the car. Stay the night there, or on the mainland and having enough time / energy you can visit Granville the same day.

Agree with Bill, August is high season and Le Mont-Saint-Michel will be packed with tourists. Think too you can avoid the crowds with a visit in the evening and early morning. Staying on the island is very expensive but there are a whole lot of cheap B&B’s on the mainland. Early June mine in nearby Bas-Courtils was just €35 per night per person, breakfast included. The room was decent, clean, spacious and the hosts very friendly.

Next day walk around Le Mont-Saint-Michel early in the morning and then drive to the American Cemetery near Bayeux. You can visit Bayeux and east of Caen Beuvron-en-Auge. You can drive further to Deauville and follow the coastal route to Honfleur.

Final day you can drive to Étretat en drop off the car in Rouen (have to say that Rouen is not an easy city to drive through). After the visit take the train back to Paris in the afternoon / evening. Making a daytrip to Giverny from Paris will make things more easy, but you can make the decision the last day and for instance drop off the car closer to Paris.

At the day of arrival you can take the shuttle bus from CDG to Gare Montparnasse for catching the TGV. Book tickets for TGV as early as possible as prices go up as it works the same way as airline tickets. Finding good B&B’s you can use (however think the French version offers better options) http://en.gites-de-france.com/holiday-rentals-Normandy.html

Problem with renting at CDG is you have to drive around Paris after a long distance flight and that without any experience abroad.

Wil makes a good suggestion about getting from CDG to Rennes to pick up the car. Le Bus Direct (formerly Les Cars Air France) can take you from CDG to Gare Montparnasse, on the other side of Paris, very conveniently. Then you can get a fast train to Rennes. A better scenario for your jet-lag day than driving to Normandy on your own.

But be sure to allow plenty of time between your scheduled flight arrival and that train departure from Montparnasse. Your flight could be late, or you could get delayed at customs, or have to wait for the bus.

We brought paper maps, a GPS and the rental had built in GPS. Ended up using the iphone with T-Mobile's service, no extra charge.