Hello....
We will be staying at the Pullman Montparnasse from September 10 to September 13 and was wondering if there is a tour bus that would pick us up from the hotel to do the Juno/Normandy Beach tour.
Any advice/direction would be appreciated.
Thank you.
A Google found me this:
www.linkparis.com/canadian-day-tour
There is a toll free tel. no. 1 866 427 4882
PS. Tour starts in Paris
In 2008, I took a Paris Vision Tour to Normandy that included Juno Beach. It was a big bus tour so they didn't pick you up at your hotel, but it was easy to get to their office on the Metro. The tour started at 7:00 am and returned by 8:30 pm. It included lunch at the Caan Peace Museum. I mention that as it was surprisingly one of the best lunches that I had during my 9 day stay in Paris. Who would have thought that. Check out their website on Google.
Thank you.
I too recommend the Paris Vision Normandy bus tour. I took it in 2012. Very comfortable. As with any tour, you don't get to spend unlimited time at each destination, but I found the time allotted at the various sites was fine. Would do it again.
Also consider a Juno Beach tour sponsored by the Caen Memorial museum. They pick you up at the Caen train station, take you to their museum, feed you lunch, and take you on a tour of Juno Beach. Unfortunately, it is only offered on Tuesdays.
With the tours from Paris, they tend to be somewhat expensive and given the travel times back and forth, they're only able to visit a limited number of sites. If that works for you, those are certainly an option.
I'm assuming that you're primarily interested in the Canadian sites. If that's the case, here's the website for the Links Paris tour that covers Canadian sites.
http://www.linkparis.com/canadian-normandy-dday-tour.htm
That tour also visits the Abbaye d'Ardenne, and it's a very moving experience to stand in that garden and imagine the atrocities that took place there. Be sure you're prepared for that!
One point to note is that the Links Paris tour uses trains for travel from Paris to Caen, so that will likely be faster than by large tour bus. Also, their group size is limited to 8 people (in order to fit the van), so it's going to probably be a more rewarding experience as the guide won't have to split their time among 50 people.
