No direct trains from Paris to Bayeux or Caen?

Did you look directly with the French train line and not Raileurope which is notorious for not having all the info and overpricing? You might also post this on Trip Advisor -- there may be people who know about issues with that time frame (sometimes there is track work or whatever) I wouldn't give up until you are sure.

My search on the SNCF site gave a 9.10 train from Saint Lazare on your desired date.

I just ran into a similar situation when buying tickets on Trainline. All my travel days worked out fine and then I went to buy Monterosso to Nice on July 17th and there were no tickets for sale even though I could buy nice connections on that route for the 16th and the 18th. I went to SNCF and bought the tickets for the times/connections I wanted.

tonfromleiden, I don't see what you see. I am looking on sncf web site on June 17 for Paris to Bayeux. It lists a direct train departure time at 9:10am, but there are no ticket prices on the right side. It just says "unopened train". There are trains on other days that week, but not on Saturday. No seats in either 2nd or 1st class.

gg,

I also checked using the Bahn.de website and see direct departures on 17 June at 09:10, 13:10 & 16:10. There are numerous other solutions with one short change in Caen. It shouldn't be a problem for you to easily get to Bayeux on that date. Be sure to allow enough time to get from your Paris location to Gare St. Lazare.

Hi gg,
You're running into the same issue that I did initially last summer when I tried to book tix for direct route Paris-Bayeux in October. Check out this conversation on TA: https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g1-i12483-k9665085-Paris_to_Bayeux_in_October-Train_Travel.html
I discovered that rail work was tentatively planned for the weekend I wanted to travel. Long story short is I waited a few more weeks and then the nonstop tix became available. I suggest you also be patient and look again in a few weeks. If worst comes to worst you can take the longer local trains out of Montparnasse. Or, could you go to Bayeux the night of the 16th?

I see your trouble. I can buy a ticket for that nonstop route on the 16th but not on the 17th or 18th. I can then buy again on the 19th. It's weird. I tried Trainline and SNCF sites. Maybe someone else can weigh in. I checked for route work notices but didn't find any.

There are direct trains both going Paris to Bayeux or Paris to Caen on Sat, 17 June. I would not advise a car unless you're going beyond Bayeux, not worth the hassle. The direct trains absolutely run on the week-end of 17 June.

Even if there's one change in Caen, that's not a huge problem.

I need the same ticket on the same day so as to get to Bayeux at 0900 for a one day tour, returning after 1700.. I am having absolutely no luck. Can anyone direct me?

I'm also seeing the direct train from Saint Lazare on Friday the 16th and Monday the 19th, but not on June 17 or 18.

I experienced similar frustrations trying to plan a day trip for a Normandy D-Day tour on June 13, 2015, also a Saturday. It was the only day we could possibly make the trip, and I was afraid to commit to the tour because I couldn't book any direct trains. The only information I could find suggested there might be trackwork scheduled that day. Finally, in mid-March, the direct trains magically appeared on the SNCF schedule and I booked immediately. My only advice would be to keep checking because schedules apparently change often.

SNCF only shows indirect trains taking from 4 to 6 hours each way. I'll keep checking back with them

Thanks for all the information. Having a car will give us more freedom, but we'd hoped to stick to trains and make our lives easier since it's such a short trip. Our original plan was to leave Paris by train at 9am which would get us to Bayeux by 11:30am. We were not going to have enough time to go to MSM, although we would have liked to.

So I think I will approach this from two directions:
- As a backup plan I’ll reserve a car to drive from Gare du Nord through Caen and onto Mont Saint-Michel (3.5 hrs?). We can take about 4 hrs at Mont Saint-Michel before backtracking to Bayeux (1.5 hrs?) to arrive in the evening around 6pm. The following day we have a full day tour of Normandy. The following morning, we return to Paris and continue on to Aix.
- If the direct train reservations do happen to open up for June 17th between now and when we leave, I can then decide if we’ll take the train from Paris to Bayeux or the car from Paris to MSM to Bayeux.

joseph.mcmahon,

"I need the same ticket on the same day so as to get to Bayeux at 0900 for a one day tour, returning after 1700.. I am having absolutely no luck. Can anyone direct me?"

Unfortunately, it looks like you're out of luck as the first train to Bayeux doesn't appear to depart until 07:45, arriving Bayeux at 10:18 (time 2H:33M, 1 change in Caen). The easiest solution to this problem would be to travel to Bayeux the day prior to the tour and spend one night there (not a bad option really, as it's a beautiful town with some nice restaurants - you could also see the famous Tapestry and/or the excellent WW-II Museum). Take the tour on 17 June and then head back to Paris. There's a direct train leaving at 18:52, arriving Gare St. Lazare at 21:17 (time 2H:25M).

"Unfortunately, it looks like you're out of luck as the first train to Bayeux doesn't appear to depart until 07:45, arriving Bayeux at 10:18 (time 2H:33M, 1 change in Caen). "

Ken, how or better yet, exactly where did you find this information? I will book the later train and miss some of the tour if necessary. Our schedule will not allow a night in Bayeux so the train is our only option.

Thanks, Joe

joseph.mcmahon,

I obtained that information from the Bahn.de (German rail) website, which has schedules for trains throughout Europe. Unfortunately I wasn't able to find the same information on either the SNCF or Trainline.eu websites. SNCF shows the first departure at 06:11, arriving Bayeux at 12:18 (time 6H:07M, which is not good).

"Missing" part of the tour may not be an option as once the group has left for the day, it's not likely that the guide will return to the pickup point to collect latecomers. There are several other options you could consider.....

1. Book an afternoon half-day tour. I believe Overlord Tours offers this option.
2. Hire a private guide, who will work around your schedule. You could arrange for them to pick you up at the station, and start the tour from there. This will probably be an expensive option, but it would be an easy solution.
3. Take an organized one-day tour from Paris. They wouldn't allow much time to see the sights, but would provide a brief overview. Here's one possibility - https://www.pariscityvision.com/en/normandy-landing-beaches

Good luck!

I ended up changing the date of our Normandy tour to Friday 16 June. I then went to the SNCF site and booked a 7:06 train to Bayeux, Arriving at 9:17. Still 45 minutes late. I wrote the tour and asked if the 45 late would work. Hopefully it will. There are no other trains listed for earlier that day.

Interesting fact: I looked at the tickets yesterday and the four were a total of 87 Euros. I didn't pull the trigger because I was unsure that the tour could change the date to the 16th. They said they could, so I went back to the same site today and got four tickets with the same coach and seats, but today it cost 95.60 Euros. It is almost as volatile as plane ticket prices.

We were planning on going to Versailles on Friday the 16th. Now it will be the 17th and the Saturday crowd.

I don't really think a 2.15 euro difference per person in ticket price means that rail tickets are "almost as volatile as plane ticket prices."

It seems that several people missed Shelly's (from Charlotte) post above where she gave a very good explanation for what is probably happening here. Anyone else wondering about the issue with weekend tickets is well advised to read her post and the link to the old thread.

Yes! Shelly was absolutely right! I just had to be patient. My weekend date of Saturday, June 17th did open up. I was thrilled we didn't need to rent a car or change any plans!

Glad to hear it, gg96. Enjoy the trip. It's a nice ride. One bit of advice. If it's a sunny day, try to sit facing away from the sun on the return trip, if possible. We booked three seats together with a table between, and no one booked the other seat. On the way back, our son immediately put his head on the table and went to sleep, with me in the seat beside and my wife across from us. Every time we went by trees or buildings or any other obstruction, the bright sunlight would flicker rapidly across my eyes. It not only became pretty annoying, but started to give me a headache. My wife saw me squinting and looking uncomfortable and finally said, "You know, you could just move over here."

Duh.

I did a similar search, found similar results and concluded there were no direct trains to Caen or Bayeux from Paris. I was corrected and went back to look. Sure enough I found some direct trains. I'm thinking now my search was in too narrow of time frame so it didn't show any direct trains, other than to Rouen.