Normandie to South of France and return to Paris

I haven't had a car during my trips to France, so others will be able to give better advice than I can. However, Bayeux is one good option for the time you'll be exploring the invasion sites. The town wasn't obliterated during the war, so it retains a charming historic center. You also have the Bayeux tapestry, the cathedral and a good invasion museum. The tourist office used to offer a low-cost walking tour that I enjoyed.

There are a number of good museums on the topic of the invasion, with varying focuses. I liked the museum in Falaise, which focuses on the civilian experience during the war, so a broader topic than many of the other museums in the area. The Falaise museum includes Resistance activities.

I really recommend hiring a guide or taking one of the small-group tours of invasion sites. Unless one of you is an expert on the topic, I fear you won't get a great deal from simply driving around and looking at beaches. Unlike the museums, they don't generally have much explanatory material posted. A one-day tour will provide a great deal of useful information.

Three weeks makes this do-able, but you need to decide clearly that you love being in the car, and don't mind huge gas and insurance expenses, and an occasional parking delay. Do you know that your luggage in the car while parked can be a break-in problem? I personally find the big brown French town tourism signs frustrating, because I know it takes 15-20 minutes each way to get off the highway into town, and then time to park, sometimes in a garage with much smaller stalls and ramps than we have in the US. So if I have a driving target for the day, I can't go see that other town that might be swell.

Have you used Google Maps to (very roughly) estimate some driving times? I think covering the entire country will cut into your relaxing local excursions. For example, we once took the train right from CDG to Strasbourg. After two days there, we rented a car and stayed three nights in Ribeauvillé, three nights in Besançon, one night in Pèrouges, two nights visiting my cousin in Geneva, and three nights near Avignon, where we took the TGV back to Paris. One of our interests was the life of painter Gustave Courbet, and we ate in two Michelin 3-stars. We failed to visit Dijon, Lyon, the Gorges, and the Black Forest, just to pick a few high spots along the way. We have concentrated on one region of France at a time. You may be trying to see too much.

Here's a thread with our Loire/Normandy itinerary, another year:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/france/normandy-brittany-thoughts

We stayed in the small seaside town of Arromanches when we visited Normandy. Rick S describes it as a kitschy tourist place but in Sept it was not like that at all. And there was fresh seafood galore. Everyone was eating mussels (which I don’t care for). It was extremely easy to drive to all the Normandy sites from there. We visited Bayeaux to see the tapestry and the roads are narrow and it seemed pretty busy traffic-wise. If you drive from Paris to Normandy, consider spending a night in Giverny to visit Monet’s home and gardens. Spending the night allows you to be there after all the big tour group busses leave. In the Loire Valley, we stayed in Amboise, and visited 4 chateaux in the region. This was my favorite part of our trip. We found driving int9 and out of Paris to be an absolute nightmare. We got caught in rush our traffic on the ring road, on our way to return the rental car at CDG. The ring road has narrow lanes and impatient drivers. I had to close my eyes while my husband drove to reduce my very high anxiety about damaging the rental car. I have also heard horror stories of people getting speeding tickets (they use cameras) but because it was a rental car, they didn’t receive the ticket for weeks or months and ended up having to pay hundreds of euros. We strictly observed the speed limit signs and didn’t have any problems.

Yes, this is do-able. You like being in the car, some people don't.
Just as an estimate, it would take you about 4 hours to drive from Bayeux to Amboise, an excellent spot for visiting Loire chateaux (Chenonceau, Chaumont, Villandry are among our favorites).
From there to Sarlat is about a 5 hour drive. That is also an excellent base for exploring the surrounding area (caves, gardens, chateaux).
A drive to "the south of France" is too vague to pinpoint an exact location, but if you drive to Narbonne, that puts you on the Mediterranean coast (under 5 hours driving from Sarlat). Want to be further east in southern France? You can drive from Sarlat to Nimes in less than 6 hours (a long vacation driving day in my opinion).
The hard part would be driving all the way back to Paris from, say, Nimes or Narbonne (8 to 8 1/2 hours). I would definitely want to break that up. Pick any mid-point stop (Lyon, Beaune, Bourges) and it becomes more comfortable. And any of the those becomes another good base for exploring the surrounding area.

We just came back from a 3 1/2 week trip to France. We visited Normandy. This was definitely one of the highlights of our trip. We stayed in the town of Bayeux, which we loved. Very good location to the beaches of WW2. From Normandy, we drove to the Loire Valley. We stayed in the town of Amboise, which we did not enjoy at all. We would skip this part of the trip next time. The Loire Valley itself is pretty, and the castles are interesting. However, if you are short of time, I highly recommend you spend more time in Provence and the Cote de Rhone area. We enjoyed these 2 areas way more than the Loire.

In Bayeux, we stayed at the most charming and beautiful B&B. We would love to stay here again: https://www.lepetitmatin.fr/
In the Cote du Rhone, with its' great wineries, we loved our stay here in Gigondas. We had a delicious dinner at the hotel as well: https://www.hotel-lesflorets.com/
In Provence, we stayed at this farmhouse in St Remy, which we really enjoyed: https://www.masdestourterelles.com/en

We drove from Paris to Loire Valley to Normandy and back to Paris. In Loire, we stayed at La Roseraie in Chenonceaux and enjoyed that location and hotel. In Bayeaux, we stayed at d'Argauges. We have been there twice - so love hotel and the town. Great location for visiting museums and beaches. I agree with suggestion, do a tour of the WWII sites. Also, can go to different museums since you have the car - we enjoyed a variety. BUT most meaningful to us was a church we saw on the tour, and went back ourselves the second trip - Angoville-au-Plain Church. This is where to US Army medics treated ALL wounded as the battle was fought right outside. You will also be able to easily get to Rouen which we really enjoyed as well. Museums we enjoyed, Memorial de Caen, and Airbourne Museum. Close by is Giverny as well! Enjoy your fantastic trip!

While I enjoy driving on French Autoroutes, they are really expensive, and from Normandie to the Loire to the Med (where - it is a very long shoreline, assume Provence, probably north of 100 € southbound and back to Paris around 80 €.

Get familiar with when the French are going to be on the roads - get the app or website of Bison Futé which show you. You won't want to be returning to Paris on a Sunday afternoon, any time of the year.

It seems like a lot of driving to me. I understand that you like car trips, but your big loop itinerary will require a lot of driving.
As others have pointed out, it will be expensive, and it uses up a lot of time.

Just an idea, but maybe you could begin your trip in the Provence area. If you get a connecting flight from Paris to one of the airports in the south (Marseille, for example), you could rent a car there. Perhaps your first stop could be Arles and from there you could easily use your car for day trips to other cities in Provence.

From there you could drive to Sarlat with a stop in Carcassonne or Toulouse on the way. There are many day trips possible from Sarlat.

Next, drive to Chinon and use that as a base to explore some of the Loire chateaux. On the way to Chinon, you might want to visit Oradour sur Glane.

Another stop could be Bayeux to see the Normandy beaches.

Finally, I suggest you get rid of the rental car before going into Paris and switch to public transit.

Another thought: Everyone has different lifestyle and travel style, and different family finances. But it does seem like you may plan this to be your only trip to France in your entire lifetime. That justifies more driving "overhead". Between business and vacations, we've set foot in France at least eight times, and most of those involved at least two nights in Paris. I'm not bragging, I'm just trying to explain that when my wife had business in Antwerp, I took a long train ride to see the art museum in Lille. But I would never drive to Lille from Paris just to spend the entire day at that museum. That would be crazy.

I also have a different feeling about the Normandy beaches: Many posters here write as if (I don't mean that they say so ... ) the Normandy beaches are the only important place in France west of Paris. Because my father was 4F, and his brothers both served only inside the USA, I don't have as passionate a feeling about that part of a visit. We were glad to see the beaches and related sites, but we wanted to do other things in Normandy as well, particularly public gardens and seafood.

There was a recent period when everyone was reading All The Light You Cannot See, and wanted to stay in St. Malo (which makes visits to Mont St. Michel easier.) I don't think it's been mentioned that some posters here have used the Churchill Hotel (Bayeux) daytrip excursion to MSM, even without staying at that hotel.

My comments pertain to the Normandy portion of your trip. It sounds like CDG will be your first European destination after a transatlantic flight. If so, I want to caution you against driving to the Normandy beach areas upon your arrival at CDG. And not just because you’d be sleep-deprived.

We drove from CDG to Bayeux exactly a month ago, and encountered horrible traffic, not just near CDG and the periphery of Paris, but also as we approached Caen. What should have been a 3-hour drive became a stressful 4.5-hour drive. Granted, it was a Friday afternoon in late May (approaching Memorial Week and the D-Day anniversary), which is peak season, all of which likely made it worse.

We had been in Europe for 2 weeks (so not jet-lagged), and had a short flight from Bilbao to CDG where we picked up the rental car. We were unprepared for the bad traffic. I can’t imagine doing this drive after a long flight. I would strongly suggest that your first overnight destination be one that is closer to the airport, such as Giverny or Auvers-sur-Oise, where there are many Van Gogh pilgrimage sites, if you’re into that. (We visited the latter 2 towns at the end of our trip, which we so enjoyed. We felt less stress as we inched our way back to CDG to return the rental car before our flight home the next morning. We stayed at an airport hotel, which made our airport check in that much easier.)

Or, you could go directly to Paris for a few days before taking a train somewhere to get your rental car (Caen perhaps).

Also, once you nail down your dates for visiting Normandy’s D-Day sites, I strongly recommend reserving your hotel ASAP. Most of the Bayeux hotels were already booked 3 months before our trip. Although I suspect that Sept travel to that area may be easier and less impacted than May, it seems wise to begin that process sooner than later. We stayed in Bayeux for 5 nights, and loved having 4 full days to explore this area. The longer your stay, the sooner you’ll need to book your accommodations. Absolutely loved Bayeux and found it to be a central location for exploring D-Day sites. Agree with acraven and Marna; plenty to see and do in Bayeux itself. Remember that 3 nights in one place will only give you 2 full days, which might make for a frantic pace if you really want to dive into the D-Day sites. Quite a lot to see and experience. For example, we spent many hours at both the American Cemetery and Battle of Normandy Museum in Bayeux.

On our way back from the Longues-sur-Mer Gun Battery, we stopped in the harbor/fishing port area of Port-en-Bessin for lunch. There are many seafood restaurants that you might enjoy. Excellent guidance in the RS Normandy guidebook (which is also a chapter in the France guidebook).

Bon Chance!

I agree with helensn1234. My sister and I just returned from 3 weeks spent in France and drove daily avoiding the main highways. We did not visit Normandy but did visit the Loire Valley spending three nights in Azay-Le-Rideau at La Grande Monarque hotel. Our pre trip visit included a lot of research looking for villages and towns less visited. In the Loire Valley, Azay appealed to us for its small size, easy drive in and out ( many larger cities are harder to navigate ). La Grande Monarque was perfect, easy access, larger rooms, a great breakfast to start your day, secured parking and easy walk to good restaurants.

We were not interested in visiting any chateau, many are visible from the smaller roads. Keep in mind a visit to one will take up half a day.

Our second two weeks were spent in a VRBO in Saint Cyprien in the Perigord/Dordogne region. Our mojo is visiting small charming villages driving only on the smaller yellow and white roads. You will really miss so much by taking the fast toll highways. They should only be used on days when you really need to get from point A to B fast.

IMHO you should do Normandy, Loire Valley and then pick a region such as the Dordogne ( closer to the Loire Valley and choc full of great sightseeing ) or the Cote du Rhône and skip the South. You will spend one full day just driving with no sightseeing just to get there.

Re: Sarlat, if you use as a base for the Dordogne, keep in mind you will not be able to park inside the village. It’s far better to chose a village/ hotel where parking is easier and then visit Sarlat. There is plenty of paid parking surrounding Sarlat.