Normandy

When we did a similar trip, we took the Portsmouth ferry to Caen where we picked up our rental car. We then proceeded to Bayeux, then to our B&B southeast of Bayeux where we could do day trips to MSM and other small villages. We were about 20 miles from the D Day beaches and spent a lot of time in that area. We could do day trips to St. Mere Eglise and all along the coast around to Avranches. It was 90 minutes on the motorway from To get to Portsmouth from London, we used www.aquacars.co.uk, for less than train tickets and a delivery door to door from our London hotel to one in Portsmouth.

Sorry, it was 90 minutes on the four lane motorway to MSM from our B&B outside Villers-Bocage. We were able to drift along the coast and along the smaller roads on our return, stopping in small villages to buy cheeses, trinkets, and Calvados. It was one of our best trips, motoring across Normandy and into a bit of Brittany, Cancale to be exact.

if you're making a circle, it doesn't matter which direction you travel first. But if you plan to drop off the car in a different town en-route to Paris, then it's not necessarily a circle. It's usually easier (depending on construction schedules that have been interrupting the line) and cheaper to take trains from Bayeux or Caen than from MSM or Rennes (TGV station). You could also drop the car closer to Paris, at an airport, or at Chartres or Versailles.

Here's a Trip Report on Cherbourg from last year: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/140674