Normandy

For areas related to D-day, Bayeux is excellent. Many places to stay and eat, local sights and relatively convenient to the various D-day battle sites (not just beaches). Which castle are you referring to?

We stayed at Villa Aggarthi In Bayeau in 9/23 for three nights, train from Paris and back. Also D Day tour with HQ Company for a full day. Wonderful experience.. My son and his wife did almost exactly the same itinerary three weeks ago but they drove. They agree the tour and that Villa were great. Recommend watching the Longest Day before your visit we were told many scenes were filmed in the area, not certain. If that is accurate but movie does give some.perspective. good luck.

Bayeux is a nice location and lovely town to stay for exploring DDay sites. I'm too am wondering about a castle, but after thinking about it, I think you may mean Mont St Michel which definitely isn't a castle. But an amazing place to visit.

I take it from your 3 day/2 night plans that you are arriving there very early on day one , and leaving very late on day 3, in order to get 3 days of sightseeing done on a 2 night stay. If you are going to Mont St Michel I(the castle you refer to?), it can be done as a long day trip from Bayeux. It actually is an Abbey at the top of the "mont". Please clarify what you mean by a castle in case I am missing something here. There isn't such a thing near the DDay beaches. Normandy is a very large region, but I am assuming you mean the DDay landing sites when you refer to "Normandy". Will you have a car, and if so do you want to drive yourself around to see some of the sights, or do you want to take one of the many guided tours? A full day tour or a half day one? Be aware that both day one and day three will be shortened by the time you arrive in the area and the time you will need to leave to go to the next place you will spend the night. Two nights means one full day and two partial days. This will affect your sightseeing plans.
Bayeux is the nicest town to stray in to visit the DDay sights, IMO. Plus the town is lovely. It wasn't bombed to pieces during WWII so it retains its charm and lovely cathedral, etc. Most tours leave from there as well.
When are you going? How many people? Will you have a car? Is it soon? If soon, you may need to find another town to stay in, as Bayeux is very popular and your lodging choices may be limited. If you provide more details it will help to give appropriate suggestions.

Sorry everyone I am referring to Mont St Michel. My wife a Disney fan, wants to see it since it was the inspirations behind rapunzel castle.

We won’t be driving, it will just be my wife and I. It looks like we may need to add another day?

watch Saving Private Ryan to fully understand the violence and suffering that these men (and women) suffered in the first few days.

I will definitely add those to the list of things to watch before we go. I’ve watched Saving Private Ryan before but it’s worth a refresher.

brittsanders
,
Thanks for the clarifications. First, I would add another day, so 3 nights means 2 full days, and a partial day at the beginning and at the end. Bayeux is perfect for what you want to do. Arrange for a tour to Mont St Michel from Bayeux (pretty much an all day jaunt). And take an all day tour of the beaches and museums, also from Bayeux. You will only see a part of the sights, as they are many and are spread over a large area. I recommend being at the American cemetery for the flag lowering, about 5:00 p.m. It is quite moving.

Your half day at the beginning could be spent at the Memorial Museum of the Battle of Normandy in the town of Bayeux. The town is also worth strolling around as well. The cathedral is also beautiful and definitely worth seeing. Alas, the tapestry will not be there when you are, as it is being withdrawn for a major restoration which will take up to two years.

You might enjoy finding a cider and/or food tour for your last half-day, unless you decide to leave early for your next stop.

Bayeux has lots of nice eating places. Many restaurants do need reservations, so check with your lodging host. Or check for recommendations on the forum when it gets closer to your departure for France.

Bon voyage! Amusez-vous bien!

I was in Normandy for a week last month. I stayed 4 nights in Bayeux, which I found well situated for visiting the beaches and WWII sites on my agenda. I did not visit Mont St Michel, but instead went up to Cherbourg, which was a day well spent. There are still bunkers from WWII around the port, as well as other fortifications going back hundreds of years. Cherbourg is where the Titanic set out from, and where the Confederate raider CSS Alabama was run down. It was, 1944-47, the busiest port in the world.

Be advised the Bayeux Tapestry gets busloads of tourists starting around 10 and can be quite crowded. And the American Cemetery above Omaha Beach closes at 5pm (at which time it's still very light outside). The British and Canadian beaches are rather separate, with houses built right up to the sand, and you cannot drive along the water but must detour inland. The monuments can be difficult to locate. The largest American monument at Utah is fenced off, although there are several others open.

I really appreciate everyone’s input.

would it be worth it to stay one night in Bayeux and one night in Mont st Michel. How does transportation work there? As in what are the options available, to people without cars, and generally how expensive is it?,

Given we have only 4 months to plan this we are feeling very overwhelmed to get the most out of this trip. We have stumbled across a few tours that are multi day tours departing from Paris going to the places in Normandy we want to explore. I wanted to ask if anyone had any experiences with those services and if they thought they did Normandy and the landmarks service?
(Also as a foodie, I am nervous about missing opportunities to explore the culinary culture of Normandy with that tour)

We just left Bayeux, spent 4 nights there and then onto Amboise for 3 nights and are now in Paris. We opted not to drive. It is much easier than I anticipated getting around with trains and tours. If it were me, I would stay in Bayeux as a home base and visit Mont St. Michel by shuttle bus. It was wonderful to visit (as this was on my list of things I really wanted to see), but a few hours there was enough for me.

As for costs, the train tickets, prices will vary depending on the class you book and when you book. For 2 train tickets from Paris Saint-Lazare it was 159.80 Euros for first class and flexible. This allowed us to make changes without paying more and we were glad we did as we got to the train station faster than we anticipated and it was super easy to get an earlier train. From the train station we booked a taxi to our hotel.

We took the Overlord DD Day Tour which was an all day tour two these two major Normandy beaches, plus stops at various DD sites along the way. It was 260 Euros for 2 people. These are smaller tours, we had 12 on our tour. Overlord came highly recommended from a number of other forum members and we were very happy. You do need to book them in advance, especially if it is a busy season.

For the shuttle, we took the Shuttle from the Churchill Hotel in Bayeux. It is 95 Euros per person and the van fits about 8 people. The drive is 1.5 hours and you get 3 hours on Mont St. Michel. What we liked about the tour is our driver was very knowledgeable, we got to see some of the countryside, and we were back by 2:30, so we could explore more of Bayeux.