Normandy

I am researching Normandy as well, so no advice to give. On the museum pass, yes, depending on the age, which I believe is under 17. My 16YO did not have to have one last year.

lesley,

A day trip from Paris to Normandy is possible but not the best idea, given the travel times. One option would be a day tour with Paris City Vision or others, but they tend to be somewhat on the "pricey" side and provide limited time there (enough to see the highlights).

The preferred method would be to spend two nights in Bayeux and take one of the excellent local day tours, such as Overlord Tour. You'll see a lot more and with a guide you'll get a much better sense of the history of the events that took place there.

I took the Paris Vision Tour to Normandy. It was a big bus tour. We left Paris around 7:00 am and returned around 8:30 pm. I was on a budget and at the time, it was one of the cheaper tours to Normandy. I definitely thought I got my money's worth. It was probably the most moving experiences that I had on all my trips to Europe. I strongly recommend that you go. Your teenage boys will love it.

We rented a car, stayed in Bayeux for 2 nights, and took the better part of 2 days driving to various beaches, cemeteries, towns in the area, and the fabulous museum in Caen. If one had the time and the interest, being able to spend a bit more time would be beneficial. We used the Rick Steves and Lonely Planet guidebooks, but didn't have the benefit of an in-person guide.

We did a day trip to Bayeux, including a half-day Overland Tour of the beaches and cemetery. We took a relatively early train (leaving Paris around 8, if memory serves) but arrived to Bayeux in time to spend a few hours walking through town, exploring the market and having a quick picnic lunch before our tour. Late day train back to Paris, and then had a great a late dinner. It was a long day but lots of chances to rest since there were train rides and van rides between the sites, so the pace was definitely not grueling. So if you're trying to squeeze a lot in over 5 days, you can definitely make a day trip work!

Then, not to add to an already full schedule, but Bayeux also has the famous Tapestry, which you and the kids might find of interest, depicting another battle from over 1,000 years ago!

While it would have been nice to be able to stay a few nights and spend a lot more time at each of the sights, we just don't have the time to do it on this trip so will be doing this as a day tour from Paris this summer. You have a couple options: You can pay about 180 Euro per person to take a coach bus directly from Paris and see a few highlights with a big group of people on a tour. You can catch an early train from Gare Saint Lazare to Bayeux and get a taxi to take you to the sights you are interested in and do a self-guided tour (no commentary). The option we chose is to take an early train from Gare Saint Lazare to Carentan (closest to the American Sector so we get more time exploring the area). In Carentan we will meet up with a private guide who will pick us up at the train station and take us around for 9 hours and then drop us off in Bayeux to take the train back to Paris.

Most of the private guides I got a quote from were in the 500 to 600 Euro range for the day for a group. They don't charge per person - so whether it is 2, 4 or 6 people on a tour, the price is exactly the same. If it was just you and your husband, I'd say take the coach bus. The train tickets are not that expensive. And the benefit of a private guide is that we are able to tailor the day to see only those places we have the most interest in, and we can let our guide know if we want to stay longer at any particular place we choose (e.g., American cemetery or one of the museums). A bus tour is not going to let you do that. You need to stick to their schedule and deal with moving along with a big group of people. There are a couple of guides who will also do a half day tour of just a couple of key sites, but I did not feel it would have been worth going all the way out there for a half day tour, so we chose the 9 hour full day private tour.

With 4 of you, I think you can do better getting a private guide and taking the train, especially if you want the commentary from a guide. Be warned, it's a really long day. We have to catch a train that leaves Paris around 7AM and won't be getting back to Paris until about 9:30PM.

Finally, you could rent a car and do it yourself with a guidebook and a good GPS. But picking up a rental car and dropping it off will take time especially if you are doing it outside of Paris to try and avoid driving in the city.