Normandy and London

Going through Paris is the easieast and fastest.

Taking a ferry is the slowest and avoids Paris.

Where in Normandy do you wish to go? Going by Eurostar to Paris and then by train to your destination would be easiest. You would have to go from one train station to another, but that is easy enough by cab. By ferry would be a royal pain and very involved just to avoid doing the Paris route.

You have received the correct answer. It may be best to save Normandy (perhaps you mean a small part of Normandy, the D-Day beaches?) for another trip centered on France. How many days would you spend in Normandy? Do you plan to rent a car, or book a full-day tour that includes transportation? Are you returning to London from there? The two areas are not well-connected.

www.skyscanner.com

This site is helpful for short-hop flights in Europe.

Type in London and then Normandy. It will show several possible landing points. One cheap choice could be London Southend airport to Caen.

Our plan is two weeks, possible time in London, Normandy, Brussels, Bruges. The bulk of the trip, 5 days four nights would be to explore Normandy (D-Day beaches, Mont St. Michel, etratet, bayeaux, rouen, honfleur). Just trying to figure out best itinerary, where to fly to to make the trip flow properly with the above cities. Am I being too ambitious for two weeks?

I don't think you're being too ambitious for two weeks. Why not take Eurostar from London to Brussels and work your way down?

Take the ferry, Portsmouth to St Malo. That route was also an invasion route when the Americans landed in St Malo in Aug. 1944.

There are several ferry routes, but they don't save that much time vs. going the long way around through Paris.
What about flying into London, and out of Paris? That way you go London-Bruges-Normandy then back home from Paris airports.

All excellent suggestions! Thanks everyone!! In the beginning playing stages for next summer. Appreciate all the suggestions. A

Hi Rosebush, I think you have a marvelous itinerary picked out and is doable in two weeks. Last September we did almost the same loop swapping out Amiens for Rouen and Haarlem for Brussels then Eurostar back to London for a third week on a rented canal boat in the Hampshire countryside. Let me tell you what we really enjoy to cobble together London and Normandy with. We like to take Brittany Ferries out of Portsmouth to St. Malo. Here’s why. Lodging in London is expensive so we get our money’s worth touring London. We can check out, having our hotel hold our luggage.That gets us almost a full day of sightseeing in London before grabbing the 1 hr 40 min train ride to Portsmouth around 5pm. It sets us up to grab the 8pm sailing to St. Malo where a small but private stateroom for 2-4 people goes for about 65 pounds, a great cost savings over a London hotel room. On board there’s all kinds of dining, entertainment, movies and shopping before off to bed. It’s a great opportunity to have a night out with holiday goers traversing the Channel. Everyone is in a jovial mood. It’s absolutely magical to wake the next morning sailing into the medieval walled harbor of St. Malo around 8am refreshed and ready to explore. (BTW - Portsmouth is under rated IMO for naval enthusiasts and historians so you can always head there earlier from London to explore, but no luggage storage that I know of). You can also sail to Ouisterheim outside of Caen from Portsmouth but the shorter sailing means you don’t get a full nights sleep, leaving Portsmouth later and arriving at the crack of dawn. The harbor is very industrial, nothing magical like St. Malo and you have to take a short bus ride into Caen. Both Caen and St Malo have an Avis RAC at their train station. Sailing into St. Malo in the morning gives you time to explore The town then grab your rental car and head to Mont St. Michel to arrive in the later afternoon when the tour buses are leaving. We dropped our rental car in Lille France at the train station just across the border from Belgium to avoid drop fees for out of country drop. We actually stayed in Lille and daytripped Brugges on OuiBus for about 5 euro each way saving a longer train trip with connections. You might want to drop your rental car at Lille train station, grab the OuiBus right outside and be in Brugges before you know it. We daytripped from Lille Because it made our Amsterdam connection easier. I hope you have a fabulous trip and my input helps. Lucky dog.

Last September we too combined London and Normandy but added Brittany and the Loire after Normandy. We found the Eurostar from London to Lille was perfect. We picked up our rental car there and drove to Rouen for our first night in France. From there we drove to Bayeaux, our Normandy base. Since we flew home from GDG in the evening, we returned our car there after our last night in Chartres. Have a wonderful trip!