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Normandy -help with itinerary for a few days

Posted by (san ramon, CA, USA) on

Hi everyone,

I'm planning a few days in Normandy with my teens (19 and 17 at the time) and my parents (late 70s) and my husband of course.

We are planning to do this before getting on a 14 day Baltic cruise in Southampton. My husband and I both been to Normandy before but are fine to go back and see a few things again. We will have a van (I hope!)

Here's the plan:
1-Fly into Heathrow in afternoon
Drive to 'jet lag recovery' b&b somewhere in Kent area for 2 nights (old folks can rest, others can day trip to Canterbury or other places, etc. during that day)
3-drive via chunnel (my dad's an engineer and wants to do this) to Calais
4
5
6-need to board ship in Southampton

For days 3, 4, and 5 some thoughts are:
Honfleur
Giverny
Rouen
Landing beaches
Bayeaux
Peace museum in Caen
???

What do you recommended?
How much time should we spend doing the landing beaches?

since there is 6 of us finding a home rental and doing day trips would be ideal.

I'd appreciate any suggestions/help

Posted by
5435 posts

I think you will have to do some editing, since you will have to reverse day 3 to get back to the UK on day 5. That leaves you with only one full day and 2 partial days.
Rouen and Giverny appear to be the outliers as far as the direct driving route to and from Calais. Have a look at Google Maps or viaMichelin for distances and travel times between all of these places. Also, double check that your rental vehicle will be allowed to leave the UK.
I hope you realize that you don't actually drive through the tunnel - you put the car on the train, and ride the train between the UK and France.

Posted by
107 posts

My apologies, but I would suggest a check on your list. Among other issues, private vehicles are for Chunnel transport are loaded onto train cars, not driven through.

My suggestion is to make an Excel spreadsheet with your destinations I order. Write down how you will accomplish transportation between the destinations and how long transportation will take. I suspect you will want to cut things down.

The Rick Steves books can be very helpful in determining how long you may wish to spend visiting any particular destination.

Posted by
1259 posts

If you really want to do that why not fly into Paris, do your stuff along the Normandy coast, take the Chunnel over and on your way?

Posted by
32352 posts

Karen,

I don't see much benefit in riding in a car on a railway flatdeck through the Channel Tunnel as opposed to riding in a comfortable train coach. Also, with six people, I'm not sure one car will be enough. You'll probably need a Van or larger vehicle for six with luggage. A combination of well planned public transport and rental cars might be a better option.

As mentioned earlier, some rental firms may not allow their vehicles to go to France. Also, a vehicle rented in the U.K. will have the steering wheel on the "wrong side" for driving in France. People in the U.K. deal with this on a regular basis, but it could be confusing for some people. You might want to consider renting separately in France.

Finally, it's highly advisable for each driver operating in France to have an International Driver's Permit, which is used in conjunction with your home D.L.

Posted by
118 posts

Driving a UK car in France has some challenges.

When I lived in UK we used to drive to France with our car and it is particularly difficult for the driver to see past vehicles in front of you - since the driver will be on the wrong side of the car for French roads.
I would also concur with what others have said - driving your car onto the Eurostar is not very exciting - you are basically in a cattle-truck

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