Normandy itinerary advice

A rental car will be more convenient. With a similar itinerary, we picked up the car at CDG (via AutoEurope) to avoid city driving in Paris. With GPS and/or a map you'll have no problems navigating. (We asked the Hertz garage attendant to help set the GPS to English before departing.) If you search earlier Forum posts on driving in France, you'll find helpful tips regarding paying tolls, using credit cards, etc. With no prior experience, and in our early 70s, we managed Giverny, Honfleur, Bayeux, MSM, etc. with no problems. And remember: there's no shame in making multiple laps around a traffic circle until you are sure which exit to take. (Arranging to be at the American Cemetery for the moving flag lowering ceremony is a memorable experience.)

IMHO, this is a lot to cover in two days. I think you need three days, and as much as I love Honfleur, if the D-day Beaches are a priority, I would skip it. Have you looked at a map and know the distances involved? Your plan would have you backtracking. Here's how I would do it:

Day 1 - pick up rental car at CDG, or alternatively, train to Caen and pick up car there. Drive to Bayeux; if time, see tapestry. Overnight in Bayeux.

Day 2 - Morning: Visit Omaha Beach, and I would also suggest Pont du Hoc, which has been left as it was at the end of the battle. Lunch. Afternoon: Drive to MSM; Wander village at base of MSM. Overnight.

Day 3 - Morning: Visit MSM; afternoon, drive to nearest city or town with train service to Paris, drop car and train to Paris.

Thanks for the well thought out advice. I only have two days as I have the rest of our trip pretty booked. Maybe if I prioritize Mont St Michel and Omaha/cemetery, it would be more doable?

This is not a very efficient itinerary, but really the only way you could hope to achieve it is with a car.

If you leave out brunch (could you even find such a thing?), you could take a train to Rennes, rent a car, and proceed to Mont St. Michel. You might prefer to drive from Paris however, and in either case could take the train to Paris from Caen.

Since you only have 2 days, perhaps, you should check out 2 separate day tours from Paris. Both would be about 12 hour days. Paris Vision gets pretty good reviews. If you tried doing this yourself, you would spend a lot of time driving with little time to see anything once you get there. Or, I would choose either MSM or the D-Day beaches, not both. Driving in France isn't difficult, but can be a challenge for a first timer. The cost of the tours should be comparable to the cost of car rental, gas, hotel, etc. And, letting someone else drive will be less stressful, plus you will get some information from the tour guides.

so, perhaps in the later afternoon you take the train from Paris to Caen to Bayeux. and get to the Churchill Hotel there (or honestly any hotel right there in Bayeux).

Having booked it ahead, the next morning (from the parking lot behind the Churchill) join a full or half day tour of the beaches/etc of DDay in Normandy. Return to the hotel for night 2.

The next morning, again having prebooked tickets, ,take the Mont St Michel shuttle (The journey takes place aboard a minibus with a maximum capacity of 8 passengers. Round-trip fare: €65 per person entrance ticket to the abbey included).from behind the Hôtel Churchill each morning at 9 a.m Arrives at Mont Saint-Michel at 10.30. Three hours free to discover Mont Saint-Michel, the second most visited tourist attraction in France, source of French history and architectural pride. Departure from Mont Saint-Michel at 1.30 p.m. Arrival in Bayeux at 3.

Obviously you will have booked your return ticket to Paris for late afternoon that day and so you will return to Paris having spent 2 days, the time you had allowed.
 

A couple of thoughts:

I'm not sure about brunch in Honfleur. As far as I know the French eat meals so you will want to get lunch in the 11:30 to 1:30 range. No problem if you are going to MSM for the night, you can get there by late afternoon (after most of the crowds leave) from Honfleur.

If you are on a budget, you won't want to stay on the island. I stayed at a hostel in Cancale. It's cheap and a throwback to the 60's/70's in more ways than one. There are plenty of other options near Cancale, if the hotels right off of MSM are too expensive.

From Honfleur to MSM is best with a rental car. I personally prefer to get out of the city before renting. I also prefer to avoid driving on my day of arrival, driving with jet lag can be dangerous. If you're in Paris, take a train to Rouen or Honfleur and rent from a local agent there. After you are done, return the car in Rouen, Caen or Bayeux and take a train back to Paris. If you putchase your tickets well in advance, you can get a good price.

You might wish to use Google Maps to get some "ballpark" estimates of driving time (since that will likely be faster than any public transportation options) for your ambitious idea. You may have a mistaken idea that all these attractions are adjacent to each other; they are not. In particular, you should discard Honfleur immediately, not because it is undesirable, but because it increases the distances you have to travel in a very short period of time.

At best, you can see the beach sites around Bayeux, and run over to MSM, skipping the cider, gardens, and historic locations in between, because you have so little time. It is quite difficult to visit multiple beach sites with public transportation, since you will lose time walking and waiting for busses. Since you don't want to rent a car for MSM, the service from the Churchill Hotel is worth considering, although I haven't used it. We spent three nights in Bayeux and three nights in Dinard. We visited MSM by car one of those days from Dinard, as well as some megalithic stones and Dol-de-Bretagne and Dinan. (Not recommending Dinard - there are more scenic places to stay if you have a car.)

This is very difficult to do without a car. First, skip Honfleur and head straight for Bayeux. Book a half-day tour from Bayeux that will take you to Omaha Beach (and Point du Hoc). Rick lists lots of them in his book--get the cheaper ones that use a minivan rather than a individual guided tour. Stay the night in Bayeux. The next morning take the Bayeux Shuttle or the Hotel Churchill shuttle to Mont St Michel. The shuttles will take you back to Bayeux where you can connect to a train to Paris.

Thank you all for the wonderful inslights. Based on your comments, I'm considering renting a car. If I do that, would the Honfleur, Normandy Beaches and Mont St Michel be more doable? Paris to Honfleur in the am and have lunch, drive to Bayeaux to pick up afternoon Normandy beach tour, then drive to Mont St Michel. Stay the night there and enjoy it in the morning and drive back to Paris. Thoughts?

Rent a car, driving is easy if you stay away from larger cities. Skip Honfleur unless there is something you really want/need to see there. It's a charming village but there are a million of them.

Will you be doing this from Paris, having arrived there earlier, or are you heading out to do this on your arrival day from CDG? To me, that makes a difference as to where and when you rent the car.

Yes, Celeste. We will be renting from Paris. Taking the city in for 3 days before making the trip to Normandy. I have some points with avis, so looking for one near the Hilton Opera where we will be staying. I will have to drive through the city some. That's the part that scares me thr most. :) So, you suggest skipping honfleur and going straight to bayeaux to meet a tour guide?

Train from Gare St. Lazare in Paris to Bayeux & pick a place to spend the night (we chose Relais les Remparts B&B). Book both trips (D-Day beaches & Mint St. Michel) through Bayeux Shuttle in advance. They pick up / drop off in the middle of Bayeux & were affordable. Hope this helps.

Having, unwisely, returned a car in downtown Paris, I advise you not to pick one up there. If you refer back to your OP, you have made it clear, yourself, that it's not a good idea.

I don't mean to recommend it, because I haven't done it, but some editions of Rick's France describe putting their luggage into the car in the Rouen (?) rental car garage and leaving it there while you glance over Rouen. Then you drive off when you're ready! Because we did more than Normandy, we took the TGV to St. Pierre des Corps and rented beside the rail station. At the end was my nightmare return experience, six levels down on a narrow ramp, at Avis Champs Elysee.