Normandy Transportation Help- Which Airport

I can't imagine there is a better international airport than Paris CDG for this itinerary but I'm sure if there is someone will note it.

We did 5 nights in Normandy a couple of years ago. You can see some of our stops including Mont St. Michel, Bayeux, Honfleur and Etretat here: https://janettravels.wordpress.com/category/normandy/

I would not attempt a drive to CDG the day of the flight but would book a hotel AT (not NEAR) the airport for the final night -- have dinner somewhere and then turn the car in that evening and stay overnight at Novotel or Sheraton or other airport hotels to be on hand to be 3 hours early to your gate that morning. Trying to drive in, check the car in and get sign off that it is tanked and undamaged, is not something to attempt the day of a high stakes flight.

Getting from Normandy to London is not simpler than Paris, so only choose London if you have time to visit there. The main route to London by train is via Paris. To avoid Paris, you'd take a combination of train-ferry-train, using a ferry from Le Havre or Cherbourg to Portsmouth, for instance; see ferry schedules http://www.seaviewferries.co.uk/.

This is very helpful, thank you! We will probably return the car in Normandy and take a train back to Paris for our last day before departing, unless anyone feels that is a bad idea? Just trying to maximize our time wherever possible and avoid stress at all cost.

Regarding train tickets, what is the best outlet to book train tickets in advance?

Thanks again,

Katie

Hi Katie -- Does your five days include your arrival day and the day your flight departs? I.e. if you arrive in Paris on October 11th (departing from U.S. on October 10th), what day will you be flying out? Right now it looks like you don't quite have enough time for all those sites, but it will be clearer once we know your departure date (i.e. how long you really have in France).

If this is the only place you're going on your trip, yes, you would fly in and out of Paris CDG. Anything else would take much more effort to get to.

Kim,

We will be arriving in Paris on October 11 from Barcelona. We'll probably spend a good part of the 11th traveling by plane from Barcelona to Paris, then by train to Normandy. Hoping to arrive by early evening and planning to have overnight accommodations set in advance, at least for the first night. So, we'll be looking at all day October 12- 15, possibly the 16th in Normandy. There's a good chance we will take the train back to Paris on on the 16th, then fly home the 17th.

Thank you for your help!

Delta has nonstop flights from Paris to Pittsbutgh - just something to consider.

I would just drive and drop the car at CDG but you could also easily drop at Caen and take the train back. We booked 3 mos out using the official French rail site and got tickets for 15 Euro which we printed at home, but I doubt those are still available for your trip this late; you should give it a shot though if you want to do it that way. Note that the rental agencies in Caen and probably other smaller venues close for a long lunch break so you have to drop the car and keys and hope for the best on check in.

Rouen to Paris is about 1:15-1:30 by train, figure another hour to CDG. I'm hoping 3 hours is enough to cover it; I'm doing this the day I fly home, aiming to arrive at CDG 3 hours before my flight.

As for your itinerary, are you planning on moving every nite or are these just 5-6 places you plan to visit from 1-2 bases?

Katie,

If you're looking for the closest airport for your flight home, Paris / CDG is the only reasonable option. While there are some airports in Normandy (Carpiquet), those have very limited and expensive flights, and no international flights (AFAIK).

Are you planning on staying in one location and using that as a "home base" for touring the various places on your list? If so, Bayeux would be a great choice for that as it's not only somewhat central, but also has some interesting sights, including of course the famous Tapestry which details a much earlier battle, an excellent WW-II Museum and the Gun Batteries at Longues sur Mer (not too far out of town).

On the topic of WW-II sights, there are an enormous number of them and they cover a huge area. The front extended across a distance of about 50 miles, and then some distance inland. Unless you've done a lot of research, driving about on your own will take a lot of time and you may miss some of the important sights. For that reason, it's often better to take one of the excellent local tours, either a half-day or full-day tour. Many of these depart from or near Bayeux, which is another good reason to stay there, and you can choose from "American Highlights, Canadian Highlights", etc. You'll get a much more detailed and rewarding sense of the history with a tour (I've used both methods, and that's been my experience).

There are international flights to Caen and Deauville, but not transatlantic flights, and they are mostly to minor airports in London and the Meditteranean, so not easy to connect to from the US.

Katie, especially since you're arriving in Paris from within Europe (and thus won't be jet lagged), you really might want to consider renting your car right at the airport to drive to Normandy rather than taking a train to Caen. To get to Caen from CDG you have to either take the RER train into town and transfer to gare St Lazare, from which station the train to Caen departs, or take a train to LeMans and switch there for Caen. Either one takes you way out of your way.

See this earlier discussion on the Forum for more on this:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/to-the-west/driving-from-the-airport-cdg-in-paris-to-caen-help

I still think your # of days doesn't make it very easy to see all the things you want to see.

On the East side you have

• Honfleur
• Etretat

On the West side you have

• Bayeux and D-Day beaches (I think most people here think that Bayeux is the best base for staying to see the D-Day beaches and most of us believe it is well worth hiring a guide to take you out from Bayeux
• Mont Saint Michel - a couple of hours still west of Bayeux

I don't know that you have to go to Caen unless you really want to see that particular museum. But you can get a wonderful experience at the D-Day beaches without it.

I'm not particularly set on arriving at Caen or Bayeux, we're just looking to arrive at the easiest location via train from Paris. If we had more time and were more experienced with international driving, I would definitely like to drive versus train, but I think train is going to be our best bet for this trip.

So, we'd be looking to pick up the car in Normandy. I've read that Caen has better rental car options, but now i'm not sure. Can someone please break down the pros and cons of arriving in Caen versus Bayeux and vice versa?

Also we had originally planned to skip around to different towns and stay at a few different overnight accommodations, but would it be best to just select one home base and take day-time excursion trips?

Thank you everyone for the help!

We almost always take the train from Paris to Caen (once the ferry from Portsmouth to Quistreham to Caen). There are three rental car agencies right across the street from the Caen railroad station. We use AutoEurope and have never had any issues. We then drive to Bayeux, about 15 miles or so, an easy drive, and stay the first night at the Churchill Hotel. Right behind the hotel is the pickup point for most D Day tours around 0800 and the famous tapestry of the 1066 Norman conquest is a block or so away. We have stayed at a rural B&B near Villiers-Bocage, about 12 miles east of Bayeux and about 90 miles from Mont St. Michel via four lane and drove there. You can base in Bayeux and easily travel to the other towns or check out the rural B&B at www.bandbnormandie.com. On tripadvisor.com there is a separate travel forum for Bayeux and one for Normandie as well. You can get specific feedback from those two forums on Bayeux, Honfleur, D Day tours, etc. Caen is a large city while Bayeux or Villiers-Bocage are small towns that you might enjoy more. We really enjoyed both small towns. No tourists in Villiers-Bocage and it was delightful shopping, eating in local cafes, and happily struggling to get by in our phrasebook French.

Also we had originally planned to skip around to different towns and stay at a few different overnight accommodations, but would it be best to just select one home base and take day-time excursion trips?

With 5 nites you'd be changing hotels just about every nite to stay at a few different ones. I'm guessing you haven't done this before because most people try to minimize 1-nite stays after doing it on a trip. This is not a large region if you look at a map so I'd suggest picking at most 2 places. Every time you check out/in it takes time to find the hotel and park near it, get your bags there, unpack (assuming your room is ready, otherwise you're leaving your bags and hope they watch them). Larger hotels tend to have a room where they can put guest luggage before/after they check out, but we've stayed in plenty of smaller places where they just invite you to put them in the area near the check-in desk; as the desk person periodically leaves your bags are sitting there for anyone who wants to simply pick up and go.

By contrast, with a base you simply drive to the other towns, park in the public lot, and go on your way carrying a small daypack.

But its your trip, and changing nightly for 5 nites isn't the same as doing it most nites for 2 weeks. Maybe you want to be able to wander around in the evening in a couple of small towns without having to worry about driving. So perhaps give it a shot, figure like it or hate it, its a learning experience.

Katie:

You mentioned arriving @ CDG on October 11. That falls on a Sunday.

If you plan on renting a car in Normandy, make sure that the agency you're renting from is open on Sundays. Some (even in Caen) are not.

JM

Hi Katie,

I was trying to add London to our Normandy itinerary but ended up heading back to Paris and home from CDG. We even looked at flying from Dinard or Deauville on Ryanair but you had to fly to London Stansted. Stansted is northeast of London and is about an hour train ride to Liverpool Street Station. We wanted to leave Normandy, connect through London, and head home from LHR but those logistics would not work in the Ryanair option. However, if you were going to stay in London for a day or two, then it could be a possibility. Had an incredible experience in Normandy. We were able to take in your steps 1, 2, 3, and 5 during a five day stay but we were moving to be sure. We rented a car as well....it was very easy to get around. I liked the Orne River Bridge area. The Gondree Cafe is a nice place to relax and re-live history. The British Airborne museum across the river is well done. Have a great time.

Arriving on a Sunday means you'll probably have to rent at CDG--99.9% sure. Only the largest city train and airport agencies will be open on a Sunday. You can verify this on autoeurope.com. There wouldn't be much traffic driving out away from Paris, and you'd save about two hours not going into Paris and getting the train. You can drive via Etretat, stay the night in Honfleur, move on to Bayeux and the beaches for a couple of nights, with a day trip to Mont St. Michel, 90 minutes each way from Bayeux. You can still hit the Caen museum if it's a must for you, and finally Rouen on your way back to CDG.

As mentioned earlier, to use the train you have to get transportation in to Paris, change stations, wait for trains, and have the car agencies closed in Caen. You can be in Bayeux, the preferred place to stay, before the train even leaves the station. It's a trade off.

Aha, Juan and Bets have caught the important fact that we all missed -- that you're arriving on a Sunday.

With 5 nights, I would pick at most two stops in Normandy and then spend the last night at CDG at a hotel at the airport. As others have noted on Sundays you will need to pick up the car at CDG.

We had 5 nights and spent one at MSM and two in Bayeux and two in Etretat. That is more moving around than we often do, but it worked well for us, because we wanted to do a tour with Overlord of the American beaches. If you are doing your own driving tour (and that is easy to do, you just need to do the planning that we didn't have time to do) then it is less crucial that you stay in Bayeux. I would visit it for the tapestry though -- one of the few 'attractions' highly touted that really lives up to its advance billing. I found it thrilling to see. Honfleur was a nice place to stay as there are lots of restaurants and it is a charming place to wander about in the evening, but it doesn't require a lot of time to see.

The advantage of basing in one place if your goals are in that area is that you are not touring with luggage in your car. This is always a risk. I know we didn't like having to leave our luggage in our trunk while we visited Mont St. Michel. We know people who have had their luggage stolen from cars parked in tourist venues. It is much more secure to be able to stow things in a hotel room and then not have to worry about it.