Paris and D-Day beaches

Does the four days count your arrival day in France and your departure day for Dublin?

Yes arrival and departure are included in those 4 days. Now that I am saying that I think 4 days is too little.

You are probably correct that it is too little time. We recently did Paris and Normandy as part of our family trip. To do a full day of the d-day sights (which you will need to see everything that you want) I think you need two nights; more for your own sanity/ exhaustion level than anything else. You would want to arrive to Bayeux the night before so that you could start off at an early/ reasonable time, and when you are done after a FULL day you probably would not want to head back to Paris that evening, but that is doable if you are taking the train.

RS book has some great suggestions as to where to stay in Bayeux. We took one of his suggestions and stayed at the Hotel Sainte Croix B&B run by Florence and enjoyed it immensely. http://www.hotel-de-sainte-croix.com/ . We felt it was one of the better values in Bayeux and the bathroom was huge and the food delectable.

We recently stayed at Hotel de Brunville in Bayeux and would recommend it. You probably only need one night in Bayeux but it is a cute little town if you had time for 2 nights. But if you plan to tour Paris, you'll probably want at least 3 days there to see the highlights.

Thank you both, this has been very helpful. I think two nights in Bayeux will be needed and minimum of 3 in Paris. I think I will be rushing too much with fewer days making the trip less relaxed and more hectic. I want to be able to linger or even just sit and take in the sights at times. Thanks again for the input and suggestions.

mel,

In order to see the D-Day sights, I'd suggest at least two nights in Bayeux. One good choice is Hotel Churchill since many of the tours depart from the vicinity of the hotel.

I would highly recommend pre-booking a tour well in advance, as they do get booked up at times. One of the one-day American Highlights tours should cover all the locations you mentioned. Some of the tour firms to consider....

• D-Day Historian (Paul Woodage)
• Dale Booth Normandy tours
  • Overlord Tours
• VistDDay.com (Chris)

All of the above are outstanding, and (IMO) well worth the cost. Be sure to make some time to visit the famous Tapestry, which describes a much earlier battle. There's also an excellent WW-II Museum in Bayeux.

Regarding flying outbound from Normany, there is the small Caen-Carpiquet Airport but flights are limited. One option is FlyBe from Caen to London-Southend but I didn't check on whether this is a seasonal service, or what the frequency of flights is. Your best bet might b Transavia France from Orly to Dublin, one of the airlines from CDG or a direct RyanAir flight from Beauvais. In any case, the trip from Normandy to Dublin is probably going to take the better part of a day.

We spent 3 nights in Bayeux at the Hotel Churchill.....great location for walking around the town and catching our DDay tour the next morning early with Overlord. Did not think we would be that wowed by the tapestry but we were....fascinating to see something like that so well-preserved but so old. Wanted to suggest if you can seeing all 3 of the cemeteries.....it will put WW2 in proper perspective. We saw the American cemetery on our Overlord Tour but felt rushed so went back the next day to get a closer look. We were also advised to see the British cemetery in Bayeux by a friend that is a Normandy scholar.....and we were SO GLAD we did. The British allowed the families of those buried there to put a personal message on each gravestone.....and to walk through the cemetery and read those is a lesson in the sacrifice that country made as well as America. The last morning we were in Bayeux we went to the German cemetery.......very cold and stark compared to the two others. We were so glad we saw all three!

We did a full day tour with normandy 44 tours and saw all those sites you mentioned and a few others. They even do a tour based on arriving by train from Paris if you wanted to not even have to switch hotels.

@ Jane...The British cemetery is not very far from the museum in Bayeux, can be done on foot from the train station. How did you get to the German cemetery from Bayeux? Which one, since there are two of them?

Fred.....we had a rental car but walked from our hotel in Bayeux to the British cemetery. We drove to the German one on our way out of town to Mont. St. Michel the next morning.

Thanks, Jane. There used to be a bus # 70 that took you to the German cemetery from the Gare Routiere across from the Bayeux train station. The last time I was in Bayeux was 2012, that bus route stop had changed amidst all the construction....so, no bus to the cemetery.