My husband and I are traveling in July (last minute decision) to Paris and staying there for 6 nights. Would like to insert an overnight trip to see Lisieux and Mont St Michel by train. What is the best itinerary to take (where to go first) and are there little towns nearby we can visit too using a cab or train? We are planning to stay overnight at Mont St Michel. We can stay another night if there are other places nearby we can visit.
Thank you :0
If you have been to Paris before I would go straight to the Mont St Michel and work the way back to Lisieux and then Paris. If not you might be trying to stay in too many place for a 6 day trip and may want save either Lisieux or Mt St Michel for another trip,
Thank you.! We've been to Paris before so we don't have to do much sightseeing in the city. We have a hotel booked for 6 nights though but planning on just leaving our luggage there and going to Mont St Michel for a night. I wanted to do as you suggested, Mont St Michel then Lisieux on the way back but i need to carefully check the train sched. Rail Europe was letting me go back to Paris train station then to LIseux which is not convenient. Has anybody else tried this route by train?
RailEurope often doesn't list all the rail connections, and it is often substantially more expensive than other ticket sources. I'd check SNCF and trainline.eu.
However, rail lines in France tend to fan out from Paris, so it is common to need to travel into Paris and back out again. It happened to me three times last year. Still, I believe there is a 10:10 AM regional train that gets you to Caen at 12:11, connecting to a 12:16 train (another regional) to Lisieux. I wouldn't be totally confident of making that 5-minute transfer (regionals can be a few minutes late), so I'd check to see the times of the next two trains from Caen to Lisieux.
This would be...tight. You may want to consider another night, or a car.
There are trains from St. Lazar to Lisieux that take about 1:45. Get an early start and you can have the good part of a day there.
However, getting to MSM is harder, 3-4 hours (with change in Caen) and the trains are infrequent. Your best bet would get you to Pontorson after 7 PM. Still light out, but you'd miss some of the best time on the island.
Similar constraints apply if you visit MSM first.
An overnight to MSM is feasible. You could visit Lisieux as a day trip from Paris.
You can take the TGV to Rennes and from there a local train to Pontorson, needing around 3 hours. Further a shuttle bus to the main land of Le Mont-Saint-Michel and finally the local free shuttle bus to the island. As already explained a route with a stop in Lisieux is very time consuming, if it is worth for you nevertheless doable. Or you can visit Lisieux the first day and using the TGV for going back, depending the schedule. Know there are just a few highspeed connections that can be convenient for your overnight trip.
http://www.bienvenueaumontsaintmichel.com/en/preparing-your-visit/arriving-by-train
July is high season, so arriving in the late afternoon or early evening at Le Mont-Saint-Michel is to prefer to avoid the crowds. The same visiting it in the morning before they arrive. If budget and time is no problem you can for instance take a cab between Caen and Lisieux for visiting Beuvron-en-Auge. Or between Lisieux and Brionne for a detour to Le Bec-Hellouin, just an idea.
For time tables you can use the one of Deutsche Bahn. https://www.bahn.com/en/view/index.shtml
