Recommendations for car travel between Paris and Normandy during May/June 2015

Balleroy - It’s incredable how many castles of this kind you have in France and how poor the common people where during the old days of the Ancient Régime. Nice place anyway, thanks for the tip Jeff.

Thanks to you both. I look forward to exploring what I am told are the many chateaus on the way to Normandy. If you or anyone else has suggestions as to which chateaus, or where to research these, it would be appreciated. I would even like to spend a night or two at different chateaus.

How much time do you have for this trip? Enough to add two days for few the famous chateaux of the Loire valley, around Amboise? Or consider chateaux which are easy daytrips from Paris, such as Versailles, Chantilly, Vaux-le-Vicomte, and Fontainebleau (the latter three covered in Rick's Paris book, but not France book). I also never tire of the Bayeux tapestry.

Yes, two nights stay at chateaus would work on the way to/from Normandy. Any specific suggestions?

What about car rentals in Paris? Suggestions?

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Chateau Villette, better known as Leigh Teabing’s mansion in The Da Vinci Code has 15 bedrooms for lodging. Location is some 40km west of Paris along road D28 near village Condécourt.
Maybe www.chateaux-france.com is usefull, you can select English and castles with accommodation per area, have however no personal experience with this.

last visit we rented from Avis to go from Carcassonne to Arles, and had no issues other than a rather amusing scene doing the paperwork with a new employee - but that's a long story... this September we chose Eurocar to travel through Normandy and later from La Rochelle to Carcassonne and Arles and around the region. We shall see.

We spent 5 nights in Burgundy last year -- 1 at MSt Michele, two in Bayeaux and two in Honfleur. We did a tour of the beaches on the full day at Bayeaux and visited the tapestry and Cathedral the night before. We visited Etretat crossing the Pont Normandy on the full day in Honfleur. You can see photos of some of this at www.janettravels.wordpress.com under the 'Normandy' category.

We loved it. There are so many lovely places to see, we wouldlove to have had a few more days.

Have a great trip.

Most people seem to start heading north out of Paris on the A13. Rouen's been mentioned, but just south, on the hill above Les Andelys is Chateau Gaillard the only castle built by Lionheart in France. It's a ruin, but interesting for it's history and the view of the bends in the Seine that gave the Vikings fits.

In the Rouen cathedral (right aisle, toward the rear, waist high), is a sarcophagus containing Richard I's heart (the rest of him is at Fontevraud Abbey near Chinon (southwest of Tours). Less than a half mile west (down the pedestrian drag, under the arch with the large clock) is the site where Joan of Arc met her end.

Continuing on the subject of sarcophagi, William I / William the Bastard / William the Conqueror is buried at the Abbey of Saint-Etienne in Caen. When they tried to stuff his fat, unembalmed corpse into the too-small sarcophagus inside the abbey, the sucker exploded.

A couple of things that everybody seems to skip are the walled city of Fougeres and the huge menhir at Dol-de-Bretagne.

What everybody gets wrong (due to the tourist hype) is that William the Fat was born in the castle at Falaise. He was, in fact, born in Falaise, but the existing castle was built after his birth.