Travel from Paris to Bayeux

I never book high stakes travel where I am not in the town the night before. We had a Thalys come in 5 hours late from Amsterdam once -- stuff happens. I would organize your Paris trip so that the Bayeux portion comes earlier and you finish with a few days in Paris then take the Eurostar. I would not book them without at least a 3 hour gap if you are booking them the same day. That will usually be too much time -- but sometimes it won't be.

It is not difficult to drive in France; driving in Paris is like driving in any big city -- not a big deal but we try to avoid it these days. Picking up and returning a rental car in France is a pain -- none of that 'quick start' stuff that is the norm in the US. And you want to be able to get receipts showing no damage and gassed up when you drop it and that can take time. If you rent a car be sure you know EXACTLY where the car return is at Gare du Nord. It is not something to try to figure out while driving in urban traffic and things tend not to be well signed.

If you book your train to Bayeux 3 mos out, it will cost about 15 Euro per ticket per direction. It is about 3 times that if you wait till late. And you can print those PREMs tickets at home.

Train from Paris -> Caen. Pick up rental car and drive to nearby Bayeux. Drop car back in Caen and train back to Paris from there. Do not attempt to train back to Paris on the same day you depart on EuroStar. Just don't do it.

Thank you both very much. Great information! I appreciate you taking the time to respond.

We - a group of 8 took the train from Paris to Caen, changed trains and on to Bayeux. It was very easy. If you have luggage, I would recommend that you hop in a taxi on arrival to Bayeux - to get into the town center

If you need a car in Bayeux then Tim's suggestion is excellent and those tickets again are 15 Euro bought early. If you are only in Bayeux a couple of days to visit the beaches and perhaps SM - you can do that with tours and not bother with a car.

Hi,
I agree with Tim with one exception. Forget renting the car and take the train all the way to Bayeux.
1) Take train in late afternoon from Paris to Bayeaux. Spend night in Bayeux.
2) Take wonderful guided D-Day tour trip that lasts 8 hours the next day.
3) Take train back to Paris during the early evening.
4) I would stay in Paris overnight and Eurostar out the next day. If Eurostar has late trains out, that may be a plan that would work for you to be out the same day.
**I trust the trains way more than traffic in France. I am not an expert, but have not had a problem with a train in France.....................JR

When I first searched, I didn't find a decent train to Bayeux from Paris. I ended up training to Rouen then drove up to Etretat before going down to Bayeux. Later I checked for a question on this site and found there are no-connection trains to Bayeux that work well. I'd look at an entire day to see the options. If you search in a narrow time window, like I did originally, you might not find anything.

You do not say how many days you'd like to spend in each place.
We rented a pre-arranged car from CDG. Then drove to Giverny and spent our 1st night in the area.
The next day we drove to Caen and visited the Peace Museum, ending by dropping car in Bayeux.
We spent 4 nights in Bayeux, two were for WWII tour days, another for Bayeux and whatever.

We trained to Paris and continued our travel from there.
So this option is to consider going to Normandy countryside first, then visit Paris, London afterwards.
We found trains reliable and schedules very flexible for travel. We normally book earlier trains
when moving forward to another place.

We rented car at CDG, drove to Bayeux, 3 nights there (plenty to do other than WWII stuff including a day trip to Honfleur), returned car in Bayeux (you can only do this if you rent with Hertz), train back to Paris. Didn't even have to change trains in Caen, just a quick stop. We walked from our rental to the train station in Bayeux the morning we departed.

melinda,

The trains from Paris to Bayeux (and back) are very reliable, unless of course there's track work or something happening at the time.

The trains to the Normandy area depart from Gare St. Lazare so you'll need to get from wherever your hotel is to that station. There are a few direct trains to Bayeux at 10:10 and 12:10 (among others), and other trains with one or more changes in Caen or elsewhere. Travel time on the direct trains is 2H:09M. You can see all the rail solutions on the bahn.de website.

When you arrive in Bayeux, the easiest way to get to your hotel will be to take a Taxi. If you're leaving Bayeux early in the morning, I'd suggest asking your hotel to pre-book a Taxi back to the station.

For the trip from Bayeux to London, you'll need to.....

• take train from Bayeux to Gare St. Lazare
• take Metro or Taxi from Gare St. Lazare to Gare du Nord
• take EuroStar to London St. Pancras.

With the EuroStar, you can save money by buying tickets well in advance. Allow yourself lots of time to make the connection in Paris, as you MUST check in for the EuroStar at least 30 minutes prior to departure, or you won't be riding. You'll also have to go through airport style security and will be clearing U.K. Passport control at Gare du Nord, so that will take some time. You can get all the details on the EuroStar at this website....

http://seat61.com/London-to-Paris-by-train.htm

Hi Melinda,

As Ken already stated, trains here in Bayeux are really reliable. His advice is the best I read so far.

You can drive from Pairs to Bayeux by car, which is not difficult and will take about 3.5hrs. By train it will take about 2 hrs (direct line) and costs about 35.00 euro per person single trip. So, if you are with not more then 2 people, the train is the fasted, most comfortable and cheapest option.

Within Bayeux everything is in walking distance. No car needed.

Regards,
Rene van Oirschot,