travel tips for trip to Normandy with senior citizen

Friends of mine, one a retired school teacher, took a small group tour from Paris that covered most if not all of these locations. I believe it was within 7 days. Thet would be more relaxing having a guide do all the work. Some on this site may have done a tour like this with more current information.

The Normandy beach areas are not at all well served by public transportation. To get between sights, you will definitely need a car—either your own or that of a tour guide—but the latter will be limiting. Driving around Normandy is easy and very pretty. Bayeux is a good central location, and it is an easy drive from there to Juno Beach, Arromanches, etc. To get to Bayeux, I recommend taking a train to Caen from Gare Saint-Lazare in Paris and renting a car there (more options in Caen than Bayeux). The two places are a 20–30 minute drive apart.

The Juno Beach Centre is wonderful and well run by the Canadian Government. The Canadian Cemetery in Bény-sur-Mer is one of the most contemplative locations in Normandy IMHO. But again, you'll need a car to get there. Honfleur and Mont Saint-Michel are both wonderful, but both are in the opposite direction from Juno Beach. You may consider going to one or both on your way into our out of the beach areas. You won't need to speak French on any of these places, but they will appreciate it if you try. Especially the polite phrases.

irlefebvre,
Does your seven days mean seven nights? Consider arrival day from North America to be somewhat lost to sightseeing. I would take a taxi from CDG to Gare St Lazare and the train from there to Rouen to spend the night and adjust to the time change. Rouen is a beautiful city in Normandy with a wonderful cathedral, delicious food and a great medieval center. Depending on your arrival time you can have a nice walk around the medieval center, visit the cathedral (Monet's favorite), and enjoy a good meal. Next morning rent a car and take a beautiful drive along D982 next to the Seine, stop at Abbaye de Jumieges for about an hour, then head to Bayeux. Even driving on the more scenic D roads and stopping at the Abbey, your drive will take about 4 hours (leisurely). Direct driving is about 2 hours. A different option would be drive from Rouen to Honfleur (a little over an hour), explore the town, have lunch, then drive on to Bayeux (also just over an hour).

Bayeux is popular as a base for the DDay sights for a good reason. It didn't suffer bomb damage during WWII so is great for ambience and history and also for access to the many sights in the area. You can take a guided tour of various sights or drive yourself. (I would do some research on this to see what works best for you. We have always driven ourselves, but guided tours are very popular and there are several with excellent recommendations here. A lot depends on how much history you already know about this part of the war.) Definitely spend 3 nights in Bayeux, for two full days of sightseeing. There are some on this forum who can easily spend a week at a time exploring this area in great depth. That is a bit much for me, even though my husband spent some of his childhood near here in the late forties. Youy are now at day 5, and you could drive to Mont St. Michel (note spelling) in about 2 hours. You would have most of that day there (with an early start from Bayeux) and could spend the night on the Mont or in nearby Pontorson. Next day (day 6) drive to Rennes, return the car, and take the train to Paris. Spend that night in Paris before your return home on day 7. If you were not including arrival and departure days in your seven days, all the better. You can spend more time in any of your stops.

I am in the camp of seeing the countryside of Normandy as well as the historical sights. Everything you are planning on seeing is great, but I hope you can take some scenic routes in Normandy, and don't just hop on the autoroutes between locations. That will make your trip more relaxing, IMO. Driving will be easier if you get your rental car on the way out of Rouen. Likewise, dropping it off in Rennes will make for an easier trip back to Paris.

By the way, to me your father isn't a senior citizen. Hubby and I are in our 80s, so your dad is of the age of people I used to babysit back in the day! Enjoy!

I can't help but disagree with Judy- your father and I are the same age, and being over 65,we are most certainly senior citizens. But that in no way means we are either feeble or decrepit.

Moving on, I've taken note that you are Canadian, as am I. Bayeux gets the majority of recommendations around here, because it is handy to the American D Day sites, and is a larger town, with more choices of amenities. However, if you and your father are more interested in the Canadian and British sites, I can recommend Courseulles-sur-Mer. It is the town where the Juno Centre is located, and roughly midway between Gold and Sword Beaches and Pegasus Bridge. Honfleur is an hours drive,it and Deauville makes a nice change from the WWII sites. Mont St Michel is a little under 2 hours away in the opposite direction, and deserves an overnight stay.
I strongly recommend renting a car -Caen has multiple agencies close to the train station. Even if you take a D Day tour, you will need a car to do your own explorations of sites not covered by any tour(s) you take. You could train to Caen, pick up the rental, then drop it in Rennes after MSM, and train back to Paris. Overlord Tours has an all day tour that covers many of the British and Canadian sites.

I would recommend visiting the La Combe German cemetery. It is very different and moving.
You need a car.
We stayed at https://www.chateau-de-sully.com/en/ , recommended.
In my opinion Mont St Michele is a waste of time.