Two Days - Giverny, Normany beaches & Mont St Michel

Giverny is easier as a same-day roundtrip from Paris, one hour each way. From Vernon (the train station for Giverny), you do not continue on the same train line to reach Caen and Bayeux. Train schedules onward to those towns indicate a connection either at Rouen or backtracking to Paris St. Lazare station. Neither St. Lazare nor Vernon stations have an official baggage storage office.

You can get a van tour with any of several companies in Caen or Bayeux. If you have Rick's France guidebook, you'll find many specific recommendations for private guides and small-group tours. The Caen Memorial Museum operates good half- and full-day tours. (Local buses to the beach sites don't run frequently.)

There are a few train and bus connections to Mont-St-Michel or Pontorson. Either name may give you somewhat different schedule options, so try both. How to Look Up Train Schedules and Routes Online gives you the DB train schedule link and tips for using it (but does not sell French tickets).

Diana, if it is feasible in this time frame, it is not feasible by train.

If you go to see Giverny as a half-day trip from Paris, you could (on another day, or the same day) take a train from Paris to Bayeux. From Bayeux you could take a tour (arranged in advance) the next morning of some of the D-Day sites.

There are also some worthwhile things to see in Bayeux, and I can also recommend the Peace Museum (about the war) in Caen. You would not need a car for such an itinerary.

Unless you are willing to spend another night in Normandy I don't think that MSM would be feasible. If you had a car you could drive there to spend the night and then drive to Rennes (or Caen) the next day and take the train back to Paris.

With a car you could maybe do it. Early train to Caen or Bayeux, get car, self-tour of beaches, drive to MSM, spend the night, drive to Rennes, train to Paris. I think you might feel shortchanged, but it's at least logistically possible that way.

Laura mentioned van tours of WW II sights in Normandy, and for what it's worth, there are also several outfits who will drive you to and from Giverny, if you opted to not go on your own by train.

Diana, one of the most FAQs on this board is "D-Day Beaches Daytrip from Paris?" Do some searches with the box in the top-center for a lot of ideas about how to do your trip, maybe, in two nights away from Paris. It would appear that the Hotel Churchill bus trip to Mt. St. Michel is directed at exactly your target audience. But you need to understand that you are trying to do a lifetime of travel in France in a single trip to Paris. It's like visiting Boston, Cape Cod, and Southern New Hampshire in the same week off from work; And without a car, it's shooting yourself in the foot. Do you have Rick's "France"? Do you want to say, "I did it", or "I enjoyed it?"

I don't really think it is feasible. You could train to Normandy, stopping at Giverny for a few hours, then make your way to Bayeaux. Spend the night there, do a tour, then train back to Paris. Without a car you will have to do an organized tour of the D Day sites. I would leave MSM for another time.

Thank you for the responses. The more I think about it, the more I realize it can't be easily done.