Who has rented a car in Caen?

Its very easy. Caen is a small city. You drive through it for maybe 5 minutes, then get on the freeway. The D-Day museum and American cemetery are in the same place, so going twice (in version 2) doesnt make sense.

It's been 17 years, but yes, I have taken the train to Caen and rented a car there, though I stayed several days before returning the car in Caen. (I returned my car after hours and dropped the key - worked fine.)

I did not have a GPS at the time, but I still managed the driving just fine. I got a little lost leaving Caen but once I found the highway to Bayeux, I never got lost again. (With a GPS, I'm sure it would have been simple to leave Caen.) After Caen, driving within Normandy was super easy and fun. Mostly it's chill countryside.

However, I think some people would recommend some sort of guided tour if trying to do all of this in a single day. I didn't, but I had three nights in Normandy, so I had plenty of time to see everything I wanted, at the pace I wanted. If I were trying to compress that all into one day, it might have been super hard to organize/see it all.

Which museum are you planning to visit?

Jessica, the D-day museum is in the city of Bayeux, and the cemetery is up by the coast

andrew, this one

https://www.bayeuxmuseum.com/musee-memorial-de-la-bataille-de-normandie/

but... if we are renting in Caen, I guess we could choose the Caen museum instead, if it's better. We still want to drive out to Omaha Beach anyway

The Caen Museum is very large. One could spend the whole day there. I liked its comprehensiveness; some others think it's overwhelming and unnecessarily devotes considerable space to the periods before and after the war. No one has anything negative to say about the smaller museum in Bayeux. You don't remotely have time for the Caen Museum, so I think the decision is clear.

The confusion about the cemetery is due to tne fact that, while the American Cemetery is up on the coast, the British Cemetery (or at least a British cemetery) is in Bayeux, very near the museum.

I think nearly all visitors get much more out of their visits to Normandy invasion sites if they take a tour, but there comes a point when the traveler simply doesn't have enough time to make a tour worthwhile.

You'll want to spend hours in the Caen Museum, and you don't have the time to do that. Best to get in the car and drive to the beaches and see everything you can see there. If you have spare time then visit the museum.

Fourfinleys,

I rented a car at Caen and then drove to Bayeaux for a day at Normandy. From what I remember, the drive was simple and uneventful as I followed the GPS on my phone. Please remember that most car rentals in Europe are manual transmission cars, so be prepared to drive a stick. Good luck.

Thanks, manual transmissions are not a problem for either my wife or me. I'm really tempted to do this, otherwise there's really not a good way to see both the bigger Museum and the American cemetery all in one day. If we do the cemetery in the morning and then come back and stay at the museum until they close that's probably the best plan

There are lots of WWII museums in Normandy. We really disliked the one in Caen, loved the one in Bayeux. Highly recommend it, it’s our favorite.
I’ve rented a car many times in Caen, once in Bayeux. Better to rent in Caen as you can walk right to it from the train and they have more cars to choose from.
Bayeux only has 1 place to get a rental, a gas station. You need to taxi there. Didn’t matter what car we pre-arranged, they had exactly 1, we had no choice but to take it.
Driving in Normandy is supremely easy. We love driving all over on the 2 lane roads to sites and just exploring.
But we’ve been to and stayed in Bayeux 6-7 times, for a week each time. I can’t imagine going for part of 1 day.
A guided tour for that short of time will be more efficient, but very limited. You will miss so much whether you go on your own or go with a 1/2 day tour.

Thanks Susan. Very helpful. Can you tell me what it was about the Caen museum that put it behind the bayeux one?

Different strokes for different folks -- we saw the Caen peace museum and found it memorable for the historical context of the growth of fascism. Bayeux museum, also good, more focused on the Normandy invasion. This year our only repeat visit was to the Bayeux tapestry.

We rented in Caen. FWIW. The rental agencies by the train station take a long lunch and close, so be sure you know that the places are open when you need to pick up your car. You can drop with a closed office, but not pick up.

Caen museum is expensive, was packed like sardines, very confusing, totally overwhelming.
My Dad landed on Omaha Beach, i know a lot of the history, but intensely disliked the Caen museum. As someone else said, it encompasses much more than WWII.
We really like the Bayeux museum because it focuses on WWII (the whole reason why we’re in Normandy - not for a 6 hr dissertation on the rise and fall of Fascism - i can stay home and learn about that on PBS), it makes it personal - letters, photos, a film, items from actual servicemen, it’s do-able in 2 or less hours, it explains things very well, it is not crowded, it is inexpensive.

Susan, you are an angel. That was exactly what I needed to hear. Thank you, and God bless your father for his service.

Thank you fourfinleys, my Dad was a very humble, wonderful man and a great dad. Miss him every day.
I grew up in France and went to Normandy with him when i was 7. We walked together on Omaha Beach and i knew, even at that age, how my Dad was feeling and to be quiet and just let him be with his thoughts. I’ll never forget that experience.
Normandy is a special place, the people there are wonderful, very friendly. They’ve never forgotten what the British, Canadians and Americans did for them. They teach their children and grandchildren that gratitude so it carries on to this day.
I hope you have a great trip and you’re able to return to experience Normandy more fully.

If i only had a partial day, i’d go to the museum in Bayeux first, then to the American Cemetery (small museum there too, with a lot of film footage - skippable imo), then to Omaha Beach (just below the cemetery), then to Pointe du Hoc (just a bit down the road from Omaha Beach). That might be all you have time for to fully experience them. I assume you’ll need lunch and dinner at some point too. If you have more time, great. But i’d at least do those 4.

Again, a very helpful post! You have outlined exactly what we hoped to see in the day, and if this is a once in a lifetime trip, we will know we got to see at least those things. I do think renting a car in Caen makes since for us, but if we decide to just take a train all the way into bayeux, we have bookmarked a tour group that can take us to the 3 spots you outlined near the beach, and we can take a cab to the museum before we join the tour in the afternoon