Hello! My wife and I will be in the Normandy area for the Women's World Cup in June. We have tickets for the USA game on June 20. We will be coming from Paris on the 17 and hoping to tour the D-Day beaches and possibly Mont St. Michael in the days beforehand. Logistically, what would you recommend if we wanted to have one 'home base' places to stay without renting a car? Hotels in Le Havre are pretty scarce at this point. We were thinking of possibly staying in Honfleur. Any other recommendations? Are there tours/busses to the D-Day sites from Honfleur? Thank you.
Posted by
Queens, NYC
548 posts
If you don't have a car, Honfleur is not ideal as there is no rail station; there are buses to Le Havre and Trouville/Deauville, but Trouville/Deauville is itself on a branch railway line that connects at Lisieux to the mainline to Bayeux, Caen and Paris. As for Le Havre, it itself is also really not located well for car-less travelers wishing to visit the D-Day beaches or Mont St-Michel -- any further rail travel into western Normandy requires backtracking through Rouen and it's on the "wrong" side of the Seine estuary.
The full-day guided D-day beach tours nearly all pick up in Bayeux, about 100 km west of Honfleur. Those full-day tours normally require that you be in Bayeux the night before because they tend to get an early start, between 8 and 9 am. Without a car, there is no reasonable or practical way to get from Honfleur to Bayeux that morning in time. (You could take a 2.5 hour rail trip from Trouville/Deauville to Bayeux that leaves at 5:40 am with two changes that gets you to Bayeux by 8:05 am, but how would you get to Trouville/Deauville that early?) Even with a car, it would be about an hour and a half drive.
I'm not sure if there's any one perfect place that will work for you if you don't wish to rent a car but still want to do all three of these things (Le Havre, D-Day, Mont Saint-Michel). If I were you and didn't want to rent a car, I'd consider two bases -- one for Le Havre and the other for the beaches and Mt-St-Michel, which would make your planning easier. But maybe others on the board have better ideas than I do!
Posted by
752 posts
If you are relying on public transportation, keep in mind that the Sweden-USA match will end earliest at 11 pm. Think about grabbing one of those remaining rooms in Le Havre at least for the night of the 20th.
That should be a good game!
Posted by
OP
3 posts
Thank you! After doing some research, I was thinking of an updated itinerary...
1. Monday afternoon 17 - Take train from Paris to either Bayeux or Caen (Any recommendations?)
2. Tuesday and Wednesday - Normandy beaches and Mont St. Michael
3. Thursday - Travel from Bayeux or Caen to Le Havre (this is probably the trickest part I'm trying to figure out). Take in the game and find hotel hopefully within 30 minutes of the stadium.
4. Friday - back to Paris
Posted by
Queens, NYC
548 posts
3 . Thursday - Travel from Bayeux or Caen to Le Havre (this is probably the trickest part I'm trying to figure out)
It's possible to do this; it's just that it takes a long time. Do some searches at Trainline or oui.sncf for trips on 19 June from Bayeux to Le Havre.
It looks like the game starts at 21:00 local time so you have plenty of time to get there. There's a 9:22 departure from Bayeux that gets you to Le Havre at 12:55 or an 11:35 departure that gets you in at 14:55. Both of these will require you change trains twice, once in Caen and once in Rouen. The changes should be pretty painless as you don't have to change stations at all.
I'd probably opt for an earlier departure which will give you more time to get settled in to Le Havre and also account for any delays you may experience (I imagine the ticket was not inexpensive and you don't want to miss the match!)
Posted by
2 posts
Hi! Have you found out any more info? We are staying in Honfleur and will have a car that our family of 5 can use to transport to the game. But haven't found out anything else regarding parking at LaHavre for the game :)
Posted by
OP
3 posts
Thanks for your reply! My wife and I will be in Bayeux for a few days beforehand, and then I think we nabbed the last Air BnB in Le Havre the day of the match. Appreciate the offer.
Posted by
1 posts
Hello,
We will be in Le Harve for the USA/Sweden game as well. We plan to rent a car on Friday after the game and drive to Bayeux/DD Beaches, not sure if we will do a tour. We have an AirBnB for 3 nights. It's going to be exciting. Go USA!!
PS Thanks Andrew for the info.
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area
5697 posts
Anyone planning to rent a car, suggest strongly that you reserve the car well ahead of time ... especially if you need an automatic or a bigger car.
Posted by
1 posts
My wife and daughter will arrive in Le Havre from CDG on Wednesday for the game Thursday. They would be interested in sharing a car/van with other Americans traveling to the DDay beaches. Please email me at jimhemphill@verizon.net if interested in working a car/van share.
Posted by
1 posts
Hi!
My friend and I are also interested in catching a ride/splitting a car from Le Havre to DDay beaches on Friday after the game.
Additionally, we're looking for transportation from CDG in Paris to Le Havre on Thursday before the game.
Unfortunately, our plan fell through.
Please email us if you're interested in pairing up! brunsonjenn at gmail dot com.