London, Paris, and Normandy for 7-9 days.

I would suggest staying In bayeaux rather than Caen. beautiful small 'city' with the cathedral, Norman tapestry and a D Day museum . caen is a big city.
We did enjoy the Museum of Peace very much- they offer a guided tour of the museum and the beaches which is excellent.
we stayed in the Hotel Churchill which was very nice.
You can train to Bayeaux from Paris.
As always , its great if you can add more days to your trip.

Thanks Diane. That's true. I think back in 2004, I did this. I trained to Caen, rented the car, and stayed in Bayeaux. No need to stay in Caen really.

Caleb

I would suggest doing your Paris nights together at the end before flying out instead of splitting them up. I would pick up your car in Caen but then stay in Bayeux.

Thanks jlkelman. The reason for splitting Paris is just so we have a stop over point. We have already visited Paris and are just looking to see one or two more things. I don't want to end the trip with a train ride to Paris and then jump on the airplane.

Caleb

I agree with the suggestion to put the two Paris nights together at the end. It's really easy to take the Eurostar, then move to the train to Caen, pick up your car - all in one day ( we did it a few years ago). Then just end your trip in Paris for 2 nights. It's just one less hotel to check in and out of, which is a winner in my book.

As others have said, just go directly to Normandy from Paris and add that night to Normandy maybe MSM? Stay in Bayeux for 3 nights and plan to arrive to MSM in the late afternoon so you’ll be arriving as the hordes of daytrippers are leaving and then get back on the island first thing in the morning to tour the abbey if you want to. You’ll be amazed at the difference in the crowds. Of course, staying on MSM itself is an option. Once you’re done, drop off your rental car and take the train back to Paris for your last night.

In Bayeux, we stayed in Hotel Le Bayeux. They served a great breakfast and was walking distance to everything. In MSM, we stayed off the island at Le Relais St Michel. It has its own parking lot and I found out after we stayed that it has one of the best restaurants in town.

Claudette, I was thinking of doing that, but the train from London to Paris is 2 hrs and then another 2 hours from Paris to Caen. So, with the train change, we'd be looking at 5 hours at least of travel on that day. Not sure we want to do all that in one day instead of splitting it up.

Caleb

The best way to minimize time in Paris would be to get to Normandy from London in a single half day as others suggest and only spend one night in Paris at the very end.

This also saves the an instance of the whole "check in, repack, check-out" routine.

You can spend the recovered day in London or Normandy.

I think the 5 hours of travel in one day would be preferable to “losing” a couple of hours checking out of your Paris hotel on the interim day, but obviously it's your call. Five hours — or what will be six or so by the time you make it between train stations — isn't really that much. But again, what you're comfortable with is the main thing.

In general, i think your trip is reasonably paced for what you want to see. I agree with the suggestions to stay in Bayeux instead of Caen.

Hi Caleb,
I'll toss out one other possible option -- while I would also suggest going directly to Normandy, rather than spending one night in Paris first, what if you went directly to Bayeux and skip Caen altogether. There are direct trains to Bayeux from Gare St. Lazare roughly every 90 minutes, cost is often only $18 for a one-way ticket, and takes 2 hours 10 minutes. Depending on where you stay in Bayeux, you can either walk from the train station or take a taxi and spend the balance of the day/evening relaxing and wandering around lovely Bayeux. Then next morning you can take a taxi to the Hertz rental car location in Bayeux (it's combined with a gas station) on the edge of town and pick up car there. I've done that 3 times and have had excellent experiences each time.