Transportation help request

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Bastogne hasn't got a station, the last leg will be by bus.
I looked on the DB (German railways) site and it is giving me ~8 hours from Bayeux via either Paris-Brussels or Paris-Luxembourg to Libramont, and then a bus.

https://www.viamichelin.com/ is telling me: 06h10 (with no stops) 596 km €80.07 (Toll €31.60, Consumption €48.47)

So either way it is a full days travel.
How are you getting from Bastogne to Turin? If you have a French hire car, handing it back in Belgium will have a huge surcharge.

If you have a US Driving Licence, for France you need a International Driving Permit (IDP), or a certified translation, together with the licence.
If this is your first time, don't forget to research French and Belgian driving laws and road signs.

Normandy to Bastogne - the train times are due to the French rail network being very Paris-centric, the rail line from Normandy to Paris not being very high-speed, and Bastogne being in a rural area with only bus services. If you want to see battle sites in Normandy a car is recommended as well, so your idea of renting a car in Caen is good. Note that Bastogne is in Belgium and there can be punitive charges for renting a car in one country in returning it into another, so you might want to drive back into France to return the car. One idea might be to return the car in Metz, spend the night there (it's quite a nice town), and then travel from Metz to Turin the following day, The traditional rail route via Switzerland (Metz-Strasbourg-Basel-Milan-Turin) will take all day but be interesting.

You can get the IDP at a AAA office for about $20. You'll also need two passport-size photos, I believe.

Hang on to the car and drive from Bastogne to Lyon St Exupery airport and turn it in there. From there you can get a direct TGV to Turin. Afterward direct Freccia train to Rome.

If WW II sites interest you, stop by Colmar on the way. Site of the Colmar Pocket operation which took place at the exact same time as the Battle of the Bulge. Audie Murphy won his Congressional Medal of Honor there.

The other fun part of renting a car is that in France, there are automated speed checks. You get clocked, and get the ticket, already charged to your card. I don't know what the "allowable margin" is in France. According to my friend, who runs the highway system in part of Bretagne, you are clocked in zones with the "wave" signs. So, be prudent. Driving in France is not a problem, although you will quickly get used to "rond-ponts" (roundabouts), even on through roads. Very few traffic signals.

AAA will take photos at their offices for an International Driver's License. Included in the fee.

Thanks all for your input!

IDP in hand. Car rented.

:)

For your tour of the WW-II sites in Normandy, it would be a good idea to spend at least one (and preferably two) nights in Bayeux, which is a good central location. There's also a good WW-II museum there and if interested you can also have a look at the famous Bayeux Tapestry, which describes a much earlier battle.

I'd also suggest hiring one of the excellent local guides, as they will provide a much more interesting look at the history and you'll learn far more than if travelling on your own. I'm not sure which guide services will be operating in November, but you can contact them. As you'll have a car, you might contact Chris at THIS website. One of the other benefits of using a local guide is that they know the quickest routes between sites, so that will reduce travel time between them.

For another tour choice, you could also check with THIS firm.