We will leave Paris by car and have 2.5 days in Normandy? We are staying in Caen. We will definitelyl see the World War II beaches. Do we have time to visit Mont St. Michel, and Giverny too?
Posted by
Pensacola
9110 posts
Yep, and you can toss in Chartres as well, but it's going to be a lot of driving . Don't try it in reverse or your timing will be off. Leave Paris and plan a two-hour stop in Chartres on the way to MSM where you'll spend the night - - or press on to to Caen, but that will make it a really mean day. That's about 250 miles with four and a half hours of driving to MSM, 300 miles and six hours to Caen and you'll need a couple of hours at MSM. Leave MSM (or not) and get to Caen (hour and a half) by nine. You've got all day, essentially, to see the beaches and museums, which is enough, but you won't have time for a tour unless you spend the night in Caen. To see one military museum, the cemetery, and a couple of beaches takes about five hours. Leave Caen early as well. The gardens open at 9:30 and you'll need an hour and a half. Caen to Giverny is two hours and it's another hour into Paris. You could leave off Chartres and go straight to MSM, but that means you'd be driving the same roads from Paris to MSM as you'd use on the return trip. Trying to do the WWII stuff and going over to MSM and back on the same day would really stink. Paris to MSM via Chartres is only about a half hour longer than going up past Ruen. If you don't have a pressing need to stay in Caen, Bayeux is more interesting and has a much better military museum, as well as the tapestry museum