Help with trains in France

You can find the train schedule and purchase tickets at www.sncf.com/en. Just enter CDG as your departure point and you destination. There are several trains per day and you will have to change trains. Trains to Bayeux also leave from Gare St-Lazare. To see that schedule and fares, enter Paris as your departure point. If you decide to go to Paris, allow 3 hours between scheduled arrival time and the departure time for your train, if you have your tickets more if you don't. You can take a taxi from CDG to Gare St-Lazare or use the RATP route planner described below to map out the trip using mass transit. When you return from Bayeux to Paris, you can use mass transit or a cab to get to the 7th. Without knowing exactly where you want to go to in the 7th all I can do is direct you to www.ratp.fr/en. There you will find a route planner for trips using mass transit. After you enter your departure point and destination you will be able to select the fastest route or the one with the least amount of walking or changes. To get a cab, just follow the signs at the station to the official taxi line (outside) and wait your turn for the dispatcher to assign you to a taxi.

Thank you! Sounds like we could be in Bayeaux by car by the time we got to Paris. Perhaps we need to rethink.

Here's the time comparison. I can drop you at Lazarre and be waiting for you when you get off the train in Bayeux. The walk to the car rental lot from the arrival hall is the same as the walk to the rer station. Getting from the cdg rer station to Lazarre will take right at an hour and you'll have to lug your goods across the station and move it around for the rer line change. The drive from the airport to Bayeux tales right at three hours, and does not go through Paris or even use the Peripherique. It's freeway the whole way. It has tolls. Thers is one rental car joint in Bayeux and it's a long darn ways from the train station and has limited vehicle options. Caen has more places. The airport has the largest choice in the country.

Thanks for the perspective, very helpful indeed. I'm now thinking we should rent the car at CDG, drive to Bayeaux, return the car at Caen and take the train back to Paris from there. I believe I read somewhere that there's an auto rental location across from the Caen Railway Station.

Yep. Or you can drive back and drop it at Nord pretty easily. Driving would be marginally faster and maybe cheaper for two. There's also drop spots on the west side of town. What might not be a bunch of grins is mucking around all the one-way streets around American and the Champ if you're unfamiliar with the city.

You mentioned in your original post that you did not want to rent a car, but if you change your mind, I agree that it is quite easy to drive from CDG to Bayeux. If you will need an automatic, CDG is the best place to pick up your car. You can return the car in Paris near Invalides or Gare du Nord, both of which I think are easy to get to from Normandy.

The regular advice is to study www.seat61.com so you will understand and be comfortable with the train system once you reach CdG. Also valuable is the blog www.parisbytrain.com Think it out yourself now and you will be more relaxed later on.