Normandy and Mont Saint-Michel tour

That part of Normandy is likely to be cold and rainy in early March. If you could wait a little, you'd have a better chance of finding better weather. Having said that, you might try Cosmos' Jewels of France tour, but it might not start early enough in the month for you. Another possibility would be to take the train to Bayeux and take one or more day tours to the D-Day beaches. (Some companies have daylong tours to both the US and British sites.) Also, the Hotel Churchill used to have day trips from Bayeux to Mont St. Michel. Bayeux itself is a nice town which also has the Bayeux Tapestry as well as a WWII museum, a 11th-century cathedral, as well as (IMO) the best restaurants in France.

In March, 2004, we used a Cityrama tour from Paris to the Normandy beaches and the museum at Caen. There was also a lunch provided. This tour did not stop at Mont St. Michel. I don't know if Cityrama is still doing the tour we took or not. Did you try Cityrama?

Were you considering a day trip to visit both the D-Day beaches as well as Mont St. Michel. If so, that trip would be very difficult to accomplish due to the travel times involved. I'd suggest travel by train from Paris to Bayeux, and then spend two or three nights there ( Hotel Churchill would be a good choice). The most efficient way to see the D-Day beaches is via one of the excellent tours available in that area (post another note if you want names of some of the tour firms). I'm not sure if they'll be operating in March though? To visit Mont St. Michel, there are two basic choices: > Rent a car in Bayeux and travel there on your own. > Take the Shuttle from the Hotel Churchill. It departs at 08:30 and the trip is about 1H:30M each way. However it's important to note that it heads back to Bayeux at 13:30, which only leaves three hours to tour Mont St. Michel. Happy travels!

There are various tour companies that do this from Paris. Do a google search. There are numerous companies listed in Rick's France book that work out of Caen or Bayeux. You can take the train from Paris to either location. I suspect that's what any trip arranged from Paris will require you to take a train. It's about a 2 hour train ride to Caen. It will be a very long day if you aren't will to spend a night or 2 in Caen. Caen has the primo-museum and you won't see it if you book a tour out of Paris.

When we were in Paris in 5/2011, we did a day trip to Brittany with Westcapades (www.westcapades.com). You took the TGV to St Malo where you were picked up in a van. Toured St Malo, then on to Dinan and then on to Mt St Michel then taken to the train station in Rennes and back to Paris. It was 160 Euros per person including rail tickets. I suspect that if you were using a railpass or got tickets on your own that you could do it cheaper but this way worked for us. The company also does D-Day trips as well but I don't have the details on those trips. We were treated wonderfully and had a great day.