My husband and I are taking an overnight ferry to Ouistreham (Caen) from Portsmouth. We are arriving on at 6 AM on a Sunday morning and having a hard time finding a car rental nearby to tour Normandy sites. All the rental offices we can find in Caen are closed on Sundays. We are staying in Bayeux for one night and it seems our best option is to taxi to Bayeux where there is a rental office open on Sundays. We contacted Car-Go Normandy in Ouistreham and they have not responded to our inquiry. Any other good ideas or suggestions?
Posted by
US Pacific Northwest
10344 posts
The French tend to take Sundays seriously, it's time for family, what you're finding out is consistent with my experience there.
On Sundays, they may actually suspend the hunt for the almighty dollar...I mean...euro.
One way for the OP's to react to this would be to give up on picking up a car on Sunday, take a hotel in Bayeux, and try to make arrangements, at this late date, to take a Battlebus Tour; and then, if a car is still needed, pick it up Monday.
Posted by
Calgary
2297 posts
Kent,
that's a very interesting comment. I worked in France on a project with union support in 1988. At the time there was strong resistence from the unions against Sunday opening hours for businesses. Bakeries have their biggest sales on Sunday mornings but apparently nothing has changed for anyone else in the two decades since then.
I remember arriving in Morlaix on a Sunday morning 6 years ago trying to buy groceries for week in a vacation rental. I was in panic because I had invited a friend for dinner whom I hadn't seen in 10 years and no food in the house. A friendly local saw me standing all alone in front of the closed down Carrefour and offered me to take me to the only grocery store open in the entire city. He drove ahead to the other end of the town with me behind in my car. I would have never found this little store without his help. And I had a great dinner that night with my friend and her family ;-)
BTW Germany used to have VERY restricted legislation for store opening hours. Everything except for gas stations had to be closed by 6.30 pm. Saturday afternoons and Sundays meant closed doors as well. During the week stores are now free to stay open longer but Sundays are still "heilig". And don't you dare mowing your lawn ...
Posted by
US Pacific Northwest
10344 posts
Beatrix: Yep, what you said sounds right to me. Bakeries are open on Sunday morning. In many areas of the French country, including what I've seen of Normandy and Bretagne, the rest of the day is family time. Or that's what I hear, and what I've seen whilst hanging out in the French countryside there on Sundays seems to confirm that.
A trifle inconvenient for us poor tourists. But then it appears of the European countries are not being run for us tourists, or the corporations, but actually for the average person, and that the values of families being together, and people having quiet time, on Sunday (I believe this is known as the Sabbath in some of these countries), are actually recognized.