our tentitive itinerary is paris (5nights)
am train to caen.. rent a car for normandy/msm, stay in bayeux (2nights)
am train caen to amboise (1night), rent a car and then drive via oradour sur glare to sarlet (3nights)
and finally tgv to paris cdg (1night)... do able????
Posted by
Portlandia
3313 posts
Quite doable, but I'd just keep the car for the middle portion. You'll get a better rate for rentals of longer than 3 days and save on the train.
Posted by
Ojai, CA
591 posts
It would work better to just keep the car you rent in Caen and, after your 2nd night in Bayeux, drive to MSM (1.5 hrs) and then continue on to Amboise (only 3.5 hrs more).
Posted by
Seattle, WA
313 posts
Laura, this is a great trip and very similar to one we did a few years ago. (We just picked up our car in Versailles and drove to Normandy.) I agree with all the others [INVALID] keep the car. You'll want it in all those places. See Bayeux and Caen, then MSM, and drive to Amboise [INVALID] not a long drive. (We stayed in Arromanches while in Normandy, then after seeing MSM we stayed in Dinan, which shortened the trip to Amboise by a tiny bit. Dinan ended up being the pleasant surprise of our trip.)
Posted by
Reston, Virginia
403 posts
Laura: In addition to what has been said by the other posters, let me make another suggestion. Rather than the long train trip from Sarlat back to Paris, buy your ticket from the US as an "open jaw", US--Paris/return Toulouse-US. The cost of returning from Toulouse will be about the same as returning from Paris, and you won't have to backtrack. Toulouse is a short drive south of Sarlat, and Rick's France book has plenty of suggestions on what to see on this exact drive.
Posted by
OP
sacramento
63 posts
can't do open jaw since we are using "miles" to pay for our air tickets. our only choice is in/out of paris