Tours of Normandy

Try contacting Dale Booth - I think he's listed as Booth Tours or Dale Booth Tours. Anyway, he's based in Cherbourg and is a fabulous WWII guide. He's ex-British military. He usually books pretty far in advance, but you might have a chance in November. I think he still runs a B&B, too. Can you bite the bullet and fly into Paris and then take the train to Bayeux? Not any great tours out of Paris and if he's a buff, he wants a good one. Most of the best are out of Bayeux, You could take Eurostar to Paris and then train to Bayeux, but you're sacrificing time.

Thanks for the advice...we are still debating what to do ...

Caroline, Travelling to Normandy as a "side trip" from London is not really practical, due to the travel times involved. Since your husband is a "WWII history buff", my suggestion would be to allow AT LEAST two full days in Normandy. Taking a day tour from Paris is also not a good idea, again because of travel times. Paris City Vision and others offer Bus tours, but they don't have time to provide much more than a quick visit to some of the main sites. Staying in Bayeux is absolutely the best idea, as it's a great central location, and some of the tours depart from there. Of course that will probably mean taking a train from Paris. I agree with the previous suggestions regarding Dale Booth. He's an outstanding Guide! Here are some websites you can check out: > www.daleboothnormandytours.com > www.ddayhistorian.com (Paul Woodage - also an outstanding Guide)!) > www.overlordtour.com > www.ddaybattletours.com/elldi.php (Ellwood von Seibold - used by RS tours) Things will be a bit "quiet" in November, so some of the tour companies may be starting to wind down for the season. I would highly recommend contacting them WELL in advance to pre-book a tour. If staying in Bayeux, there's an excellent WW-II museum there. Of course, don't forget to see the famous Bayeux Tapestry with describes a much earlier battle. You could also consider renting a car for one day to visit sites not covered by the tour. Some examples would be the Gun Batteries at Longues sur Mer or the Museum at Pegasus Bridge. The tour will probably include the Airborne Museum at St. Mere Eglise. There's NO shortage of places to visit in that area! Bon Voyage!

My teenage daughter and I just came home from Normandy (as well as Switzerland and Italy). It is possible to go there from London as we met alot of people who did just that. We found it un-necessary to rent a car so traveling by train to Bayeux from Paris was IDEAL! Gas cost were 5 euros a liter! Outrageous! Take the train! As for day trip: we did the Overlord Tour with Alan Cheisnel. Our guide was outstanding! We are also WW2 buffs much to the surprise of everyone on the tour to hear a teenager know so much. Overlord tours are good friends with the owners of Brecourt Manor owners and we were allowed on the property (Band of Brothers tour). The tour meets in the downtown area of Bayeux at 8 am and we did not return until 6pm. It was incredible!! Everything we saw was in remote places and we never would have found them without a guide. Highly recommend their tour!

Hi Caroline, I was in Normandy 2 years ago. We stayed in Bayeux for 2 nights and I agree with the above posters that it is a good place to stay. However, we also spent a night in Caen and did our beaches tour through the (huge) museum there. We actually did a package deal through the Memorial de Caen Musee Normandie which included access to the museum (which we didn't have time to see all of, seriously, ginormous and encompasses all aspects of the war, not just D-Day), a bus tour of the beaches (amazing local guide and driver), lunch at the restaurant in the museum and our accommodations in town. There were several options to choose from as far as packages go; how many stars for your accommodations and which tour to take. We chose the 2 star accommodation and it was bare-bones but charming and clean. http://www.memorial-caen.fr/portailgb/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=815&Itemid=1552 I, too, am a WWII buff and would like to have spent closer to a week in Normandy.

That's the second time I have seen somebody quote €5 a litre for fuel. I repeat - France is averaging €1.58 for Unleaded, €1.48 gazole (diesel) per litre in July 2012.

We stayed in Caen and visited the beaches from there. Was with a private group, so can't recommend any tour group in Caen. However, if you sty there, go to the Peace Museum. A short trip to Bayeaux to visit the tapestry would be recommended if time allows.

Thank you all for the great information ! We will plan our trip from here !

We went to Bayeux last week. We flew into Paris-Beauvais and rented a car. We stayed at the Churchill hotel in Bayeux. We did our own tour and saw everything that we wanted to. We went to the Bayeux museum as well as the British cemetery, drove to Point Du Hoc, Arromanches and the American Cemetary/Omaha Beach. It was nice to spend as much or as little time at each site as we wanted. We returned to car to Rouen at the train station and took the train into Paris. We spent two nights in Bayeux. Diesel fuel was around €1.40 per liter.

Since I've never had a poor travel experience in France, I'm very concerned about your hesitation. Normandy has a lot of ferries from various coastal town in England. But that's slow, and I get seasick easily! I see that Ryanair (a poor travel experience if I ever had one! Partly kidding ...) flies Stanstead to Dinard, but Dinard has poor public transportation and is not really close to the D-Day Beaches. But if you were planning to rent a car and see Mont St. Michel first, it might work very well. Earlier this month, we flew to Paris from Newark NJ and immediately took the TGV from the airport rail station to Tours. Bayeux is not as simple, but here's a recent post on this board on exactly that topic: http://www.ricksteves.com/graffiti/helpline/index.cfm/rurl/topic/89357/train-from-paris-to-bayeux.html I wonder if another budget airline flies closer than Dinard. You and your husband will both enjoy Normandy, and I hope you find a way to feel comfortable about the excursion. The more time you spend, the more relaxing the trip will be. Bayeux is an attractive town with plenty of inexpensive restaurants. Note that the Eurostar train goes from St. Pancras to Gare du Nord. That's not far to Gare St. Lazare for Caen and Bayeux, but I suspect you don't want to take a cab in Paris??