Northern France itinerary

First things first. Driving in and out of Paris is easy. Driving around Paris and finding a place to park is a royal pain. That said, the place to rent a car is as close to the train station as possible so you can drop it off and be on your way when you get back with minimal fuss. No need to spend effort and time going way-to-heck-and gone to get a car and then have to do the same thing in reverse.

Assuming you have the nights of 7, 8, and 9 for Normandy, you can make a very nice trip.

Make first stop Rouen and continue to Honfleur for the night.

Do battlefields / tapestry the next day and press on to MSN to tour it just prior to and during early dark. Then leave.

Spend the night at St Malo, leave the next day and circle the back way through Chartres to Paris.

I've taken folks on this loop several times and it works out very well. I left you an extra night in there to use as you wish -- if you're taking a battlefield tour you will want to preposition to Caen/Bayeux the night prior -- I find it better to do it myself by hitting a military museum, the cemetery (large maps show the whole campaign if you're unfamiliar with it) and then drive down to the beaches.

That's just what we were thinking about the car rental. I am so excited you put Chartres in that itinerary because I didn't think we could make it! We have 3 teenagers and I don't know how many castles/museums/cathedrals to reasonably plan. But definitely want to see Caen. I'll work on this plan Thank you so much!

St Malo's a walled port. The only two good cathedrals are Rouen and Chartres.

The only castle along the way is Chateau Gaillard, on the hill south of Les Andelys which is south of Rouen on the way there. It's in ruins, but famous because it's the only one built by Lionheart in France. His heart (but not the rest of him) is in the Rouen cathedral (left side of right aisle toward the back).

With all due respect to Ed, I think his plan is crazy. It's a nice loop (a great loop actually), but too much for three days. There is no way you can see the beaches, cemetary, museum, tapestry and Mont St. Michel in one day unless you just want to whiz by the beaches and cemetary, which would be a big mistake IMHO.

The best way to see the battlefields is to do a tour with Battlebus. The tours are excellent and will ensure you get to all the major sites with excellent stories and commentary. That will require you to stay in Bayeux the night before.

I would suggest going to Caen the first day to see the museum, then drive to Bayeux to spend the night. If you have time, see the tapestry that afternoon. The next day take the American Highlights tour from Battlebus. If you elect not to take the tour, you can tour the battlefields on your own. The third day you can drive to Mont St. Michel in the morning and spend the afternoon touring some of the battlefield sites you missed the day before (and also the tapestry if you didn't catch it before). Or you can tour the sites early and get to MSM in the late afternoon and spend the night there.

"With all due respect to Ed, I think his plan is crazy."

Total driving time from Honfleur to MSM is 3 hr 12 min by google maps by recommended route. One hour for tapestry, one point five for cemetery, one for beach, one point five for museum. It's really hard to spend more time, but see below.

That's three hours moving, five stopped. Leave at eight, you're at MSM by four-thirty. You still have four hours to kill before you get there since dark isn't until after eight in July and MSM is best seen at night anyway. Spend this four hours in any of the places in the preceeding paragraph.

St Malo is forty-five minutes from MSM and cheaper by half for a place to stay.

An extra night was left in for the Bayeux/Caen area if you thought it better to take a tour.

Backtracking from MSM back east to the battlefields would really waste time -- and cut St Malo and probably Chartres out of the picture.

I've made that loop at least six times in one direction or the other. Counterclockwise works best.

Food at St Malo is great, seafood places just inside the wall next to the recreationa marina are open late, especially in the summer. Food at MSN is uniformly horrid and the prices match those of the hotels -- absolutel worst deal in the whole country.

I really don't want to get in a debate with you, Ed, because it's Laurie's trip, and she is the one who needs to decide how long she wants to spend in each place. I wanted to see both Omaha and Utah beaches and I spent more time at them and the cemetaries than you allow. Also, I will point out that all these sights are not on a straight line from Honfleur to Mont St. Michel. You need to allow time to detour to each site, park the car, etc. Also, you may want to eat lunch.

I have not been to the Caen Museum, but the people that stayed in the same B&B we did spent 8 hours there. One suggestion thing you might consider, Laurie, is that there is a smaller and less expensive museum in Bayeux that many people like and that Rick recommends. I did not go to that one either, preferring to spend my time outside at the actual locations.

I do think Ed has a point about backtracking from Mont St. Michel back to Normandy. Also, I will say that I loved Chartres. I didn't go to St. Malo, but went to Dinan, which I also loved. However, I had six days to do all that.

Laurie, regardless of what you decide, I hope you have a great trip. Normandy is one of my favorite places I have ever been, and I would love to go back and spend even more time there some day.

Carroll, Thank you also for your suggestions. I think I can see the value of using that counter-clockwise route, but will probably, as you suggested, need more time since two of the boys are especially interested in the Caen museum. I realized we do have an extra day to play with and I had wanted to let the teens decide where to linger - not to sleep later! - but to explore. It will indeed be an interesting trip. Thank you both for all the suggestions. They are copied and stored in my trip folder and I am already searching for hotels.

What a great trip for teenaged boys. I wish we had taken our boys when they were teenagers. One thing your boys might really like is the German guns at Longue-sur-Mer. They are the only German guns that remain in their original positions. My husband and I thought they were fantastic.

That's great you have an extra day. There is so much to see in Normandy. I'm sure you will all love it.

Per Carroll's Bayeux museum suggestion...we did not like the museum in Caen at all (will take way more than 1.5 hrs and is extremely expensive). We thought the WWII museum in Bayeux was the best one of all.

We've been to Normandy 5 times since 2001, when my son was 11, because he was fascinated with the history of D-Day (my Dad landed there). We kept returning because there is so much to see and experience just on the subject of D-Day, let alone all the other wonderful places to see. I think Ed's plan is way too ambitious for such a short amount of time.

I also agree with Carroll that being at many of the actual sites of the events of D-Day (Ste Mere Eglise, Pointe du Hoc, Arromanches, Omaha and Utah Beach and the American Cemetery, just to name a few) is a very important part of the experience. And doing that takes time.

Laurie, here are a few more thoughts -- sorry if you have enough already.

We spent time in Paris before going to Normandy, and visited the war museum at Les Invalides. By the time we spent a few hours there, which included a very good WWII section, we decided to skip the museum at Caen (and don't regret doing so).

We didn't go to Bayeaux, as no interest in the tapestry. We did spend an entire day on the beaches, though we stayed in Arromanches, so no travel time to get there. We enjoyed seeing the remains of the artificial harbor there, and enjoyed the museum with the models of how the port was set up.

I don't know your kids ages/attention span, but we thought the museum at the American cemetery above Omaha Beach was very well done. My point being, museums can get fatiguing, so you may need to pick and choose based on your family.

Last, two things stood out in the area for us. First, the memorial at Point du Hoc (above Utah beach) where so many rangers died making the assault. There are still the German fortifications and the bomb craters left untouched, though grassy now, of course. Second, southwest of here (on way to M-S-M) is a German cemetary (outlined in Rick's book). Quite sobering to see how many German 18-year-olds died there, too, and the French sentiment posted at the entrance.

These would be memorable things for your kids, I would think. I'd try not to short-change the d-day beaches in favor of too much museum. Just my take.

Pointe du Hoc is at the western end of Omaha Beach, not Utah Beach.

Susan, Thanks also for you advice. I will look into the museum at Bayeux. Since I have these 3 teens, first time in France,end of our 3-week trip, I want to make this part of the trip as educational/interesting to them as possible. Probably outside time viewing actual sites and targeted use of museums will work best.

The counter-clockwise deal's main advantage is hitting MSN after the crowds leave, seeing it at it's most beauftiful from the causeway as you leave after dark, and avoiding dumping your pocketbook by eating and sleeping there.

Time's avaailable to spend more time on the WWII stuff as it interests you, that's why I didn't try to extend the trip deeper into Brittany; e.g., Carnac.

My last swing through the area was a few months ago with an honest-to-pete historian. He says that the Bayeux museum is much better than the better-known one at Caen.

My estimate of times at places was based on taking folks to places I knew well, so had no need to study, but letting them stay as long as they wished. I know the area so well that I need neither gps nor maps, but did check point-to-point driving times with google to confirm my impressions/memory. The times I gave were door-to-door-to-door, not a straight-line dash from Honfleur to MSM.

We've done something like this and I think Ed's plan works, though obviously it covers a lot of ground.

If the priority is D-day and MSM, though, I'd skip Brittany and maybe even Chartres. You want to have enough slack to rearrange things in case it rains the day you wanted to visit the beaches.

I also think that overnight at MSM is worth the pocketbook munching, but reasonable people (and budgets) may differ.

You are going to trouble and expense to get to these fabulous places, so don't skimp on the time you'll need to appreciate them. Have a blast!

I agree about not spending too much time at museums. That's why I recommended the WWII museum in Bayeux. It is small enough to do in 2-3 hrs (if you do it well), explains the whole story exceptionally well, and the exhibits are impressive and memorable. It makes it personal. It's everything the Caen museum is not.

Arromanches is one of the beaches where the British landed, not the Americans. You'll have to drive to Omaha Beach, not too far, and quite a bit farther to Utah Beach.

The "new" museum at the American cemetery is very good, but it doesn't compare to the museum in Bayeux.

And the WWII section of the Invalides Military museum was not good at all, imo. It's totally biased, making it seem as though de Gaulle liberated France single-handedly, barely, if at all, acknowledging the American involvement.

Laurie,

Given the short time frame, I'd forget the car rental in Paris and travel to Normandy by train (departures from Gare St. Lazare). Having driven in that area, I've found that driving times NEVER work out as planned by online driving websites - they're always longer (a GPS would be a good idea).

I'd suggest "basing" in Bayeux and taking day trips from there. Your teenagers should be able to manage at least one tour, and I'd highly recommend BattleBus. The one-day American Highlights tour would be perfect, as it covers a lot of the sites shown in movies (such as the famous Church in St. Mere Eglise). These are full day tours and the Guides are outstanding! I've found this type of tour provides much more of a sense of the history than visiting the sites on my own. They also stop at the American Cemetery (as shown on "Saving Private Ryan") - have the Guide point out the graves of two of the Niland brothers, who were the inspiration for the movie. BattleBus is VERY popular, so pre-booking would be a good idea. You MUST stay in Bayeux the night prior to tours, as they depart at 08:00 precisely!

You could also visit the Bayeux Tapestry, visit the WW-2 Museum in Bayeux, take a day trip to the Museum in Caen, perhaps visit the Gun Batteries at Longues sur Mer (just outside Bayeux) or visit Arromanches.

If Mont St. Michel is really important, I'd rent a Car in Bayeux. There is at least one rental agency there, but I'd suggest having your Hotel make the arrangements, or pre-arrange before leaving home. A one-day rental would allow you to do a bit of touring on your own to Longues sur Mer, Mont St. Michel or other locations (the German Cemetery is close to MSM as I recall?). Cars usually have to be returned by 18:00 though, so plan accordingly.

You'll need to allow the better part of a day to travel back to Paris and then to Frankfurt, so plan that part carefully also.

Happy travels!

Wow. Thank you all for the wealth of information/opinions. My history buff husband and I are taking our two 17yos (boy and girl) and our 17yo nephew so it will be a great trip, enriched by the pre-planning I can do with your help!