Normandy/Paris/London Family Trip

On our own the next day we went to the D-Day Experience at Dead Man’s Corner, walked on Omaha and Utah beaches, and were in the American Cemetery for the moving lowering of the flag at 5 PM. We were in Normandy the week before the 80th Anniversary. Our timing was perfect. The towns were polished and decked out for the next week; Willy’s jeeps were on the roads, re-inactors in full uniform were on the sidewalks and in the restaurants, but the area had not yet been roadblocked and secured for the dignitaries arriving on the main days.

Our next day was for Bayeux - the cathedral, the tapestry, and the excellent Museum of the Battle of Normandy. Coming out of the museum to festive crowds, we were in just the right spot to see the Olympic torch handed off! We were also in a traffic blockade leaving, but eventually got to Arromanches. Our house owner gave us a list of nearby restaurant recommendations, and there are incredible bakeries in the tiniest towns. In a small grocery store (maybe Carafour) we bought a box of a dozen macarons for about 7 euro, and they were as good as ones I’ve bought at Laduree in Paris. In Arromanches today we had decadent crepes at La Crêperie, then made a grocery stop on the way home to our gite. Watched The Longest Day, with our jambon and cheese on buttered baguettes.

Last day in Normandy we drove to Rouen, which was new for all of us. I’ll come back here - a lovely city and it needed more time. Cathedral is magnificent, and we got the pharmacie shopping done so we wouldn’t waste precious time in Paris. Honfleur is on the way back to Crépon. We visited their historic church with a roof like an overturned ship, had drinks beside the very scenic old harbor, bought a sack of wildly overpriced caramels at a tourist shop, then headed deeper into the town, far from the tourist restaurants, to an old favorite packed with locals - L’Alcyone - where we left a boneyard of mussel shells.

FYI: If you can make this work, flying into or starting in Paris on a Friday, stopping at Giverny late afternoon when it’s uncrowded, making the short drive to Honfluer for overnight, waking up to the great Saturday market, then driving on to your home base in Normandy is a great plan. (We just couldn’t make the end of school schedule cooperate!)

Giverny

We arrived at Giverny late morning with all the Saturday crowd. I had already wasted six tickets reserved on-line, and there were none available for this morning. We decided to take our chances with the line, and I had tickets in hand by the time our car was parked. We started in the water garden. There were plenty of people, but it wasn’t awful. Most of my pictures have no bodies at all in them. The flower garden was about the same, but the line to go in Monet’s house looked daunting. My intention was mainly to show them the waterlily ponds before they saw the paintings in l’Orangerie, so we let the house go.

FYI: If you can time your visit to late afternoon, at least after 3PM, It will be almost a private visit. I’ve been there at the height of flower season in May when it was almost empty.

Paris

So grateful my son-in-law is a great and intrepid driver! He got our rolling behemoth in position for the correct exit at the Arc de Triomphe on the first circuit. If you’ve driven here, you need no explanation. If you haven’t, it’s the Wild West - no lane markings, no obvious rules, every car jockeying into position to exit on one of the TWELVE streets going in and out of the roundabout. (A Parisian hotel once told us if you crash, the gendarmarie don’t even try to assign blame, just split the responsibility 50/50.)

We made the scenic drive through downtown Paris with no problems. At the steep ramp for rental car returns at Gare du Nord, our luck ran out. There’s a big metal hanging bar to mark the height that will fit in the underground garage. When we went under, there was an ominous scraping of metal. @#&! More ominous protesting from our engine followed when backing up the black slope to get back out. In the US we would have simply parked on the street and taken the keys to the rental desk with instructions on where to find their car. In Paris this day there was absolutely no street parking for blocks in any direction.

We were getting closer and closer to our timed (expensive) tickets to the Eternal Notre-Dame VR Experience, so the decision was made for four of us to take a taxi from Gare du Nord, and two to deal with the car. I’m sure our taxi ripped us off on the fairly short trip, but I was more concerned with losing the tickets rather than arguing with the driver. After multiple calls to Europcar and little help, SIL and husband sent up some Hail Marys and headed back down the ramp. The on-site Europcar rental return attendant was quite blasé about the whole business - “Happens all the time. We don’t even record the damage on the roof.”

The rest of the story…. The VR experience was fun once you realized you were not going to fall off a beam in the attic and land on the stone floor far below. Of course to teenagers, VR is old hat, and they were dancing around and buds with the pope at the end. It’s actually an interesting historical look at how the cathedral was built - how the frames were made for the rose windows and the giant wooden beams that are holding up the roof. If you can’t go inside the real thing, it’s not a bad next best option. https://www.eternellenotredame.com/en/ We bought two more tickets for the next day for the ones who missed out. They had to get two taxis to our hotel on Rue Saint-Louis en l’Île and were absolutely ripped off by both drivers. And we all missed our reserved tickets for Saint-Chapelle at 6PM.

The rose in this story is the wonderful hotel where we stayed - Hôtel de Lutèce. I think because it was a summer weekend, it was more expensive than I ever remember on previous stays, but the location is perfect. It’s craziness to come to Paris only for a weekend, but my grandson really wanted to see it, and this is what we could fit in. There’s a patisserie across the narrow street from our hotel, a tiny grocery next door for drinks, Berthillon ice cream, outdoor wine bars with a view toward Notre-Dame, and the friendly brasserie Le Saint Regis at one end of the street. https://www.lesaintregis-paris.com.

We made the most of our one full day on Sunday - l’Orangerie to see Monet’s waterlilies, a walk through the Tuileries gardens, Saint-Chapelle, and an afternoon walking tour of the St Germain neighborhood with ParisWalks, with wonderful Brigitte as our guide. I think this was my fifth walking tour with ParisWalks, and they’ve all been excellent, some more walking and some more history lesson. At l’Orangerie they seem to have only reserved tickets now, and it was not crowded, even on this first Sunday of the month free day. After the waterlilies I sent the family to the cafe for breakfast so I could see the permanent collection and take as long as I wanted.

That night we had dinner reservations at L'Îlot Vache, tiny, friendly, classic French food. It’s our favorite “nice” restaurant and is two blocks from our hotel on Rue Saint-Louis en l’Île. What made it even more special was our friend who joined us. He was my SIL’s college roommate, and has a Ph.D. in art history from Duke. He was in Paris leading 24 students on an art history trip, and as much as I love my family, I was ready to ditch them and stay on with his group!

London

Almost everybody’s favorite city, in my family, and so easy compared to Paris. London official taxi drivers are the best. The full-size Black taxis seat six, and our fares were often in the 10-15 GPB range compared to 45-60 euro in Paris for comparable distances. We all had either old Oyster cards or credit cards without fees on on our watches, but usually hopped in a taxi for the scenery and the always lovely drivers.

Took Eurostar from Gare du Nord to St Pancras, and stayed at another Sawday’s property, the Grafton Arms in Fitzrovia (near the British Museum.) https://www.graftonarms.co.uk This is a fun one over a lively pub. The rooms are very stylish and comfortable. The stairs are steep, really steep, but they were so quick to take our luggage up and down. Late afternoon the pub is packed inside and out, but by the time we came in at night, drinks had been cut off, and noise never disturbed us. They were also very kind to honor my request for one room on a lower floor. I would love to bring friends back here, but I think there are only two twin rooms, one low and one way, way up (where my grandsons stayed.) Drawing straws wouldn’t work; it would require a monetary bribe to choose the high-up room, nice as they are.

We had three full days in London, and the plan every day was one major activity, one nice meal, and theatre every night. We arrived midday on Monday, zipped to Covent Garden on the tube (from the Warren St station around the corner), checked out the Monday antiques market, had a leisurely Neapolitan lunch at Ave Mario, then went to Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre for Twelfth Night in the evening. You can always count on seeing something creative when you come here! Shakespeare set in a gay pub was great fun, with exceptional actors. Drinking Pimm’s Cups while watching added to the fun.

On Tuesday morning we had reservations for the Churchill War Rooms, lunch at Fish at Borough Market, then split up for different shows that night. Bob and I saw Hadestown, and the others went to Book of Mormon. (BoM had its hysterically funny moments, but once was enough for me.)

On Wednesday we did the Verger’s tour of Westminster Abbey and then the Queen’s Gallery up in the rafters. Highly recommended if you can get a slot on this small guided tour. You can find the phone number on the Abbey website and call the day before to see what time tours are available. There were only two that day, 10:30 and 11:30, and there were no more reserved entry tickets that fit those times. The person I talked to told me to reserve whatever entry time I could (12:30) then show up 30 minutes ahead of the Verger tour and I could get on. Of course when I arrived, the lady in the red cape guarding the gate basically implied I was nuts if I thought I could get in ahead of my ticket time, but I was exceedingly polite, then stepped aside and made a phone call to the number I had called earlier. I was assured I was correct, a phone call was made, and the red cape somewhat reluctantly unbarred the gate for us. Perservere! It’s a wonderful 90 minute tour for about a dozen lucky people.

Lunch was at the Hawksmoor Air Street (near Piccadilly Circus) and we went to different theaters again this night. Three went to SIX which I thought they would love, but they found mostly loud and the words sometimes difficult to understand. Go figure; these are the ones who go to the loudest concert venues in Atlanta! (I loved SIX both times I saw it, and I take earplugs to concerts!)

Bob and I took our 14yo grandson to Les Mis. This was the completion of a circle. I took his mother to Les Mis in London in 1989 when she was 13, and we sat in the 5 pound seats in the obstructed-view box right of the stage. We were at eye level with the actors on 3/4 of the stage and in the dark about what was happening on the other 1/4. A few years later I took her younger sister, but we had better seats. Grandson #1 got his first trip to London in 2018 when he was 11, and Les Mis was his favorite play. It was great to watch with his brother this night from the front row of the Grand Circle. He loved it. I loved it as much as ever and kept getting something in my eye. I can’t wait to see it again. The perfect wrap for a trip with my family.

(I’ve already forgotten/forgiven how much luggage they brought, filled with completely inappropriate clothes, because nobody would believe me that the weather was predicted in the 60s in the days and the 50s at night! Perfect travel weather!)

What a grand report, and a wonderful family trip! Our first European trip with our teens was London and Paris; we saw Les Mis in London as well. Happy memories! It took us another 10 years to get to Normandy; and that we did; in April!

Thank you for sharing your story. We are planning a similar trip next year and have bookmarked this for ideas.

Thanks for including so many great addresses (as they say)

Love this report to my favorite places…..we have been to Normandy/Bayeux twice and would go back again. Bayeux and its cathedral are a delight. We also much prefer Hotel de Lutece in Paris….you cannot beat the hotel being in the center of Paris. I miss the days that we would walk down to the back of Notre Dame and sit in its garden and watch the world go by……we will again when all is back to normal at the cathedral. Its close proximity to ice cream, bakeries and quaint gift shops is wonderful! I had to laugh as I read your “turn in the car in Paris part”……one year we drove back into Paris from the south of France…..NEVER AGAIN….and had to turn in our car at the same spot you did……we drove to what seemed like the bowels of underground Paris, found a barely marked obscure EUROPCAR sign and finally figured it out……whew!!!!!….we were exhausted for days just remembering that experience! We could write a book about the laundromats and the underground garages in Europe……another harrowing one was in Vienna!!!! Glad all went well and that you made great family memories!

Ruth,

I always love reading your trip reports. This one filled me with such desire to return to Normandy especially! Honfleur’s ship church, the delightful harbor, the beautiful beaches and the sobering history. Thank you for your recommendations and I’m off to look at flights to Paris, maybe summer ‘25!

I made a mistake on typing the Sawday's website for European hotels. Have corrected it, but here is the right one again: https://www.sawdays.co.uk

Ah, this report had me re-visiting our wonderful 16 days in Paris in 2022. We also stayed for 5 nights at Hotel de Lutece and loved it. Absolutely would stay there again!

I really enjoyed reading this-the places I have been and the places I haven’t. I also appreciated your sense of humor about your “adventures”.

First comment - I’m so glad you went to the German cemetery, we did, on our tour there and i was very moved by it. Most of those boys were just that, they were not Nazis! The memorial in the center of the cemetery is emotional too. Pont du Hoc was amazing, too!
I also loved the tapestry and the Cathedral in Bayeux, it’s huge but also people sized if that makes sense. And, to see the Olympic torch is special. I saw a friend carry the torch in 1996 for the Atlanta Olympics.
Ah! London and theatre! How cool to see le Mis with your grandson after taking his mother when she was his age!
Loved reading it, Ruth. You are a talented writer and organizer! Wonderful family memories.

This was such a fun trip report! I appreciated your level of detail, mix of fact and feelings/observations, and your overall communication style. Thank you for sharing. Bookmarked for copying your choices when we can.

Thank you for a wonderful trip report.

FYI: If you can time your visit to late afternoon, at least after 3PM,
It will be almost a private visit. I’ve been there at the height of
flower season in May when it was almost empty.

We have done the almost empty 9:00 AM entry by staying local. I like the 3PM idea and will give that a try when I am able to visit there again.