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Driving to Normandy from Paris

LoveItaly

10+ Posts
I'm helping a family member with their trip. They're planning on picking up a rental car after their stay in Paris and drive to Bayeux for a few days. They do not want to drive in Paris proper and were thinking of picking up the car either at Orly or CDG. Which airport, or other location, would be best for heading to Normandy? They would like to do a scenic route rather than highways. How long of a drive would that be? We took the train from Paris to Bayeux and back which is what I suggested but they want a car and plan to go to the Loire Vally for a few days after Normandy and then back to Paris for a flight home. My suggestion was to take the train to Bayeux and then back to Paris and save the Loire Valley for another trip. This is all after time in Rome and a 12 day Mediterranean cruise. No Slow Travel for them! Any suggestions would be great. Thanks.

Carole
 
We’ve driven from CDG airport to the Loire Valley, then from there to northern Normandy, then back to the airport. The driving was easy and well signed.

Picking up and dropping off from CDG might be easiest, or find a location on the west side of Paris to pick up.

Google maps will give you driving times but I remember it was a few hours driving to the Loire. We spent 5 nights in the Loire and 4 in Normandy and had a nice time.

I wrote about our trip in my blog:
http://www.slowtravels.com/2010/travel-journals/2010-europe/france-loire-valley/

I wrote about some of the Normandy sites here:
https://www.sloweurope.com/daytrips/france/normandy/
 
Pauline, thanks for the info which I'll pass on. I enjoyed reading your Loire Valley trip report. My sentiments exactly about chateaux/castles. We visited Schwerin Castle in Germany and thought the interior was boring and not particularly interesting although the exterior of the castle and the lake island setting was impressive and very picturesque. Too bad it was raining and we couldn't enjoy strolling the gardens.

Carole
 
I would take a train to Normandy and pick up the rental car there. The only problem I had is that I could not get an automatic car. They might now have them. Then they could drive to the Loire and return the car to the airport.
 
We took a train from Paris to Rouen. Then we rented a car in Rouen. We left from Gare de Lyon but can also use St Lazare. It is a quick trip on the train and then the driving is pretty straight foward to Normandy. We had a good choice of rental vehicles there.
 

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