From paris to normandy: A Memorable 6-Day Trip
Our family loves to celebrate with travel. My youngest son graduated from high school this year. To celebrate, we headed to France. After years of dreaming about this, we decided to travel from Paris to Normandy. My family is full of history lovers, so visiting Normandy, France, got everyone excited. We had wanted to do this trip for years. In the past, I had been nervous planning this ambitious of a trip. We would be traveling using planes, trains, taxis, and buses to get around. Only one of us speaks high school French from 30 years ago. However, everything went better than imagined. We had an amazing time. So great, I want to share it all with you!
Day 1 Paris to NOrmandy
We flew into Paris from Nashville, Tennessee. Our journey from Paris to Normandy began after we arrived in Paris, we took a taxi from Charles De Gaulle airport to Gare Saint-Lazare. We could have taken several trains, but it was easier for these tired travellers to get a cab. The taxi was around 60 euros. We then booked a train to Rouen on the SCNF connect. They have kiosks in the train station where you can buy tickets. For an unknown reason, we couldn’t do this at the kiosk. We had to wait in line to speak with someone. We could have bought tickets on the SCNF app or online. However, with the possibility of travel delays and immigration, I didn’t book this in advance. I wasn’t sure which time to book. The train was less than 2 hours from Rouen. After we arrived in Rouen, we made the 15-minute uphill walk to our hotel, the Hyatt Place Rouen.
Hyatt Place Rouen
After a long day of travel, we briefly rested. We headed to the restaurant at 7 when it opened for dinner. Our dinner was good and fresh. Three of us had Filet Mignon and one had the lamb. We all agreed it was excellent. It was raining this evening, so we all decided to rest up for the next few days.
DAY 2
The next day, we got up around 8 in the morning. We enjoyed the breakfast buffet at our hotel (19 euros a person), then headed out to the city center of Rouen. The Nutella crepes were a huge hit with our family.
We spent the day exploring Rouen. Mondays are not the best days to visit Rouen, but it was the day we had available. We made the most of it. Our family loved the vibe of this small town.
Sculpture of Joan of Arc who was burned at the stake here in Rouen
The Rouen Cathedral
DAY 3
On day 3, we caught an early train from Rouen to Caen. We had booked a D-Day beaches tour with the Caen Memorial Museum. You can check that out here.
We arrived early in Caen to drop off our bags at our hotel, the Hôtel La Fontaine Caen Centre, and then head out for the tour. Caen is a more industrial city than Rouen. When we got off the train, my son commented, “This is so different from Caen.“ I will mention that I looked at staying in Bayeux for the next two nights. It seemed a more charming choice. However, they are only 20 minutes apart by train, so either would work for this portion of the trip.
Our hotel in Caen I found through internet searches. The only hotel chain I recognized was Best Western, so I went off TripAdvisor reviews. We picked the Hôtel la Fontaine Caen Centre.
We usually stay at fancy hotels, so I was a little nervous when walking up. However, this place was great. The owners (brothers) were so nice and accommodating. My French is not great, and they both spoke perfect English. We ended up with two rooms here for our family. We bought one deluxe and one standard. We ended up giving the Deluxe to our boys so they could spread out. Here is a pic of the standard room. We added breakfast to our booking, and they had a great spread in the mornings. Don’t skip the croissants and homemade bread! I will mention that as an American, I didn’t check to see if the hotel had air conditioning. It did not. However, the cool breeze in the evening with the window open was fine for our stay. I usually travel with a fan but did not bring it this trip. If I were to go back, I would make sure to pack it. I would definitely stay here again, regardless. We ended up really like this location and town.
Standard room the deluxe definitely had more room and a couch
DAY 4
We had an early train to Bayeux to catch our next tour. On this day, we were heading to Mont St. Michel. You can read my full review of our tour here. Spoiler alert! It was excellent. Money and time well spent.
Bayeux was a charming city. It would have been a great place to stay. However, I am still glad we stayed in Caen since we wanted to return to the Caen Memorial Museum. The train makes it easy to access one town from another.
Day 5
We explored the Caen Memorial Museum. We spent several hours here. I have more information on the museum here, including using the bus system. I will say the museum was fantastic, and we are glad we spent the day here. After we finished up at the museum, we took a train back to Paris. We had booked the Paris Hilton Opera House due to its location close to the Gare du Lazare. Our tired feet were thankful we had planned this out ahead of time. It was the perfect location for this trip.
Day 6
On our last day, we headed to the Palace of Versailles. From Gare Du Lazare we took the Rer-C line straight to Versailles. It was 2.50 a person each way. We did pay a $2.00 for the cardboard ticket in addition to the fare. If we had iPhones we could have bought them with our phone for everyone but the Android app does not have that feature. This was my second time in Versailles. However, my first visit in spring. We had perfect weather, a spring day in May. I encourage you to read more about it here. I consider it a must-do day trip from Paris.
I was a little intimidated planning this trip from Paris to Normandy, moving so fast with a family of four. However, it all went smoothly. I am so glad I stepped out of my comfort zone and planned this for my family. If we can do it, anyone can!
Please check out my other posts on the region if you are heading to France.
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Happy Traveling!
Julie
