Getting to Normandy by Air.

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Laramie

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I want to visit Normandy next year. The plan is to fly over and use public transport to move around. I want to avoid flying in to Paris.
Beauvais would be OK but getting to anywhere else besides Paris from there is proving a problem.
Flying to Rennes would be OK also but train transfers to the Normandy coast area Deauville/Honfleur/Caen seem expensive.
Any suggestions. I will not be hiring a car.
 
. . . back in the day, we travelled to Normandy in our dormobile (well a converted P&T mustard coloured van with the initials scraped off, but we kept the white doors). We had the engine overhauled by a trainee mechanic, had the sides of the van cut out to allow installation of windows. I'm not as bad as diy as I look, so I put in some timber panelling and sealed up as best I could. We shoved a mattress onto the floor, nailed down a small fridge. The only new item we purchased was a porta-loo. The cooker was 2 ringed gas attached to a cylinder. We used to cook outside of the "dormobile" and parked any place that there was plenty of room. We drove all over Normandy, visited the beaches, partook in historical walks and upgraded our spoken French. Our aircon was "open the back doors" and sometimes the front doors as well. Great and cheap way to see Normandy, Brittany, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and the rest of France. To purchase food we used the local markets for their fresh produce. Saved a fortune in the process.

For the return trip (from Normandy) stop off at one the "wine supermarkets" and buy enough wine to stock up the "dormobile" to the roof and enjoy for the next year (my legitimate moneysaving hint for anybody buying wine for a wedding etc).

Our "dormobile" was not suitable for touring in the south of Spain during the summer months as it turned into a mobile sweat barrell without aircon. But, in Ireland and through the UK it was great.

(Just noticed this is my 666th post Wow! the devil in me)
 
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Unless you can't drive for some major reason I cannot understand why you would want to try this, I did it a few years ago boat from rosslare drove from Cherbourg to Sainte-mere-Eglise to Pointe du hoc to Omaha to Benouville and on to Honfleur most of the battle sites if that's why your going are in remote places or small villages. I'd say local public transport is probably non existent.

Either drive or go on one of the battlefield coach tours I would think.......
 
You can use the public transport option in Google Maps to see if getting around without a car is a viable option to hit all the sites you want to hit. For example, you mention, Deauville, you would need to travel from Beauvais by train to Paris to get another back out along the Trouville-Deauville line. ~4.5hrs all in versus a 2.5hr drive.
 
Have to agree with Coolhandluke. I've been to those areas three times, and I don't remember ever seeing any public transport.
It is a pretty small area in all, and would even be possible by bicycle, if you were that way inclined, and had the time.

But car or coach tour is the only way to go imho.
 
I used to do a lot of business travel to Normandy, and a car was the only practical option.

Without a car, flying the Rennes and getting the train is the only viable option that I know of
 
huskerdu said:
Without a car, flying the Rennes and getting the train is the only viable option that I know of
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Aer Lingus fly this route and use a smaller aircraft. Are these any less comfortable to the Jets and how are they for the claustrophobic flyer and is the turbulence more noticeable?
 
Sorry I dont know. I used to drive from CDG. The flight times were far more flexible.
 
Odea said:
Aer Lingus fly this route and use a smaller aircraft. Are these any less comfortable to the Jets and how are they for the claustrophobic flyer and is the turbulence more noticeable?
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Smaller, noisier and much worse in turbulence. The newer ones aren't too noisy but the older ones are really bad. Technically everyone on board should be using hearing protection.
 
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