TRAVEL TO THE LANDING BEACHES

It is very easy come to Normandy.

There are 2 major airports near Paris : Roissy Charles de Gaule (CDG) and Orly.

Generally, international flights land at Roissy Charles de Gaule (CDG).

Once you have landed in France, there are 2 possibilities to reach Normandy: by road or by train.

Reach the landing beaches by train

It is necessary to go to the Saint Lazare rail station, which is located in the centre of Paris.

And you have to buy a ticket to Bayeux.

Bayeux is a very well-placed city because it is at equal distance from Omaha Beach, Arromanches, Ouistreham, and the Pointe du Hoc.

You can also take a train ticket to Caen.

However, Caen is less well placed than Bayeux, except for the Sword beach sector (British Sector).

The big difference between Bayeux and Caen is that there are more tours available from Bayeux. We will come back to this later.

Reach the landing beaches by car

We recommend you to rent a car directly from the airport. Especially because the trip from the airport to the landing beaches is very simple. It is almost entirely by motorway. And you avoid Paris and its traffic jams !

There are 175 miles between CDG and Bayeux, a trip of 3 hours (2 hours 40 by highway)

And you have got 210 miles between CDG and Sainte Mère Eglise, a trip of 3 hours 35 (3 hours 20 by highway)

The distances are more or less the same if you land at Orly airport.

It’s not a scoop. By car, you are not dependent on anyone. You can plan your own tour. You choose yourself the sites to visit in the order you want. And you stay as long as you want. You can sleep close to the landing beaches in the countryside in castles or in typical Norman cottages.

Depending on the sites you want to visit, you can also change hotels every night. Example: if you plan to stay for 3 days, you can take a hotel near Arromanches-les-Bains on the first evening, another hotel near the Pointe du Hoc on the 2nd evening and a hotel close to Saint Mère Eglise on the 3rd evening. This way, you limit travel time.

Another suggestion is to take a single hotel as close as possible to the beaches of Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword. Near Bayeux, for example.