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full of half-timber houses. Just south, Rothschilds by the Rolls arrive in season at the Belle Époque seaside resorts of Trouville and Deauville—both beautiful if hard on the pocket. Modern and student-filled Caen is famed for its two gigantic abbey churches, one begun by William the Conqueror, who is immortalized in nearby Bayeux’s legendary tapestry. This town makes a great base to explore the somber D-Day sites along Utah and Omaha beaches; bus tours and moving memorials make a fitting prelude for a drive across Normandy’s Cotentin Peninsula to Mont-St-Michel, whose tiny island is crowned by one of the most beautiful Gothic abbeys in France.

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Bus Tours | Making the Most of Your Time | Transportation Basics | Touring the D-Day Beaches | Finding a Place to Stay | Visitor Information

BUS TOURS

Cityrama and Paris-Vision run full-day bus excursions from Paris to Mont-St-Michel for €158, meals and admission included.

This is definitely not for the faint of heart—buses leave Paris at 6:45 or 7:15 AM and return around 10:30 PM.

In Caen, the Mémorial organizes four-hour English-language daily minibus tours of the D-Day landing beaches; the cost is €75, including entrance fees.

Normandy Sightseeing Tours runs a number of trips to the D-Day beaches and Mont-St-Michel. One of their full-day excursions to the D-Day beaches (8:30–6) costs €80.

Cityrama (4 pl. des Pyramides, | 75001 | Paris | 01–44–55–61–00 | www.cityrama.fr).

Mémorial (02–31–06–06–44 | www.memorial.fr).

Normandy Sightseeing Tours (618 rte. du Lavoir, | 14400Mosles | 02–31–51–70–52 | www.normandywebguide.com).

Paris-Vision (214 rue de Rivoli, | 75001 | Paris | 01–42–60–30–01 | www.parisvision.com).

MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR TIME

Normandy is a big region with lots to see. If you have 10 days or so you can do it justice. If not, you’ll need to prioritize.

In search of natural beauty? Head to the coastline north of Le Havre. Prefer sea and sand? Beat it to the beaches west of Trouville.

Like city life? You’ll love pretty Rouen. Are you a history buff? Base yourself in Caen to tour the D-Day beaches.

Can’t get enough of churches and cathedrals? You can go pretty much anywhere, but don’t miss Bayeux, Rouen, or Mont-St-Michel. (The last is a bit isolated, so you might want to get there directly from Paris, or at the start or end of a tour of Brittany.)

TRANSPORTATION BASICS

Although this is one of the few areas of France with no high-speed rail service—perhaps because it’s so close to Paris, or because it’s not on a lucrative route to a neighboring country—Normandy’s regional rail network is surprisingly good, meaning that most towns can be reached by train.

Rouen is the hub for Upper Normandy, Caen for Lower Normandy. Unless you’re driving, you’ll need a bus to reach the coastal resorts like Étretat, Honfleur, and Houlgate.

For Mont-St-Michel, a combination of train and bus is required.

To visit the D-Day beaches, a guided minibus tour, leaving from Caen or Bayeux, is your best bet.

The A13 expressway is the gateway from Paris, running northwest to Rouen and then to Caen. From here the A84 takes you almost all the way to Mont-St-Michel, and the N13 brings you to Bayeux.

If you’re arriving from England or northern Europe, the A16/A28 from Calais to Rouen is a scenic (and near-empty) delight.

TOURING THE D-DAY BEACHES

One of the great events of modern history, the D-Day invasion of June 1944, was enacted on the beaches of Normandy.

Omaha Beach (site of an eye-opening museum), Utah Beach, as well as many sites on the Cotentin Peninsula, and the memorials to Allied dead, all bear witness to the furious fighting that once raged in this now-peaceful corner of France.

Today, as seagulls sweep over the cliffs where American rangers scrambled desperately up ropes to silence murderous German batteries, visitors now wander through the blockhouses and peer into the bomb craters, the carnage of Saving Private Ryan thankfully now a distant, if still