Where in Normandy do you want to go? It's a very large region.

American cemetery, Beach - probably Omaha, airborne museum. Dday stuff...

Earlier this year some guests of ours used this company:

www.normandywebguide.com to do a similar tour. Rather than be transported by the company they had a guide come in their car with them and for 4 of them it worked out a fair bit cheaper than if all 4 had booked on to an organised tour. And of course, it was tailored to their personal needs.

Your best bet would be to take the train to Caen and rent a car there. Check on the Fodor forums site; there are several recommendations for good local guides.

Just returned from Paris and we took a day trip to Normandy. It was a really long day. I would have spent at least one night somewhere around there and had a tour company pick me up at my hotel for the day and then take the train back to Paris in the evening. We took the Cityrama Tour bus and it was good. We wanted to do the tour with D-Day Battle Tours with Ellwood by we were unable to arrive to meet with him on the only day we had available (Sunday) because the trains don't arrive until late on that day. Ellwood meets you in Caen. See if you can schedule with Ellwood or another tour guide and see if they can give you a good deal. The kids may think that would be more fun. Then you can arrive by train at 11:30 and take the 7:00 back to Paris or stay one night somewhere up there. Just keep in mind it's a very long day and it was very cold there. There is alot to see in half a day. It is a must see at least once in a lifetime.

We were a family group of 5 (2 kids plus Grandma) that ended up hiring a guide to go with us. It was WAY cheaper than going in a group. Also, our youngest son was only 9 at the time and thus didn't meet the "12 or older" rule for all the guided tour groups.

Here is a link to a note I wrote on here about guides. I have listed contact for several guides, including the one we used.

tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g187179-i607-k1119…

And here is one more that we were going to use until he became head of the new museum at the American Cemetary. He has since left that position and is back to leading tours. He has 2 boys that are 13 & 11, so he is used to kids!

http://www.dday-guide.com/2201.html

Some of these guides also do field trips with local schools, so they are used to dealing with kids. Ask what their experience is with kids the ages of yours.

You absolutely want to do a full day tour. The time will go fast! I am not much of one for tours or guides, but in retrospect I think we would have covered maybe 1/20th of the ground we did without the guide. Just simply the fact that he knew right where to go, where to find a parking spot, what to hit, what to skip, showed us things we would have walked right by without seeing, kept us moving, told us stories in the car between stops.....

You can arrange to drive your car, drive their car, rent a car..... Protocol is that you also pay for their lunch.

We were EXHAUSTED after our day of touring....it is so much information so fast (but in a good way) that afterwards you just need to kind of sit quietly and process it all. Luckily we were staying in Bayeux. I would recommend adding some days or figuring some way to spend maybe the night before and after the tour in Bayeux or someplace else central. At the very least, spend the night before so that you can get an early start on a full day tour. When you figure how far you are travelling, and what you are paying, it makes sense to do it right. For us, this was the highlight of our trip. We made this trip to France to see these sights (at our boys' request) and Paris was the sidebar for us.

Hope this helps!

We did an overnight trip from Paris to Bayeux in September. I highly recommend going out the afternoon before your day touring the Normandy invasion beaches. You can cover the high points in one day, but I wouldn't try to do it without being there for the night first. There's apleasant bistro at the railroad station where you can end your day before returning to Paris. Off peak trains are cheaper. IMHO the ideqal is to take the noon train from Paris to Bayeux, see the tapestry and the museum in the afternoon and do the beaches tour the next day.

That sounds like an excellent suggestion!

Hi raerose,

If your return flight back to Florida is late in the day, you could rent a car, stay a night in Normandy, see the D Day sites and return the car to airport on your way ome.

Otherwise, as others have posted, you could enjoy and do this by having a car and spending a night in Normandy in the area where you plan on visiting. Its nice to have your own car, you could stop and do what you would like.

Enjoy !!