Any recommendations for a day trip? Train would be best, but would driving work better? (Won't have a Eurail pass this time)

If I took the train and did a self guided tour....how would I do that?

Any reason why you want to go to Normandy in particular - rather than somewhere a similar distance in a different direction?

How far from Paris are you prepared to venture (in distance, or travel time)?

I would like to see the D-Day beaches and cemeteries

We did this over Christmas/New Year's a couple of years ago. Take the train to Bayeux, then rent a car there. We used Hertz, which was based out of a gas station. Take a taxi from train station to pick up car. Was very painless.

I'd recommend you spend a day or two in Bayeux, as there's really too much to see in Normandy to do it in a day and Bayeux is a good base. Very charming little town; in some ways we enjoyed it more than Paris.

The D-Day museum in Bayeux is quite good and you should also see the Bayeux Tapestry and Cathedrale Notre Dame. Drive to the beaches of interest, Pont du Hoc, cemeteries (very moving), maybe a drive to Ste-Mere-Eglise (which has a mannequin of the parachutist who got entangled on the church clock during a drop), etc. There are tons of books on the area, as you can imagine. Lonely Planet Normanday is pretty good.

Be sure to do some planning as there is a lot to see and you need to figure out where you want to drive.

Have fun!

This question comes up a lot here:

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