One of many places I have never been but would like to visit at some point is the Normandy coast in France. Its fame for hosting the D-Day landings on its purposely named beaches brings with it global appeal, and thus is very popular with tourists. I expect it will be even more so this year with the 80th anniversary of the landings.
The issue is, rural France is not particularly renowned for having any practical public transport other than a few trains per day. There is the main line from Cherbourg to Paris via Caen (handy for somebody coming from Poole), but this doesn’t run near the beaches. Looking at this map…
…it appears that there is a bus route from Ouistreham to Grandcamp Massy which cuts inland to connect with the railway at Bayeux, although the website doesn’t seem to show any publicity as to when and how frequently it runs.
Bayeux is only 5 miles from the coast, so for a fit person a return walk or cycle to Omaha and Gold beaches is definitely possible. I’d imagine however even if there wasn’t any public transport, there must at least some sort of package coach operation to ferry tourists from the station (or beyond) to the beaches at peak visiting times.
So the question is, can you visit the Normandy beaches without a car? Has anyone on here attempted to do so?
The issue is, rural France is not particularly renowned for having any practical public transport other than a few trains per day. There is the main line from Cherbourg to Paris via Caen (handy for somebody coming from Poole), but this doesn’t run near the beaches. Looking at this map…
…it appears that there is a bus route from Ouistreham to Grandcamp Massy which cuts inland to connect with the railway at Bayeux, although the website doesn’t seem to show any publicity as to when and how frequently it runs.
Bayeux is only 5 miles from the coast, so for a fit person a return walk or cycle to Omaha and Gold beaches is definitely possible. I’d imagine however even if there wasn’t any public transport, there must at least some sort of package coach operation to ferry tourists from the station (or beyond) to the beaches at peak visiting times.
So the question is, can you visit the Normandy beaches without a car? Has anyone on here attempted to do so?
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