side trip to Normandy, beaches

We will be doing a tour this summer and have a day at leisure in Paris. We are hoping that we can do a side trip to Normandy and WWII beaches. I think it would be cheaper to find our own tour than go through the tour company. Does anyone have any suggestions on who to check into and where they are located?

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I%26#39;d rent a car and drive.

You%26#39;ll see more, it%26#39;s an easy drive, and if there are 2 of you (or more) it won%26#39;t cost that much more to rent a car vs. paying 2 tour bus fares.

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Hi Iowa, you%26#39;ll see me posting often for Fat Tire on here for their bike tours and they offer a DDay tour (not on bikes by the way), although I haven%26#39;t personally taken it. Check out their website for the details. In either case, you%26#39;ll want to take the train to Bayeux and then either rent a car from there or take a tour that begins there. Most of the major DDay sites are within a 1 hour drive from Bayeux (Utah, Omaha, US cemetery, Arronmanches). It%26#39;s a great day trip from Paris and I take visitors out there often. If you like movies like Band of Brothers you%26#39;ll enjoy this for sure.

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Make sure you read %26quot;D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II%26quot; by Stephen Ambrose before you go.

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I second Pixfield%26#39;s suggestion- I really enjoyed the book and found I got a lot more out of the sites having read it.

Also, I believe the Office of Tourism is the entity that releases a booklet with five or six different themed driving tours of the sites, and then there are related signs along the road to help keep you on track. We did snippets of a couple tours-- it was great!

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