Paris and Normandy for three generations: the D-Day Beaches and Mont-Saint-Michel

Arrive in Paris

Paris Charles de Gaulle or Orly airport to your hotel in central Paris

• Early welcome dinner
• Nuit : Paris
• Environ 1 h de route

Après-midi

Rooms are usually ready from mid-afternoon; if you land early, leave the bags at the hotel and let the children stretch their legs by the Seine, a short walk away. We ask the hotel for family rooms or connecting rooms for each party, so grandparents can be next door rather than down the corridor.

Soir

At about 6 pm your See Sight Tours guide meets everyone in the lobby for a short briefing: how the week is paced, what goes in the small bag for the Mont night and how the D-Day days work for children. Then we walk to a neighbourhood bistro for an early welcome dinner at about 6:30 pm, with a children's menu, so the youngest are in bed in good time after the flight.

Compris

• Pick-up at Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG) or Orly (ORY)
• Welcome briefing with your guide
• Early welcome dinner at a Paris bistro

The Eiffel Tower, the river and the Luxembourg Garden

The Eiffel Tower, the Batobus to Notre-Dame, then the Luxembourg Garden

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Paris
• En bateau

Matin

We start at the Eiffel Tower on the first lift slot of the morning, before the queues build, and ride up to the second floor, where the whole city is laid out below and children can pick out Notre-Dame and the Sacré-Cœur. Back on the ground we board the Batobus, the hop-on river boat, at the foot of the tower and sit down for the ride along the Seine, past the Musée d'Orsay and the Louvre, to the stop for Notre-Dame. The cathedral reopened in December 2024 after the 2019 fire; inside, the cleaned stone is pale and bright.

Après-midi

Lunch is at a sit-down bistro nearby. In the afternoon we walk or take a short taxi ride to the Luxembourg Garden, where children push wooden sailboats across the Grand Bassin with a stick, as Parisian children have for a century, and there are chairs in the shade for everyone else.

Soir

The late afternoon and evening are free.

Compris

• The Eiffel Tower by lift to the second floor, first slot of the morning
• Batobus river boat day pass, from the Eiffel Tower to Notre-Dame
• Notre-Dame de Paris
• Sit-down lunch in a Paris bistro
• The Luxembourg Garden with sailboat hire on the Grand Bassin

Activités en option

• The Eiffel Tower summit (extra cost, timed tickets booked ahead on request)
• The puppet theatre in the Luxembourg Garden, on the days it plays
• An evening Seine cruise

Monet's garden, Honfleur, on to Bayeux

Paris to Giverny, then Honfleur and Bayeux

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Bayeux
• Environ 4 h de route

Après-midi

After an early lunch in the village we drive about an hour and a half to Honfleur, the harbour town at the mouth of the Seine. Walk around the Vieux Bassin, lined with tall slate-hung houses, have an ice cream on the quay and look into Sainte-Catherine, a church built of timber by the town's shipwrights. Samuel de Champlain sailed from here in 1608 on the voyage that founded Quebec. About an hour more brings us to Bayeux, our base for three nights, by about 5 pm.

Compris

• Monet's house and gardens at Giverny, first timed entry
• Sit-down lunch in Giverny
• Honfleur with your guide: the Vieux Bassin and the wooden church of Sainte-Catherine

Juno Beach and the sand at Arromanches

Bayeux to Juno Beach at Courseulles-sur-Mer, then Arromanches and back to Bayeux

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Bayeux
• Environ 1.5 h de route

Après-midi

Lunch is at a sit-down restaurant by the harbour. In the early afternoon we drive fifteen minutes west to Arromanches. On the clifftop, Arromanches 360 shows a short film on screens all around you; then we walk down to the town, where the concrete caissons of the Mulberry harbour, towed across the Channel after D-Day, still sit in the bay. When the tide is out the sand is wide, and the children can dig while the grown-ups look out at the harbour. We are back in Bayeux by about 4 pm, with the rest of the day free.

Compris

• The Juno Beach Centre at Courseulles-sur-Mer, with a guided walk to the beach and bunkers
• Sit-down lunch in Courseulles
• Arromanches 360, the circular cinema on the cliff
• Arromanches beach and the Mulberry harbour

Pointe du Hoc, Omaha Beach and the American Cemetery

Bayeux to the Longues-sur-Mer battery and Pointe du Hoc, then Omaha Beach, the American Cemetery and back to Bayeux

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Bayeux
• Environ 2 h de route

Après-midi

Today a specialist local D-Day guide who leads families joins your See Sight Tours guide for the American sector, and the day runs from about 9 am to mid-afternoon. We start at the Longues-sur-Mer battery, where four German guns still sit in their concrete casemates on the cliff; children can look into one and see how far it looked out to sea. At Pointe du Hoc you walk among the bomb craters on the clifftop that the US Rangers climbed on 6 June, on paths that stay back from the edge. After a sit-down lunch on the coast we go down onto Omaha Beach by the Les Braves sculpture, and then to the Normandy American Cemetery above it, where more than 9,000 Americans lie. Your guides prepare the children before the visit, and the visitor centre tells the story through letters and photographs.

Soir

We are back in Bayeux by about 4:30 pm, in time for a rest before a free early dinner.

Compris

• A specialist local D-Day guide for the day
• The Longues-sur-Mer battery
• Pointe du Hoc
• Sit-down lunch on the coast
• Omaha Beach and the Les Braves sculpture
• The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, with its visitor centre

The Airborne Museum and an evening at the Mont

Bayeux to Sainte-Mère-Église, then Mont-Saint-Michel

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Mont-Saint-Michel
• Environ 2.5 h de route

Matin

A slow morning in Bayeux, a town that came through 1944 almost undamaged. Walk to the cathedral, consecrated in 1077, or have a long breakfast. At about 10:30 we drive forty minutes west to Sainte-Mère-Église, where American paratroopers came down in the dark before dawn on 6 June; a figure hangs from the church tower in memory of the one whose parachute caught there. At the Airborne Museum across the square you stand under a C-47 transport plane and a wooden glider, the kind children rarely see up close.

Après-midi

After a sit-down lunch in the village we drive about an hour and three quarters south to Mont-Saint-Michel, checking in at a hotel on the mainland by the shuttle stop by about 4 pm, with time to rest. At about 5:30 pm the free shuttle and a short walk take us across to the island as the day visitors leave.

Soir

Walk part of the ramparts, then sit down to an early dinner together and see the abbey floodlit on the way back.

Compris

• Bayeux Cathedral
• Sainte-Mère-Église and its church
• The Airborne Museum
• Sit-down lunch in Sainte-Mère-Église
• The shuttle across to Mont-Saint-Michel
• Early dinner on or beside the island

Activités en option

• A walk across the bay sands with a licensed bay guide, where the tide times on your date allow (never cross the bay without one)

The abbey at opening, Saint-Malo's beach and the TGV

Mont-Saint-Michel to Saint-Malo, then the TGV to Paris Montparnasse

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Paris
• Environ 1 h de route

Après-midi

At about 11 am we drive fifty minutes to Saint-Malo, the walled port on the Brittany coast, for a long farewell lunch together in the old town. In the afternoon, the beach: just below the walls, the Bon-Secours seawater pool fills with each tide, and there is sand for digging and a promenade for grandparents. Our vehicle drives the main bags back to Paris, so in the late afternoon you board the TGV with a day bag for the ride of about two and a half hours to Paris Montparnasse, where a van meets you.

Soir

The evening is free.

Compris

• The abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel at opening with your guide
• Farewell lunch in Saint-Malo
• An afternoon on the beach and the ramparts at Saint-Malo
• TGV from Saint-Malo to Paris Montparnasse, standard class
• Your main bags carried to Paris by road in our vehicle
• Transfer from the station to your hotel

Depart Paris

Your hotel in central Paris to Charles de Gaulle or Orly airport

• Petit-déjeuner
• Environ 1 h de route

Matin

The trip ends after breakfast. A driver takes your family from the hotel to Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG) or Orly (ORY) at a time set by your flight, about 45 minutes to an hour by road; allow more in the weekday morning rush. Your guide checks every party's transfer time on day 7, so there is nothing to arrange on the day.

Soir

If your flight leaves in the evening, the hotel can hold the bags while you spend a last few hours in the city: the Tuileries garden with its summer funfair, the Jardin des Plantes and its small zoo, or a last walk by the Seine. Many families add a night or two before or after the trip. Ask us when you book and we can add extra nights at the same hotel, or quote a day at Versailles or Disneyland Paris for the children.

Compris

• Drop-off at Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG) or Orly (ORY)