Getting to the Normandy D-Day beaches

By train from Paris

Trains leave from Gare Saint-Lazare, not Gare du Nord or Montparnasse, which is worth knowing if you are connecting from an airport. The rail distance to Bayeux is 225 km. The fastest service does it in 2h12; the average across all itineraries is 3h26, because the slower options change at Caen. There are roughly nine direct trains a day and about fifteen in total including connections, first departure around 06:12 and last around 22:15, operated by SNCF. Caen is on the same line, slightly closer.

I do not print fares. Rail pricing in France moves with how far ahead you book and which service you take, and a number typed onto a webpage in August tells you nothing about what you will pay in April. Book on SNCF Connect or at the station and you will see the real figure for your date.

By car from Paris

By road it is roughly 260 to 270 km on the A13. The American Battle Monuments Commission gives Paris to the Normandy American Cemetery as about 170 miles, or 274 km, which is a good proxy. Allow a comfortable three hours in clear conditions and considerably more if you are leaving Paris at a peak hour.

Bayeux to Omaha Beach and the American Cemetery

The signposted route is the N-13 towards Formigny, then the D-517 to Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer, then the D-514 east to Colleville-sur-Mer. It is a short drive on good roads, well signed all the way, and the cemetery has its own car park. I am not going to publish a precise distance or drive time: the figures repeated online do not agree and I could not verify one, so check your own mapping app. What I will say is that it is far enough to need a vehicle and close enough that a half-day tour from Bayeux still gives you two and a half hours at the sites.

Without your own car, the options are a seasonal bus, a taxi, a bike or a guided minivan — set out in full on visiting without a car.

Flying in

Caen-Carpiquet is the closest airport, about 20 km from Bayeux, but be realistic about what it is: year-round domestic flights to Lyon, Marseille, Nice and Toulouse, Corsica between April and October, and seasonal charters. There is effectively no scheduled service from the United Kingdom or the United States. Deauville-Normandie is the other regional field. In practice, almost every international visitor flies into Paris and takes the train from Saint-Lazare.

Or let someone else do the driving

If the journey itself is the obstacle, the Paris day trip removes it: a coach from Porte Maillot, a guide for the whole day, the Utah Beach Museum ticket and a two-course lunch with a glass of cider included, and you are dropped back in Paris that evening. The price of that convenience is time — around seven and a half of the fourteen hours are spent on the coach, and Omaha Beach gets 20 minutes. The full comparison is on day trips from Paris; if you would rather sleep on the coast, where to stay covers the bases.

Frequently asked questions