Normandy & Mont Saint-Michel Escape

Paris – Rouen – Étretat – Honfleur – Mont Saint-Michel. At 07:30 your guide welcomes you and you set off from Paris. As you drive the 122 kilometres to Rouen on the motorway – around two hours in your comfortable air–conditioned Mercedes minivan – your guide shares background on Normandy and its key towns.

You arrive in Rouen around 10:00 for a guided one–hour walking tour, taking in the city of a hundred bell towers: Notre–Dame Cathedral (13th–16th centuries), the Vieux Marché where Joan of Arc was executed and the Church of Joan of Arc, the 16th–century Palace of Justice, and the Gros–Horloge on its pedestrian street. You then have free time before you depart at 12:00 for Étretat – about 80 kilometres.

You reach Étretat around 13:00 for a walking tour of its striking white cliffs – some rising to 90 metres – and the white pebble beach that inspired Monet and other Impressionists. You have free time to continue exploring before you leave at 15:00 for Honfleur, a 45–minute drive of about 45 kilometres. You arrive at approximately 15:45 and stroll the historic port – once Normandy’s main defensive harbour in the 15th century and later a resort favoured by 19th–century artists. You have free time from 17:00 to 18:00.

At 18:00 you head to a local Calvados producer, arriving around 18:15 to learn how Calvados is made and to taste Calvados and Normandy cider. At 19:00 you depart for Mont Saint–Michel, arriving around 20:30 to check in to a small 3–star hotel.

Mont Saint-Michel – Cancale – Pointe du Grouin – Saint-Malo – Paris. You depart your hotel at 08:00 for Mont Saint-Michel – around one hour by road. On arrival, you enter the UNESCO World Heritage island and follow the medieval lanes up to the Benedictine Abbey at the summit. You take in panoramic views over the bay and the Atlantic, and visit the Abbey – admission includes audio guides in multiple languages. The mount and its bay have been a place of pilgrimage since the Middle Ages and are among France’s most visited sights. You then have free time for lunch and to explore the village and bay at your own pace.

You continue to Cancale at around 12:30 – about one hour by road – and visit the oyster market in France’s oyster capital. You can taste fresh local oysters and choose a spot for lunch during your free time.

At 14:30 you drive to Pointe du Grouin – about 15 minutes – a rugged headland marked by a lighthouse built in 1861, with cliffs up to 40 metres high and wide views across the Normandy coast, the Bay of Mont Saint-Michel and the Emerald Coast.

You continue to Saint-Malo at approximately 15:45 for a guided walking tour of the walled city. Once a corsair stronghold and the birthplace of Jacques Cartier and the poet Chateaubriand, Saint-Malo’s Old Town is enclosed by high walls, with narrow cobbled streets and buildings from the 18th and 15th centuries.

At 17:30 you set off for Paris – a journey of around 4.5–5 hours – and return to your hotel between 21:30 and 22:00.