Summer hols, getting to Normandy, no car, 3m and 2.3 yr old - how?

[littlefrog]

We're trying to work out if this is completely insane!

Coming from London. Don't have a car. We need to get to near Bayeaux. I can't see how we won't be travelling with a fair amount of stuff: pushchair, baby car seat, travel cots, then all the usual clobber.
Options I can think of:
Fly - but where to? Ungreen, and will be expensive with all the stuff.
Train - Eurostar to Paris, then on to ?. Possible, but will we go mad with all our stuff?
Ferry - from where to where? What's it like travelling on the ferry as a pedestrian (with 2 littlies?)

And given that this would be for only a week, are we off our heads?!

ok, i take that to mean we're insane...

Omigod! How many children? and how old?

Eurostar to Paris then Train to Bayeux. The only trauma that involves is getting your gear across Paris from Gare du Nord to Montparnasse, but resign yourselves to a taxi. where you get the train to Bayeux, then get picked up at the other end!

If you take the Ferry option, you can go to Cherbourg, then take a train, but that involves lots of nightmare stuff, like getting to Ferry from Portsmouth train station, ferry or the quck thingy they use now, sea sick kids, then getting from ferry terminal to cherbourg station etc....would choose paris route every time.

Can you live without the travel cots?

No, not insane, have had exact issue myself! but depends on age of kid(s).

I know someone who went by bike to Holland, although her dc weren't as tiny as yours.

I would really, really recommend the train. Eurostar is fab, as are French trains. I took ds to Normandy for a week in summer, and the ferry was hideous, so we came back by train. So easy.

sorry, new to mumsnet, just spotted c's ages. train.

Could you hire a car or don't you drive? Personally I find family holidays (or the getting there bit) stressful at the best of times, couldn't imagine trying to get to Bayeaux/staying there for a week without a car.

Does the place you are staying at not provide cots??

Do you have a particular reason for Bayeaux?

thank you for advice - it's Bayeaux cos friends are renting a house there.
OK, so it sounds like the train is the best - I had a quick look at the ferry and I must say, the timings looked TERRIBLE.
We could hire a car from here, but it's very expensive to get permission to take it to France. We'd definitely hire at the far end.
The place we're staying in I think has 1 cot but there'll be 3 children...
Thanks for advice, we now need to decide if it's worth the cost, effort, etc. for only a week.

If you did decide to look at flying you could fly into Nantes from london Stansted with Ryaniar. If you can get cheap flights the additionals may make it a bit more affordable. Lots of car hire places at Nantes. We find Europcar the cheapest most times.

Or the other thing would be get the train to Lille and then hire a car from there.

Agree with salome, get the train via Paris
I thought trains to Cherbourg left from St Lazare, has that changed then?

Bayeux is quite near to Caen, what about Portsmouth-Caen ferry & they pick you up? (or don't they have a car either?)

In fact Bayeux is only about 15 miles from Ouistreham where the "Caen" ferry actually berths, you could get a taxi from there.

Just looked at Portsmouth public transport on google, it says "A dedicated Shuttle Bus runs from The Hard and Portsmouth and Southsea railway station connecting directly to the Continental Ferry Port at Mile End. Journeys are operated to link to ferry arrivals and departures"

So train to Portsmouth, shuttle bus to ferry, ferry to Caen, taxi or lift or hire car the other end. Do-able?

(Final post, honest!)

trip advisor thread on doing exactly this journey (it's from 2007 though)

Carhire 3000 offer Caen Ferry port as a pick-up point (we have used carhire3000, they are excellent. If you go with them make sure you pay the extra not-very-much for the damage excess waiver, ours was an extra £10 or so & saved us over £400 for a minor bump in France)

The ferry option was a nightmare with a biddable eight year old and little luggage, and we are both seasoned travellers. Might have been his little tear stained face begging not to have to do it again after copious vomiting which prompted alternative return train route via paris, which he loved.

A point to note, Hired a car for a trip to normandy and had no problems at all! as long as you are insured properly should be just dandy. (but we did dover- calais and that was dead quick, and he was on only a tiny at the time)

MaryQueen, Might well be right about St Lazare, last trip came from Caen and arrived at Montparnasse 3, thats all, thought they were on same line.

You can rent a travel cot for 31? for a week from this company here
If you would like some help with the French I can.

I can't imagine how you could carry 2 cots in a station.

Can't the 3 mth old sleep on the floor on some towels or in a box ?

(I am NOT joking, we put our 6 mth old (not rolling), to sleep on some towels for a week on a trip to the UK).