St Andrews to Normandy

[Cmoney710]

I have a trip planned next June to Scotland and wanted to throw in a day or 2 to Normandy. Does anyone have and experience with doing this and how easy is it to get there? Would prefer to take the train so we can see the sights and land. If you have done this please let me know or any advice. Thanks as always

[Chanceman]

This is from "rome3rio":there is no direct train from London to Normandy. However, there are services departing from London St Pancras Eurostar and arriving at Hôtel de Ville via Marne La Vallee Chessy, Massy Palaiseau and Gares. The journey, including transfers, takes approximately 8h 23m

Seems like a tortuous itinerary you have planned. But I guess you would fly in to Edinburgh, take the train to St Andrews, then back to Ediburgh, take another 5 hour train trip down to London St Pancras and a further 8h 23m on to Normandy. Phew!

[jonnymc44]

Looks like a second trip to me. It's not easy to get to from SA. Whilst it doesn't look far on a map travel options are pretty limited between the two.

[milesgiles]

I’ll assume its to see the war cemeteries rather than golf, which would be ridiculous.

The eurostar is excellent from St Pancras, I ‘think’ you could almost do this as a day trip from there and stay one night in London.

its a great train journey to/from Scotland particularly when past Newcastle up the East Coast

[duffer987]

@Cmoney710 - Off the top of my head, IMHO the 'best' way to manage this side trip is to fly to Scotland via London (assuming you do not have a direct to EDI), stop over in London for a few days, leave your clubs and main travel bag at left luggage at the airport and have a small, easily luggable weekend bag and head down to Normandy. Back up to London and then fly up to Scotland and start golfing. Eurostar and TER from St. Pancras to Paris to Caen would be 5+hrs, plus getting yourself into the city from LHR/LGW.
When I lived in England, we drove down which enabled us to pop around to the various sites during the day, while staying in Arromanches-les-Bains. Once you are in the area everything is within a few hours of each other, with other things on the way, assuming you pick up a car hire from Caen station.
Full on train journey down would be neat, but really deserves attention as a week long trip on its own. Edinburgh to Caen would be a long, unrealistic round trip for a few days. If you had any future plans to play golf in England, especially in the Southeast, then it would be dead easy to fit in.