Mont St. Michel, France – (1 hr Research)

Research Request (1 hr):  How to travel to Mont St Michel France from Wittlich Germany (or Bitburg, Germany or even Luxembourg) on a two day weekend.  I want to take the train and then rent a car without driving through Paris. 

Photo of Mont St Michel provided by Spoken Light Photography.  

Bottom line answer to your question is I would take the train to St Malo France.  It is on the other side of Paris and about an hour from Mont St Michel.  It has a couple of car rentals. 

Another thought:  Drive the entire way through Belgium and avoid Paris altogether.  Unless you were really looking forward to reading/sleeping on the train, driving will be less complicated, cheaper and give you more flexibility.  You could do it all Friday night or drive 1/2 way Friday night and then get an early start on Saturday. 

Details: 

• Train from Luxemburg to St Malo France (transfer in Paris)

I use the Rail Europe sight to find schedules but they are not the cheapest to purchase.

• Spend the night in St Malo (it looks like a cute town and the car rentals will be closed when you get in. You can get an early start on Saturday to drive to Mont St Michel from there.
• Rent a car in St Malo (looks like they open at 8 am)

https://www.europcar.com/location/france/saint-malo/saint-malo-tgv-station

https://www.sixt.com/car-rental/france/saint-malo/saint-malo-centre-station-sncf

• 1 hr drive from St Malo to Mont St Michel.
• Mont St Michel tourism website which includes times of the tides. To observe the phenomenon of the rising tide in Mont Saint-Michel, you must be present 2 hours before the times indicated above.  If you want to see the tides, due to the early morning/late times, I would recommend spending one night in Mont St Michel on Saturday and then make your way back home on Sunday. 

http://www.ot-montsaintmichel.com/index.htm?lang=en

*Note – if you wanted to just drive from home to Mont St. Michel, you can do that through Belgium and still avoid Paris.  It is actually faster through Belgium than Paris.  The trip is 7 hrs from Luxembourg.  It would be less complicated, cheaper and less restrictive (leaving you more flexibility and time in Mont St. Michel)