Having just returned from a riverboat trip last week stopping in towns I think Rouen would be a good one to visit on the train route.
A much smaller one is Les Andelys,but not sure about the train route there.

This request may be a slight problem because few places I consider a village have a train station. But maybe when you say village you just mean a small town, you do say town later (and if you are worried about being in centre ville, it must be a place of some size). What size town are you looking for? Because usually there aren't a lot of train stations in places less than around 10-15K population. There are exceptions of small places in the suburbs of Paris as to places that would be on the suburban rail RER line as commuters would use it, but they wouldn't be an hour away from Paris.

A few suggestions, Auvers-sur-Oise does have some very pretty areas and while a tourist destination (Van Gogh lived there a while and is buried there) and not an hour from Paris, it is on the suburban rail line and is close to what I'd call a village (population is less than 10K) http://www.auvers-sur-oise.com/

I'd also recommend Moret-sur-Loing which isn't a big tourist spot at all (except some French tourists, mostly, doing weekend trips) but is a lovely small town with a nice river and mill, and a small train station but is within an hour or less of Paris. It even has a few interesting buildings. It's not too far from Fontainebleau. http://www.ville-moret-sur-loing.fr/


French people are not going to immediately be your friend if you show up in a small village where people have lived there forever, with you being a foreiger and not speaking French well. Just a warning. Of course you can talk to people in shops just like anywhere, but it may not be something out of Marcel Pagnol, that's all I'm saying.

Personally, I think you should take French classes rather than just spend time in a small town if your goal is really to improve your language skills notably, or perhaps if you don't know French at all now (it's not clear, but almost sounds like it). If you don't know French at all, you won't learn to speak it just by being in a small town for a month.

There is actually a book called "An Hour from Paris." www.amazon.com/Hour-Paris-Annabel-Simms/dp/1873429495/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320345893&sr=8-1

I agree with Christina that what you want to do is probably not as great an idea as it sounds. Other than people in stores, who do you plan to talk with? Think about your daily life where ever you live. How many strangers do you have much in the way of conversations with?

Have you considered language classes? There are lots of language schools which have formal classes in the morning and often activities of some sort in the afternoon where you speak with other students - so they may not be fluent in French either but at least they will be someone to practice with.

I would also rethink wanting to be in a small town/village. In a city there are museums, plays, cultural events, etc where you would probably have a lot more opportunity to talk to people.

I think Christina and isabel have given you some really good advice as to what your experience is going to be like. I think whether or not this experience would work for you depends a lot on your personality. You'll really have to force yourself to interact with people while not being overly perky and intrusive. If you have some French language skills then you would probably be quickly known by the locals if you were in a smaller place. Yes, you'll have to become somewhat of a regular at cafés, restaurants, grocery stores etc. as these are probably the places you're most likely to have a chance to meet people. If you are able to straddle that border between being outgoing and not being overly intrusive the locals will probably consider you a novel curiosity and will happily accept you and treat you well.

The other thing you have to think about is where are you going to stay? It's not like there are lots of places to rent for only 1 month in a lot of small towns and villages. I would think your best option is to try and get into some sort of exchange program where you could stay in a French home. That would really be an ideal situation to interact with locals and improve your French skills.

If you could give some feedback about what your thoughts are after reading mine and the other poster's responses and if you still think you'd like to try this experience of staying in a small town or village for a month then I could give you lots of suggestions. I have extensively biked through and explored the countryside within an hour of Paris in just about any direction you can think of and I know of many small towns and villages that are served by a rail line to Paris and I'd be happy to recommend them to you. Before I go through all the effort of describing them I'd like to hear what you have to say after reading the feedback you've been given.

Hi, lf,

I would second the suggestion that you enrol in a language school for at least part of the time. you could really improve if you spent a month at it, but even 2 weeks would be a huge help - much better IMHO than struggling along by yourself in a little village where opportunities to speak more than the most general remarks may be few and far between.

I'm not just guessing about this - earlier this year I spent a week at a language school in Italy followed by a few days in Florence. even in the one week i felt that I had made progress [2 weeks would have been more than twice as good] but when I got to Florence, I had to work really hard to find opportunities to practice my italian.

3 weeks at language school followed by a week or so in a large town would be the best option, I think.

greg---thanks for the book link. I love to read about Paris plus anywhere else in France. I've ordered it along with

http://www.amazon.com/Most-Beautiful-Walk-World-Pedestrian/dp/0061998540/ref=pd_sim_b_5

which I found at the bottom of the page of your link. I can't wait to add them to my collection.

Some outer suburbs might fit the bill, because they have easy transportation to Paris but also a cosmopolitan mix of residents with whom it would easier to be in contact -- and also language schools. Pontoise, Noisy-le-Grand, or even Versailles might be worth looking into.

In Paris:

http://adrianleeds.com/events/parler-parlor

Not knowing your present language skills makes recommendations difficult. As others have accurately pointed out, the idea that moving to a charming village will offer you the opportunity to improve your French is more a romantic notion than it is a practical reality. Making friends with the locals might be more of a challenge that it might seem. The French will probably be very polite to you as a stranger, but they will remain very guarded and hesitant about developing any personal relationship, particularly with someone who will remain but a few weeks.

You might look into one of the schools in Tours, one hour from Paris by TGV. Tours, a university town, has a vibrant and active social environment among students both at the university and among those attending its language schools. Centered in old Tours, Place Plumereau offers cafés, restaurants, and lots of people in a convivial setting. It might provide you a social conduit allowing you to develop relationships with local students.

Take a look at what this school offers. Its been teaching French to foreigners for a long time:

http://www.institutdetouraine.com/en

www.chartres-tourisme.com

www.beaune.com

My top 2 prettiest best towns albeit more tourist for a reason

Begin rosettastone.com B4 you go

hospitalityclub.com for good locals to stay/do immersion with

Did this it worked great...

hosptalityclub.org immersion far better cheaper

than any school I have seened most designed for tourists

larger classes one on one costs a fortune many folks have

commercial motives for putting you in a school.

Just say no...

eurocheapo.com/paris great map budget tips lodging

Happy Travels!

many folks have

commercial motives for putting you in a school.>>

i certainly don't!

quovadis - your link did not work for me.

There aren't any commercial motives for putting you in a school. That's absurd.

I also think a school is a much more realistic approach to learning French in France. Even when I bought my house in a small (teensy) village in France 20 years ago I already spoke pretty fluent French, and hardly anyone was interested in chatting with me on a regular basis. I got to know lots of the locals eventually and even made some good friends who did spend a lot of time talking with me, in my home and theirs, but that took years and years, and it was more a matter of having to deal with workmen who changed my septic tank, built me an iron railing, replaced a well cover, etc. It wasn't as though I'd walk through the village and folks would want to chat. Even in the larger towns where I went to market every week and got to know the vendors and shopped at the local supermarkets and hardware stores and got to know the cashiers...people would have utilitarian conversations and then move on. I think your idea is purely romantic and not realistic. You're simply not going to move into an apartment (if you can find one) in a "village" outside Paris and suddenly be yakking up a storm with the locals, even if you're already fluent, which it doesn't sound like you are. There's a reason institutions offer immersion COURSES, as immersion doesn't just happen on its own. I know folks who've lived in villages in the Dordogne for decades who still can't speak decent French and have only minimal contact with their neighbors. Even if you had a really aggressive or extrovert personality and tried to force people into talking to you, it wouldn't work because the French are a far more reticent people than Americans and would read your personality as weird and aberrant and probably shut down entirely.

Sorry, but I think your idea needs a lot of rethinking. Go to Paris or a big city and enroll in the Alliance Française or a good immersion program.

I don't know anything about small towns/villages near Paris, but I will say that the idea of real world immersion isn't necessarily strange, depending on how the OP learns language. I don't learn well in classrooms, but if you force me to function in another language I suddenly improve by leaps and bounds. I don't need to (and don't have the kind of personality that leads me to) have personal conversations with strangers, but if I suddenly have to buy ice cream or ferry tickets in French, I can. It's probably pretty painful, but I was impressed that I could do it. Just hearing other people speaking it helps a lot.

I once spent a couple of days racketing around London with a Frenchwoman who was spending her holidays in a hostel in London trying to improve her English. It was already pretty decent, but she was trying for a better accent (and loved mine, which is a neutral Northeastern one). Obviously she thought it worth a month of her time and money.

Thank you for the replies. I think I like the town of Moret-sur-Loing. I am having a difficult tome getting the train schedules from CDG airport to Moret-sur-Loing. I have looked on Gare de Lyon(Paris train) but when I enter Moret-sur-Loing, it ells me there is no station there, but I know ther is. Do I have to change trains in Paris?

Yes, you have to change trains in Paris.

The station for M-s-L is Moret Veneux-les-Sablons (the town centre a walk of 15 mins or so). Had a pleasant few hours there earlier this year even before spring had sprung.

More here

http://lifeslittleadventures.typepad.com/lifes_little_adventures/2007/12/moret-sur-loing.html

(a chance discovery while hastily putting together my trip)

If you'd like to learn more about Moret-sur-Loing I have written a trip report about it as well as trip reports about many of the towns nearby. The reports are full of photos and historical tidbits. If you'd like to have a look here are the links to my reports:

http://tinyurl.com/6d7a9jn

http://tinyurl.com/69dvhyz

If you need any help with transport or what to see and do in the area I visit that area frequently and can give you some advice.

One more thing, as mentioned you'll need to get from the airport to Paris. In Paris your train will depart from Gare de Lyon for Moret Veneux les Sablons. To get info on train times for that journey use the website www.transilien.com.

I think that Moret-sur-Loing looks like the type town I would like to stay in--thank you for the info re/ the train, and French Mystique Tours, thank you for the info and great pictures! Now I need to find an appartment, small gite, someplace to stay that is within walking distance to everything. I will look on chambre d'hotes and gites d'hotes.
Any ideas? FMT--would you recommend this town or perhaps another one nearby that you saw in your travels>

The towns in my report that I think would best suit you would be Moret-sur-Loing, Montigny-sur-Loing and Bourron-Marlotte. Each of these towns has a train station, although in any of them you could be a 1km to 2km walk from the train station. Moret has the most to offer in terms of services, commerce, shopping. It is also the largest in terms of population (pop. 4,600) and is the town that attracts the tourists. Montigny and Bourron-Marlotte are a little sleepier and more fit what you described in terms of looking for a little village. The only tourists here will be French. They do have less to offer in terms of shopping but I assume you can probably find your daily necessary items. Montigny has a population of about 2,800 and Bourron-Marlotte a population of about 3,000. I looked on the gites-de-france website and found no listings in Moret-sur-Loing. I found 1 place in Montigny that is for 1-2 people and 5 places in Bourron-Marlotte that are for 1-2 people. Most of them looked rather charming. I did find a charming place for 1-2 people in Saint-Mammes, which is 2km from Moret, but I think the other villages have more charm. The website I searched was www.gites-de-france.com. I didn't search any other websites but there are loads of websites you can check for self catering accommodation. Here is a list:

The two that I always use are:
www.abritel.fr
www.homelidays.com

Here are links to several more:
www.gites-de-france.com
www.clevacances.com
www.holiday-rentals.co.uk
www.frenchconnections.co.uk
www.papvacances.com
www.cheznous.com
www.vacationinfrance.com
www.francelodge.com
www.vrbo.com
www.ownersdirect.co.uk

Something else you might want to consider would be renting a bike for the duration of your stay. As you saw in my reports I ride my bike all over the area and it is a great way to get around cheaply. Most places around there are fairly flat and easy to ride. Sure, there are some hills but no Tour de France type stuff. On a practical note you might like a bike to go back and forth to the train station to go to Paris. You can lock your bike at the train stations. It would also be good for trips to get groceries, especially if they're more than a 5 or 10 minute walk. I know a guy in the area who rents bikes and if you want I can give you his contact info. He speaks English too. He may only rent mountain bikes, if that's a problem, but you can ask.

Others have already pointed out that mixing with the locals might not happen the way you were hoping and they listed their reasons why this could be so. However, you have the benefit of their advice and can make up your mind for yourself if this is still something you want to do. If you just consider it as a chance to enjoy a month in a lovely, small French countryside village and you're just there to relax and enjoy life and that is your minimum expectation then I don't think you will be disappointed. If you get to mingle with the locals and work on/improve your French skills consider it a bonus. If you make some new friends then it's an overwhelming success. I say go for it just for the thrill. Let me know if you need further help.

Your plan sounds good to me and FMT has given you lots of good advice. You can arrange your visit so there's a balance between the excitement of Paris and the comforts of your own quiet place.

I see you're considering a gite. You may find that a B&B works out cheaper. But the bigger draw for us is the opportunity to talk to other guests in the morning and evening. In a gite you're on your own, maybe not even interacting with the gite owner. Many B&Bs have cooking facilities for guests if that's something you're interested in.

Once you decide on your village, you can email the tourist office there and ask if there's somebody in town who can give you language lessons (better to find somebody with training in this area). Also, some areas have enough new residents that there's an association of language learners you can join.

Actually, I thought about looking into a B&B for the same reasons---I would have people to talk with., but I would wwant to have a place where I could cook once in a while. So I have homework to do! Thank you for your help-it is great!

Another thing--walking is not a problem, I walk every day here, and will certainly enjoy walking there. I also thought about the bicycle, so FMT, if you could send me the name of your person who rents bikes, that would be great.

To throw in a radical Plan B....there are many well known french immersion 'villages' in Quebec Canada, that are designed to have you stay with a french family, speaking only french. Used by government employees here, since we are officially bilingual.

Not that I would not also prefer France

The link below, for bike rentals, is the one I mentioned. The owner, Mathieu, speaks English:

http://animation-pour-entreprises.fr/vtt.aspx

Here are a couple of other places in the area that rent bikes if you want to compare prices:

http://www.nature-loisir.com/vtt-fontainebleau.html
http://www.alapetitereine.com/pages/location-velo.php
http://www.moret-eauxvives.fr/location-velo.htm

For a month long rental you should be able to get a discount over any daily or weekly rental rates.

Also, Coquelicot brings up a good point about contacting tourist offices to find accommodation. All tourist offices provide that as a free service if you contact them and since they are local they have contact with most of the lodging establishments in an area. You've got the tourist office info for Moret-sur-Loing so here are the links for the other towns I mentioned:

http://bourronmarlotte.free.fr/associations/OTSI/Office_de_Tourisme.htm

Montigny doesn't have a tourist office website or e-mail but they do have a phone and fax number:

http://www.canalmonde.fr/r-annuaire-tourisme/france/communes-touristiques/info-communes.php?z=77690&c=Montigny%20sur%20Loing

I am expanding my research now. I am looking at all the towns that are name in Annabel Simms book "An Hour From Paris".
I looked at Chantilly, but it looked a little big. Senlis, north of there? Last night I read about Conflans-Ste Honorine. That looked like a fun area, along the river.
One thing I did yesterday, which I thought was a good thing, I went to "Google Earth" to check out what Moret-sur-Loing looked like. I think I will do that for each town, I am thinking I might want to be in a little larger town(but not too big) where I would have somethings to do.I think I will do that for each town.
So, FMT- I would appreciate any advice you could give me., anyone else also. thanks also for the information about the bike rental shops.

Or, I could be in a small town and walk or bike to a town where they offer more---library, museum, etc.

One thing that might help you decide on a village or town is to use the yellow pages (pagesjaunes.fr) to look up boulangeries, pizza places, cinemas, restaurants, cafes, museums--any kind of thing that's of particular interest to you or that you think might be helpful in language learning. The more hits you get, the more amenities the town has (or the bigger the town is). As far as I'm concerned, the more boulangeries the better.

Back again. I just thought of three websites I use a lot that come in handy for learning French.

The first is an online dictionary, French to English and vice versa plus Italian, Spanish, Portuguese.

http://www.wordreference.com/fren/

The next website lets you listen to how words are spoken in French. You can see on a map where the speaker is from–could be from France, Belgium, Switzerland, Quebec, or elsewhere.

www.forvo.com/login/

Not having a French keyboard is not a problem if you use http://french.typeit.org/
You can easily click on the various accented letters to insert them into what you’re typing.

Sorry if I'm giving you information you already have, but I don't recall how good your French is already.

If you want something a little larger there are many options with about an hour of Paris by train. Fontainebleau would be a very good choice as it is near Moret and some of the other towns I mentioned but is quite lively in terms of restos and cafés. Yet it is not overdeveloped and still retains a town feel more than an urban feel. A town with similar character would be Chartres. Another option north of Paris like the other two would be Compiègne. These places are bigger than Chantilly or Senlis and have more to offer than the other two places. Chantilly or Senlis are not overdeveloped, if google earth made them appear that way.

Two other medieval places you could consider would be the towns of Laon and Provins.

If you want to be just a 20-30 minute RER ride from Paris you could consider the suburbs of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Rueil-Malmaison of even Versailles. They are developed but still feel very provincial and there's plenty to do in these places.

I've written trip reports about most of the places I've mentioned and they are all full of photos if you want to check them out.

Saint-Germain and Rueil-Malmaison: http://tinyurl.com/2fa3qsf

Chartres: http://tinyurl.com/33bksux

Provins: http://tinyurl.com/253zs6r

Laon: http://tinyurl.com/298tppr

Compiègne: http://tinyurl.com/6snrf3q

Fontainebleau: http://tinyurl.com/4bduunh

Here's a report another forum member wrote about Senlis:

http://anyportinastorm.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=france&thread=5091&page=1#112289

Note that there is no train service to Senlis so you need to take a bus to nearby Chantilly to get the train to Paris.

I think your problem is going to be finding that balance between "small town feel" and someplace where there is some activity. You're going to have to compromise a bit to get more of one than the other. Check out the list I gave you and let me know what you think. I haven't mentioned every place but that list is a good start.

ok, it looks like a have a little reading to do, FMT-I will look at these reports and get back to you. and
Coquelicot----good idea about the yellow pages, and I agree about the boulangeries!

Coquelicot brought up a good point about the yellow pages search on the various types of commercial/retail/entertainment services a town may offer. Also, you should look at official town websites or their tourist office websites. They are all different but quite often you'll find a link listing all the various types of services a town has to offer (pharmacies, restos, supermarkets etc.). Other things you might want to know are when are the weekly markets and about other food stores such as fromageries (cheese), boucheries/charcuteries (butcher and other meats), primeur (fruit stores), supermarché (supermarket) etc.

To find tourist office/official websites just google "site officiel (enter your town)" or "office de tourisme (enter your town)" and this will bring the town to the top of your search.

Well, now I am looking in another direction---Chantilly; which I thought was too big, too many trucks when I went to google earth. but then I found Mouroux, which looks like a beautiful town. I did find a rental there, waiting to hear back from the owner. It looked like exactly what I am looking for, in the center of the city, but I think you shoulld have a car. Also found the town of Coulommiers. I went to the office du tourisme page and had a hard time finding places to stay. There didn't seem to be an email address there either.
Still more work to do!

Are you still thinking about Chantilly? It wasn't clear from your post. I've been to Coulommiers. It's a nice town and it has enough activities, stores, cafés, restos etc. There's a lovely park there and the Morin river and a canal meander through the old downtown. There's also a 12th/13th century Knights Templar Commanderie in the town. I liked Couommiers. However, if you base in Coulommiers you want to be in the old downtown, which is near the river. As you move uphill away from the river it is all ugly modern apartment building style development. If you are in the old downtown you won't see or be bothered by any of the modern development.

I've actually explored that region by bike a few times and it's some nice country. How on earth did you find Mouloux??? Or Coulommiers for that matter??? I haven't been to Mouroux but I just googled a few photos and it looks nice enough. If you based in Mouroux you could certainly ride your bike to Coulommiers if you wanted a little more activity, or you could ride to Faremoutiers, which is smaller than Coulommiers.

There's a really lovely town not far from there called Crécy-la-Chapelle which is probably the most charming town in that area. It's referred to as the Little Venice of the Brie region because of the canals and the river that cut through the town. You would not, however, have a larger town like Coulommiers to bike to from Crécy though.

I've got a bunch of photos from my rides in that area and once I put them on photobucket I'll put a link up here so you can have a look. I really enjoy biking in that area. It's very pretty.

Just a tip about buying train tickets from Mouroux or Coulommiers to Paris. When you go from either of those places to Paris you want to buy a Mobilis Pass good for zones 1 through 5. These towns are in zone 5. The pass costs 14 euros and is good for all public transport for one day (trains and buses) in zones 1 through 5. You can use it all day on buses and the métro/RER in Paris. If you just bought individual tickets to Paris and back to Coulommiers or Mouroux it would cost more than the Mobilis pass and wouldn't even include métros or buses in Paris. The Mobilis pass is the way to go if you are day tripping to Paris from either of these towns or pretty much any town in zones 4 and 5.

I was going to mention that the idea of staying in a small village without a car is not really very practical. People who live there have cars, small towns/villages don't have public transportation. And train stations are often not in the center of such places, in fact, they are often on the edges. So being within walking distance of the train station and the center of town may not be that easy to do. IN any case, trying to find the perfect one-month rental that fits such requirements is probalby going to be very difficult if you stay in a small place. I know Moret-sur-Loing doesn't have any bus or public transportation system, and the train station is not near the center of town (relatively, it's probably about 1-1.5 miles). I visited it by train and walked from the station into the town but I like walking and it was summer, so nice weather, but if you had a place on certain sides of the town, it could be even farther. You have to walk quite a ways at Chantilly to get places, also IMO. People who live in these small villages have cars.

Hi,
if you're still searching for another destination... I would suggest you Chartres. One hour from Paris, cathedral, media library, parks, train station are only steps away if you stay in city center.

There will be interesting events on September like the Light Show, summer evening festival.

Read more about Chartres here and tell us what you think
http://www.discover-chartres.com

Good luck!

I have thougt of Chartres, but it seems like a large city to me. Maybe there are some small towns around there.
I seem to be taking one step forward and two steps backward in my search. The small towns I have found seem too small with no museums, libraries, etc. and the large places seem to be too sterile and too large. Back to the drawing board for me.

Back in the '60's I found the Alliance Francaise (http://www.alliancefr.org/en) in Paris to have been a great help in learning the language. All classes were in French and were well thought- out, focussed and taught. No English allowed. The environment was good and long-term friendships were formed. Students were there to learn/improve their French and the stimulus to improve was pervasive. Lots of rentals in the area. Maybe consider that, followed by a stay in a village. Good luck.

Small towns are just that. They are small and if they have one or two museums that would be a lot for a small town. As I mentioned earlier, you'll have to compromise on something. Did you consider any of the places I mentioned in my earlier post and look at the pix and descriptions in my trip reports? Chartres is not at all a large city. It borders somewhere between large town and small city. Yes, there are small towns near Chartres and I show pix of them in my report but you'll be back to the same dilemma, they are small towns and won't have lots to do. Nearby to Chartres is the town of Maintenon (about 20km from Chartres). It is also covered in my report and is smaller than the town of Coulommiers you had considered. It has a wonderful château and is charming. It is also on a rail line to Paris. At the end of RER line B you might look into Saint-Rémy-les-Chevreuse.

http://www.saintremyleschevreuse-tourisme.com/english/

Look into Dourdan: http://www.dourdan-tourisme.fr/

Malesherbes: http://tinyurl.com/7bhx9lv

Lastly, look at this trip report I just wrote. Check out Crépy-en-Valois: http://tinyurl.com/6snrf3q

http://www.mairie-crepy-en-valois.fr/index2.php?id=10

Believe me, I'm not out of suggestions but I'm trying to illustrate that small towns by definition aren't going to have lots to do.

Thanks FMT, all your suggestions will come in handy on my upcoming trip to Paris. Three more weeks!

can just chime in with my recent experience in Italy? I stayed in a small town in southern Tuscany where my language school was situated. WE had 4 hours lessons in the morning, a long pause for lunch, and then an activity in the late afternoon/evening.

even so, I was pretty bored with the town by the end of the week, so if I'd not had all those activities to do, I'd have been climbing the [roman] walls. Nor was there a great deal of opportunity to speak italian with the locals, over and above the ordering of food, buying the odd postcard etc.

Honestly, i really think that you ought to be looking at language schools and/or larger towns like Chartres or Tours, so that you can do day trips to Paris or elsewhere with ease.

Have fun cafegoddess. I'm glad this info will be useful to someone.

I'm glad this info will be useful to someone.>>

LOL, FMT. the OP would not be the first person to come here and then ignore all the advice they've received.

I'm with FrenchMystiqueTours, Chartres is not at all a large city (about 40.000 habitants) but indeed it's a capital of Eure et Loir Department. Perhaps that's why you thought Chartres is a large city.

Tourists come to Chartres firstly because of its cathedral (UNESCO World heritage). I think it would be the precious monument you'd love to visit. The you can visit Maison Picassiette, the old city and other monuments.
It has the biggest aquatic and rink complex in France and will be the host of European Swimming Championship next year on November.
What you should not miss on September: Chartres Light Show (of course!), Light festival, summer evening festival.

Filibus will be a useful transportation if travel inside Chartres and the smaller cities within the border.
Then you have Transbeauce and train lines if you wish to travel to near cities like Maintenon or Bonneval. Train line to Paris in every hour.

I've been living in Chartres since a couple of year ago and personally, for me Chartres remains a small city.

So ask me anything about Chartres if you want to know more.

Thanks for your comments Feily. We much appreciate local contributions to this forum and look forward to other insights and advice you might share with us. I visited Chartres earlier this year and enjoyed the walk from the cathedral down along the river and back up through the old town.

but the OP has disappeared!

Back to the drawing board s/he said. Still, consideration of the OP's plan was useful - there's now some good advice here and we've a Chartres local on the forum.

Feily,
Chartres is very beautiful, I have been there and seen the cathedral, but it is a little too large for where I would like to stay. Would you be able to recommend a town nearby that would fit my need(wants) by the train station and city center that has a few things to offer;;grocery store, bank, library, etc.

I already did recommend such a place, called Maintenon. Read the report about it here: http://tinyurl.com/33bksux

And in the same report you'll also discover Epernon and a really great town called Rambouillet. Sizeable grocery stores don't exist in small towns because there are not enough people to support them. People in small towns have to drive to larger towns to get to a grocery store. Small towns may have a library but don't expect to find a large or varied collection of books. If a small town has a museum (rare) it probably wouldn't take more than 20-30 minutes to examine its collection.

If there is anyone on this forum who has extensively explored the Île-de-France region within an hour's train ride in any direction from Paris it is me. I'm happy to help you and I've put a lot of effort into trying to assist you but if you don't check out some of my recommendations and consider some of the advice I and others have given or give me any feedback it makes me feel like I'm wasting my time.

Has anyone been to Crecy-la-chapelle or Moroux or Coulommiers. I did find gites there, but I am not sure about what the town is like

I told you earlier I have been to Crécy-la-Chapelle and Coulommiers but I have not been to Mouroux and I doubt that anyone else has either. Crécy sounds to me like it is what you are looking for. It is charming, the train is very close to the downtown, it has a grocery store, an adequate supply of shops/cafés etc., a good market and it has some interesting history (art related) associated with it.

And here's a link to a report you can read about Crécy-la-Chapelle.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g187147-i14-k4905609-Crecy_la_Chapelle_day_trip_from_Paris-Paris_Ile_de_France.html

My own report about Crécy, Coulommiers and that general area will be done in a week or two and if you are interested I'll provide you with a link to it.

FMT - be assured that regardless of what learningfrench decides you haven't been wasting your time - your reports and the generosity of your advice have added another dimension to this forum and the threads to which you have contributed are a valuable resource to many I'm sure. (so, learningfrench - by all means please take your time deciding and let us know what you decide and how you get on)

Thanks farrermog. That's really nice of you to say. It's nice to feel appreciated and I'm always happy to offer whatever advice I can. And thank you for being a faithful reader of my reports.

Well, I think I have found a place! Carriers-sur-Seine. It is 25 min. from the train station, but right in the town. I will be using the town more than the train, and then I can take a bus or walk(25 min.) Now that I have made this decision, I can go back to studying my French!
Thank you all for your input, I really appreciated it. If I did not respond quickly, it is because I don't do Facebook or Twitter, and don't like being on the computer that much. FMT-your articles were interesting and I appreciate all the time you took to write to me.
thank you

Please do come back and tell us how your plan to interact with the locals went.. My relatives are locals( in other towns|) and are super nice,, to me,, but I know they would not interact much with you ,, they barely acknowledge neighbors that they have lived near for years,, yes, they say hello,, but thats it.. lol

FMT c'est moi, Joan,, the name was taken here apparently, so now have new screen name.

Joan - Would you also be joan1 from another travel forum? I know a few Joan's on a few forums so I just don't want to get you all confused. Either way, nice to have you here on Fodors.

learningfrench - Well I don't know how you came up with Carrières-sur-Seine (not what I would consider a small town) but regardless I hope you're happy there. If you haven't booked there yet you might just want to give a quick look to the nearby towns of Marly-le-Roi and Louveciennes. These actually do have downtowns that resemble small towns, complete with old buildings and cobbled streets. They're quite charming and are served by the suburban train lines as well as buses.

Whichever you choose, that area has a very rich and important history pertaining to The Impressionist artists. There is a tourist trail in that area that you can follow to see sites where famous paintings were created and learn about other important Impressionist related history. Here are some links you may find useful:

http://www.marlyleroi-tourisme.fr/

http://www.tourisme-bougival.com/

http://www.rueil-tourisme.com/

http://www.ot-saintgermainenlaye.fr/en/

And here is a link to a trip report I wrote about exploring the towns around there, essentially Rueil-Malmaison, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Marly-le-Roi, Bougival and Louveciennes:

http://tinyurl.com/3f7npjr

learningfrench - sorry I didn't reply sooner. I think you've already made your decision and whichever you choose I wish you good luck though honestly I've the same question as FMT - how you came up with Carrières-sur-Seine.

Anyway, this link might be useful (please read on transport section)
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carri%C3%A8res-sur-Seine

I've lived a while in Asnieres-sur-seine, Pantin and Montrouge. All these towns is in region ile-de-france, just like Carrières-sur-Seine. I could say that those 3 towns are just a walk away to Paris so sometime I still feel like living in Paris.

I've never been to Carrières-sur-Seine but since it is in region ile-de-france, I think it would be wise if you also consider the living cost in this area.

Do you plan to go to local course to learn french?

I wish you good luck with your decision

farrermog - thanks for your nice words.

I'm going to add another vote for Rambouillet. We have friends from there and love the town. Besides simply being an attractive place with its own vibe, the people are nice and the food is great. It has a language institute:
http://www.planete-langues.com/

Also, you can get to Paris from Rambouillet in about 30 minutes. Out of all the choices suggested here, Rambouillet is my favourite because it has its own charms and unlike Chartres, for example, is not well known by English-speaking tourists.

I found Carrieres-sur-seine by finding an apartment on VRBO. The owner has given me a lot of information about the area and contact names of local people. So----we'll see come next Sept.! I think I might look into someplace where I could take a language course, but I have time to think about that.
Thank you all for your input, and some day I am going to print out the information you have given me.

Oh, this is all getting very complicated. What was the original question again?

Are you looking for a small village kerouac? Where would you like to stay?

FMT: I've been lurking on this post, and not commenting, but I want to say:

no matter what the OP decides, your encyclopedic, illustrated information of the whole Ile de France is outstanding and most appreciated.

FMT, I'd also like to chime in and thank you so much for your very useful and informative posts- you have been so generous with advice I am sure you have helped many Fodorites.

Thanks taconic and Libretto. I'm always happy to help with advice any way I can. I'm not the expert on many regions in France but I think I've got the Île-de-France region covered fairly well. Since most people aren't spending their vacation time close to Paris other than to make day trips to some of the well known nearby places I'm just trying to fill in the gaps. I think I've found my niche.

Does this photo belong to Chartres? Just curious to know...
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/France_Eure_et_Loir_Chartres_Bords_de_l_Eure.jpg

Yes, that is down in the area next to the Eure river below the cathedral.