alyce

Hi All, We are staying for one week in Paris and would like some suggestions for a 1 day get-away...(an hour or so by rail )...to a nearby area. Thanks

nytraveler

Versailles to see the Palace'
Chartres to see the Cathedral
Giverney to see the Gardens

For the latter assume you will be there the correct time of year - no late fall or winter.

Homeonline

Once you've seen Paris' most essential attractions, why not get out of the city for a day and find out what lies outside its limits? Several interesting and entertaining destinations, including chateaus, natural parks, and medieval fortifications, are within close reach of the city.

Alan_CT

Epernay, the heart of champagne country. Could easily include Reims.

valtor

There are a lot of options. I'll add to NYtraveler some:
Fontainbleu
Chantilly
Sevres
Reims
Vaux-le-vicomte
Rambouillet
Malmaison

rmw555

Second the motion on Reims - we did a day trip during our week-in-Paris stay. It's about 45 min by TGV. Taking a morning train out and early evening train back was plenty of time. The train station is walkable from the town center, where the cathedral is. We walked around in the morning and then had a long lunch (we were looking for a food splurge and had a fantastic meal at L'Assiette Champenoise, a Michelin 2* just outside town). In the afternoon, we did guided tours/tastings at Veuve Clicquot and Taittinger. It's easy to get taxis from place to place - to start with, go to the tourist center right next to the cathedral and once you're at a Champagne house, they'll be happy to arrange one to pick you up once the tour is over. FYI, you do need to make appointments at many of the houses, or at least register for the scheduled tours - check their websites for more info. Also, when we were there (April 2010) several of the roads in the town center were torn up due to (re?) installation of tram lines, but other than being unpleasant to look at, it didn't affect our ability to get around.

Piccolina

bookmarking

Fodorite018

rmw555--Thank you for that great description! We too have been debating on which town to do a day trip to and I just wasn't getting a feel for them from books. Your post was very helpful!

pdx

I am looking forward to a return to Chartres as a day trip from Paris in June. It's a beautiful cathedral and just so wonderful to see it from a distance. I went there with a car so I don't know for sure that there is a view from the train. The town is lovely and calm and will be a nice change from the hustle and bustle of the big city.

farrermog

Chantilly/ Senlis
Provins
Deauville/ Trouville

FrenchMystiqueTours

For the sake of putting it all in one response here is a list that summarizes what has been said in the other responses, with a few additions:

Provins (walled medieval town), Senlis (medieval town) and/or Chantilly (wonderful château), Reims (champage tours, great historic cathedral, museums), Epernay (champagne tours, can be combined with Reims), Fontainebleau (château), Versailles (obvious), Vaux-le-Vicomte (the château after which Louis XIV based his renovations for Versailles), Rouen (small city, lots to do, wonderful cathedral, medieval old center), Giverny (Monet's house and gardens), Chartres (the famous cathedral and wonderful old town), Compiègne (château with museums, wonderful old town), Château Gaillard (the ruin of Richard the Lionheart's castle) and the adjacent medieval town of Le Petit Andely. These are the most popular day trips and all are worthwhile but there are many other less popular and equally worthy day trips. A good guide book for the Ile-de-France region should give you more ideas.

You could also consider taking the TGV to Tours and picking up a mini-van tour from the tourist office to see a few of the famous château. It takes one hour by TGV to reach Tours from Paris. Further day trips by TGV could be done to Dijon, Metz, Nancy, Lille and a few other cities I'm not remembering off the top of my head.

A more costly but really good option would be to rent a car and tour the countryside around Paris. There is beautiful countryside very close to Paris and lots of quaint centuries old and unknown villages to see. Most people are unaware that the countryside is actually very close to Paris. I'll give you a link to a trip report I wrote about exploring the Vexin region, which is just east of Giverny. My report has well over a hundred photos and detailed instructions on how to visit these places. You could even combine a visit of Giverny with an exploration of the nearby countryside. Here is the link to my report:

http://tinyurl.com/362xrle

Michel_Paris

As others above, I have visited Versailles, Giverny and Reims as a day trip. Reims has a famous cathedral, some WWI sites, as well as the Champagne cellars. We visited the Taitinger facility, which was about a 15 min walk from the core. Cellar is built into old roman quarries, under ruins of an abbey.

Another trip we did by car, but that can be done by rail, is Auvers-sur-Oise, which is where Van Gogh ended his life. They have posted signs around the sites he painted, showing how he saw it, so you can compare the 'real' with the artistic. There is also an art museum in the small town.

alyce

Thsnk you everyone for taking the time to respond...many choices to pick from...we are mainly interested in going somewhere out of the city for lunch and leisure...not to visit any museums, churches, sites...etc...just a get away day into the countryside...lunch and strolling around town....thank you for helping us put together this trip for us...

farrermog

Moret-sur-Loing
Milly-la-Foret

nukesafe

Bookmarking

valtor

Barbizon

tdk320n

bookmarking

denisea

I love Reims..the Cathedral is gorgeous and plenty of champagne houses in Reims & Epernay

I also loved the Loire for Chenonceau and Amboise for a day.

Another fun day trip is Fontainebleu and Barbizon...Barbizon is so charming!!! We loved it and were unaware of it before we went there.

Mimar

If you're there during nice weather, there are day-long cruises up the Marne, to the guinguettes, floating restaurants, as seen in Renoir's painting of the Boating Party. Here's a link: www.canauxrama.com/e_marne.htm

boyreporter

Brussels isn't much more than an hour from Paris. Has quite possibly the most beautiful central plaza in the world. Bruges is less than an hour from Brussels.