Hi everyone,

My sister and I were hoping to do a 2 or 3 day trip from Paris, by train or buses, to some of France's "most beautiful villages" but I'm having problems deciding. I thought of Colmar and Eguisheim but they're not THAT accessible from Paris, and I sort of wanted to put in Mont Saint Michel in there...but the pictures I've seen make them seem like fairy tale villages and I would love to see that!! Any ideas? We also thought of renting a car - but we're hesitant becacuse we don't know French, and we're planning this trip for late November and the last thing we need if weather-related issues...Any cute villages that are accessible by train or buses from Paris (no more than 4 hours)? Maybe some Christmas markets - or will it be too early? Please help!!

Good info here
http://fodors.com/forums/threadselec...p;tid=34943936

and perhaps here
http://fodors.com/forums/threadselec...p;tid=35072308

Colmar is now i believe four hours or less from Paris with the opening of the new TGV-Est highspeed line to Strasbourg.

How about Dijon or Beaune? Very accessible by TGV. Chartres? Reims, not a village but can do in a day. There is a little village north of Paris I read about a while back. Senlis.

Bourges: http://www.bourgestourisme.com/accueil_english.php

A lot of those places in the beautiful village photos you see aren't going to be that wonderful or beautiful in late November. I don't know if it's exactly a village (which to me is very very small, less than 10K population), but maybe -- Auvers-sur-Oise just outside Paris is very attractive and small, and at least there is something to do there, seeing the Van Gogh sites and the museum.

There isn't really that much to do all day in a lot of villages, especially since you don't know French. I've been in a few real villages that were not tourist destinations for a day, and they close up in the middle of the day a couple hours, but at least I could read signs and hang out in the cafe reading the paper a while -- and I met a guy on the road because with whom I hitched a ride from the train station, and he introduced me to his friend who ran the local cafe, etc. But it would have been rather boring if I didn't know French and didn't have a reason for going there to being with (this was a small village where the composer Ravel lived at one time, and his house is open on appointment -- Monfort l'Amaury about an hour's train ride from Paris. Well, that's an idea if you like classical music, because it is a village and fairly cute, but it's about 3-4 km from the train station (reason when the guy stopped to ask me if I wanted I ride, I accepted). The train really goes to a nearby town.

Head down to Barbizon, not far from Paris and a great favorite of the Impressionist and other painters.

Don't worry about not speaking French if you rent a car. Driving in France is very easy if you have a Michelin Map of the area you're going to. You can buy some here, but in Paris, they're cheaper and they'll have all of the local ones, which are excellent.

Driving in and out of Paris would be the most difficult, so it may be good to take the train out to a major town, then rent the car.

One suggestion is to take the train to Rouen, rent your car and first drive to Honfleur. It's a wonderful town, but not so small that it would seem closed up for winter, as the small hilltop villages will be. Then you can continue onto Deauville, Bayeux, the tapestry there is fabulous, and if you're interested,the DDay beaches. I'm staying at a B&B along the coast there in the spring and can give you the information on it if you're intersted.

Mont Saint Michel would be fun. Dinan is fabulous, just west of Mont Saint Michel. I have a great B&B to suggest there also. This is most likely a 4 day trip if you have the time. You could even leave the car in Dinan and take a train back to Paris.

Thanks everyone. I think I have been obsessing about finding the perfect "Christmas market" town and Colmar/Strasbourg seem like perfect fits with their "Hansel and Gretel" architecture...We're just looking for a small town/village to walk around admiring the architecture and eating good food (we live in a big city), I was thinking of doing this:

Nov. 24 - Versailles in early am to early pm; return to Paris to pick up luggage and take train out to Colmar arriving at 10:11pm
Nov. 25 - walk around Colmar and Riquiewihr or Eguishem;
Nov. 26 - walk around Colmar and head to Strasbourg in late pm
Nov. 27 - take 5:43am train from Strasbourg to Roissy/CDG

But does this seem too crazy? We don't mind getting up early to take the 1st train out to Versailles or from Strasbourg to CDG.

I'm so confused! Maybe just take a train out to a big

Got cut off! Anyway, my alternate plan is to take an early train out to Versailles on the 24th with our luggage and pick up a car rental. Visit the palace and then drive to Mont Saint Michel. Mont Saint Michel on 25th and Honfleur (or Senlis) on 26th. Then drive to CDG on the 27th to drop off car (flight is not until nearly 2pm...) Might be easier huh?

Or maybe just head out to Strasbourg after Versailles on the 24th and stay there until the morning of the 27th.

Or rent a car in Versailles and head out to Bourges and stay there until the 27th...

By the way, thanks for the many other recommendations! I've actually been to Barbizon and Auvers-sur-Oise - they really are great places to visit!

So many options, I guess I just have to figure out which of these places I want to go to the most...

Aix is not a village (but surrounded by them) and has a wonderful Christmas Market.

We had thought of renting a car in Strasbourg after taking the TGV from Paris, but I just read something in a guidebook which I still need to verify, but sounds like a great deal. It said that on weekends and holidays you can purchase one day train tickets for travel within the entire region of Alsace, or for half the region. I don't remember the exact price, but I think it was about 26 euros/day for the entire region for a family, and less for 1 or 2. So much for the car. If this is true, I'll plan our weekend around it.

I did find this online - it's the Pass Evasion:
http://books.google.com/books?id=qhl...3bUMOV0LJZMyos

Long link, but I just glanced through this document and it looks like a great resource.

I actually just found out that there's a nonstop train now from Paris to Colmar that would leave at 7:24pm and arrive at 10:11pm, AND there's a 6:14am train from Colmar, via Paris, that would get us to Charles de Gaulle by 10:10am on the 27th. We're thinking a full day exploring Eguisheim, Riquewihr and/or Kaysersberg, and a full day in Colmar - now it seems like we'll be able to use the pass for at least 1 of those days. Thanks for the tip!

Hi CandyG,

Which website did you use to find the rail tickets you spoke of in your last post?

Hi
Have you considered Normandy? If you want to visit Mt. St. Michel, think about Honfleur. We were there several weeks ago and it is a very picturesque small city. Our plan was to visit small towns and avoid large cities and it worked out well. It's close enough to Paris if you visit by train. We drove but many people come there for a weekend. Great mussels in restaurants.

Which website did you use to find the rail tickets you spoke of in your last post?

i would suspose www.voyages-sncf.com the French Railways (SNCF) official web site and online ticketing portal

Hi guys,

I did consider Normandy (Mt. St. Michel and Honfleur) but my sister and I decided on Colmar bc of the Christmas markets.

I did my research on www.voyages-sncf.com and emailed them for help. They referred me to raileurope.com - they said that's where I need to purchase the tickets since I live in the US.

Thanks for all your help guys!

You do not have to purchase TGV tickets from Rail Europe. You can reserve on-line and print up your own tickets at home in the U.S. I did just this for a train trip to Strasbourg.

Reserve the tickets on www.voyages-sncf.com and then hand the printed tickets when you get to the train station? Maybe it was my particular tickets that I couldn't buy on that site. Their email to me said that I need to buy the tickets on raileurope...