I want to visit castles, close or not to far away from Paris. Time is short! any suggestions?

Favorites are Fontainebleau, Vaux-le-Vicomte, Versailles (the most gradiose, but also full of tourists depending on time of year) and Chantilly.

Michael: <BR><BR>I have heard that it is possible to take a van tour from Paris to the Loire for the day. Think I read about the tours in Rick Steves book.

Pierrefonds is one of my favorites. See http://www.castles.org/castles/Europ...ierrefonds.htm and it is easily reachable.

Anne, wow Pierrefonds is some castle. Do you have the directions on getting there from Paris, is a car necessary?<BR>Thanks.

Pierrefonds is about 15 km from Compi&egrave;gne which is roughly north east of Paris. I believe there is a bus from Compi&egrave;gne station to Pierrefonds but we did go by car. There is access informnation for travel by car on www.monum.fr, but I did not find that an easy site to navigate.

Michael - Your best bet would be to take a van tour from Paris. My wife and I took a Greyline tour that visited the Loire Valley leaving Paris around 7:00AM and returning to Paris after 6:00PM. The van picks you up at your hotel. We visited Ambois (Leonardo da Vinci's house)in Ambois then onto Chenoceau (sp?)where we had a fantastic lunch and finally to Chambord in the afternoon. Had about a hour and a half at each stop. Well worth the money and it was nice to get out of cloudy Paris for the day. Five star day trip in our opinion.