Hello. I am travelling to Paris this summer with my 5 year old daughter and 72 year old European mother. My daughter has travelled quite a bit. We will be in Paris for ten days. So looking forward to this. We'd like to take a day trip with the five year old. Ideally, a shortish train ride to a classic small french village with a nice park, a few sites and just different in scale from Paris. Any ideas? My mother and I are both architects so it'd be nice to see something architectural...but with a five year-old...we will not have a car and rely completely on train and foot....

There are countless threads on here about day trips from Paris. Do a search. They include Giverny, Versailles, Auvers-sur-Oise, Chantilly and Senlis, Fontainebleau, Ile des Impressionistes, Vaux-le-Vicomte, aint-Denis.........

You could add Provins to that list as well. I wrote a trip report about the suburbs west of Paris that might interest you. They are not necessarily "classic small French villages" but they are beautiful and full of history and only require an RER or short commuter rail trip from Paris. Click on the link below to read my trip report (with photos).

http://anyportinastorm.proboards.com...5&page=1#79426

One of our favorites is Chartres. The cathedral is wonderful but the town is nice, too, and fairly compact.

Chantilly would be a good place given what you want. It has lovely gardens next to the castle, and I suppose the chateau itself would fulfill your architectural desires. There is a horse museum nearby, of course, and they have some equestrian shows at times, you'd have to check. The only problem with Chantilly compared to some places is that the chateau is a bit of a hike from the train station. So you'd have to get a taxi with a five year old, I imagine, rather than walk.

Most small villages don't really have big architectural specimens, of course, it would have to be someplace known for a tourist site. Auvers-sur-Oise is a nice smaller town, also, and has a chateau and a church which was in one of Van Gogh's paintings. More is within walking distance of the train station, but the train connection is not as straightforward as Chantilly. It's not terribly difficult, but not as obvious as Chantilly or Chartres which are just direct lines.

Pickk up a copy of One Hour From Paris by Annabell Simms and see what interests you. There are so many places it would be hard to list them all

Hi CG,

Auxerre is a pleasant, old town on a river.

Nancy, the home of Art Deco, is 1:30 hr from Paris on the new TGV.

See www.voyages-sncf.com

OOOOPS,

Art Nouveau started in Nancy. Art Deco came later.

We visited Paris in May 2009 and took a direct train to Auvers-sur-Oise - the village where van Gogh lived the last 3 months of his life. There was a special train that left Paris around 10:00 am on Saturday mornings and went directly to Auvers. Train returned for us around 6:00 pm. Easy walk from the trani station to places in the village. Don't know if the train line is running a similar trip this year. You can decide one how much walking you'd like to do there. There is a nice park not too far from the station - could eat a picnic lunch there.