We're planning to fly into CDG and take a train to Lyon. We will have five days before we leave Lyon for Paris and are trying to decide on 2 or 3 day trips to take from Lyon. Right now we
are tentatively planning to spend a day in Annecy. Would appreciate any suggestions for other day trips (preferably not much more than an hour's train ride or bus ride as we don't plan to rent a car
(my husband is adamant about using public transportation). We enjoy museums (large and small),
gardens, historic houses, good restaurants, and enjoy shopping (mostly small items for our home).
I know it would be more than an hour, but am considering Dijon.

All direct trains with no train changes:

Chambery 1 1/2 hrs
Annecy 2 hrs
Dijon 1 1/2 to 2 hrs
Beaune 1 hr 40 mins
Avignon TGV 1 hr
Grenoble 1 1/2 hrs
Aix en Provence TGV 1 1/2 hrs
Marseille 1 3/4 hrs
Nimes 1 1/4 hrs
Montpillier 1 3/4 hrs

These will keep you busy.

We've spent a lot of time in all of these destinations.

Stu Dudley

Thanks Stu -- will check these out. We've been to Aix and Avignon, but not to the others.

Vienne (Roman theatres and big open air museum),
Pérouges (tiny medieval city)
Cluny (famous monastery)
St. Etienne http://saint-etiennetourisme.com/?lang=en
Geneva and Lake Geneva https://www.geneve.com/
Chauvet Cave http://en.cavernedupontdarc.fr/

Don't forget that a somewhat decent visit of Lyon will take you busy during 2 days.

I think Dijon or Beaunes would be good. If you do want to go to Perouges, the name of the train station is Merimieux Perouges (it's less than an hour drip from Lyon Part Dieu), and then it's about a 2 km walk, which isn't bad. There is a bus that goes closer to the center from Lyon, also, bus 132, and takes a little over an hour or so. this is the schedule http://www.ain.fr/upload/docs/applic...8/132_lyon.pdf

It leaves from Hotel Dieu in Lyon, so that's convenient.

If you haven't bought your plane tickets yet, why not fly into Lyon? On an open jaw (multi-city) ticket, assuming you will fly out of some other city. Should cost about the same as round trip.

Beaune was lovely, definitely worth a morning and decent lunch at the very least. [and if you're not driving, you can try the wine too] . sadly because we were on a river cruise and had to get back to the boat for lunch [a definite disadvantage of travelling on this way, though the food was very good] we missed out on eating there, and indeed in Lyon.

on the way back to the coach park [just by the old communal laundry] I spotted what looked like a delightful place to eat:

http://www.le-jardin-des-remparts.com/fr/#

although it's not shown on the website, I'm pretty sure that they did a prix fixe menu for lunch which looked rather good.

ttt

Thanks for the great ideas:

Stu -- we're considering Montpellier
Annhig -- we want to visit Beaune, but we're considering combining it with a trip to Strasbourg during the Christmas season sometime in the next couple years.
Neckervd and Christina - hope to get to Perouges on this trip -- looks lovely
Mimar -- we did already book round trip to Paris, so no open jaws this time. Good idea though.

Thanks!

pas de problème, Vanne.

if you get to Beaune before I do, and you eat at le Jardins des Ramparts, do report back.