I've been to Provins, Rouen, Chartres, Giverny, Senis, Chantilly and just about any of the other popular day trip destinations you could make from Paris as well as dozens of other less popular day trips. I might add Laon and Troyes to that list as well. Aside from Chantilly all the places I mentioned are great places as far as all things medieval are concerned and I don't think you'd go wrong with any of them. You can combine Chantilly and Senlis though since you'd take the train from Paris to Chantilly and then a bus to Senlis.

You can have a look at this thread to see my list of day trips from Paris and you'll find links to tourist office websites for each of these places as well as info about how to get there from Paris:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic....html#55016317

Yes, flanneruk, some of us have actually been to Rouen, just over a year ago we spent 4 nights enjoying the city. Check out: "Haute Normandie - Rouen, Monet’s Gardens, the Route of the Abbeys and the Alabaster Coast".

I've been to Rouen, Salisbury and Lucca. I'd put them in that order. Rouen is a city, with plenty to see in a day trip, especially to one interested in medieval buildings. Those Gothic churches are mind-blowing.

Salisbury is a nice small town with a notable cathedral and pleasant walks along the river/canal. Stonehenge is nearby but not in walking distance. I'm not a big fan of Stonehenge. Lucca makes a nice day trip. The walls are great; we rented bikes and rode around the top. We spent 4 or 5 nights based in Lucca. (It was a rest stop in the middle of a trip.) Got a little bored by the end.

Thank you, FrenchMystiqueTours.

You're welcome BumbleB6.

We went to Rouen last trip; we stayed overnight but I think it would be a nice day trip and the old center is well worth seeing. However, time your trip so that, unlike the two of us, you won't be there on a Monday morning when the cathedral is closed!!

I also like the idea of a day trip to Dijon! But Chartres with the Malcolm Miller tour would be at the top of my list.

We also stayed over in Chantilly; nice, but wouldn't go there before Rouen or Chartres.

Oh, we have already penciled in a separate day trip to Chartres. That's a given.

It seems Provins is only open on the weekends until March 30, so I'm not sure if we will make it there, as we leave on March 30 or 31.
Too bad, it looks like a really fun and interesting place.

I'll just mention that 2 day trips in a week in Paris may not be what you'll ultimately want to do-as in not being done with what to do in Paris. I would definitely play it by ear--if we have time we'll do X.

It seems Provins is only open on the weekends until March 30, so I'm not sure if we will make it there, as we leave on March 30 or 31.>

Provins is a city - there may be some single fort or something I don't know but I went there in late December and wandered around - the city or rather town never closes so not sure what you are talking about?

I think that might be a good plan, Gretchen.

PalenQ - yes, you're right, I suppose, we could just wander around and take photos, too.

I'm curious about Provins, too. It doesn't "close." It's a city. People live there. As in every place in France, some things by law must close on Sundays and/or Mondays, but entire cities don't ever close. Are you maybe confusing it with some attraction somewhere?

Ah, I meant some of the museums and attractions listed on the Provins tourism website. I remember reading this morning, that many were only open on weekends and school holidays during winter.

Or - am I confusing that info with the tourism office being closed ? Hmm. Let me check it again.

Ok, I was mistaken! Sorry.
The tourist office is closed during the week in winter.
However-
"The monuments and medieval fair town are open all year round." http://www.provins.net/index.php/the...st-office.html

Interesting post. Especially French's link to Trip Advisor.

Thanks once again FMT! Barbizon looks appealing if only I can find a English tourism website. Mary

http://www.barbizon.fr/en/

The English page is rather useless, so you'll have to use it in French!

To get to Barbizon you'll need to take a taxi from Fontainebleau. Bus routes there are infrequent and go in a very roundabout way and it just takes too long by bus. I must admit it's been a while since I looked at the bus website but I remember that it just wasn't practical to get there by bus. If you call the tourist office in Barbizon or Fontainebleau they can probably assist you and perhaps they have better info about buses than what I found on the bus website.

auvers-sur-Oise is a great Paris suburb to train to if interested in Impressionists paintings - Van Gogh hung out here until shooting himself and slowly dying in his bed in the local Auberge - you can still see the bed and blood on it - Cezanne and others also held court here and the town has put up reproductions of their works right at the spot they did them.

The two times I've been there I've seem amateur artists sitting with canvas and easel at the exact same points - the local church, the cornfields where Van Gogh painted on of his last pictures with a dark sky with crows circling, some say forecasting his suicide.

van Gogh and brother Theo, i believe Theo, is buried in the local cemetery.

https://www.google.com/search?q=auve...=1600&bih=1074

I am becoming more intrigued. PalenQ that is exactly the French countryside I envision; artists sitting at their pallattes with wares for sale. I think we might rent a car and peruse the Fontenebleu barbizon area with an overnight