I will be off to Paris next week and have time to do a couple of day train trips from Paris and need to know your favourite towns, villages, sights etc. Would like to head off around 9am and travel for no more than an hour or two to a destination. I did look at the option of staying a few days out of Paris but this trip prefer to just be based in Paris. With so much to see in Paris I may only get time for one day trip. Or would it be best to take a coach tour?

Take the train to Dijon. It's a short ride and a lovely city to visit. Try to go on market day, which is fabulous!

You can scroll down my Paris journal and read about Dijon:

http://luvtotravel.homestead.com/Paris2007.html

Have fun!

Monica

A day trip to Versailles or a D-Day Tour of Normandy Beach could be fun and interesting. We are considering doing a day trip to Tours or Amboise to visit chateaus on our next visit. All of these trips are accessible by train and/or bus from Paris. The Normandy trip would be the farthest and longest though.

As an add-on, do a search here, there have been quite a few threads on this topic lately.

I'd also add Reims, Chartres, Vaux le Vicomte,Giverny and Auvers sur Oise.

I would consider bus tours for locations that might be more complicated for a day trip...Normandy/St Michel (area visit) and Loire Valley (multi-town/chateau) come to mind. Versailles would be simpler. Part of the answer might depend on how independent a traveller you are. It will cost more, is it something you need is the question.

Good information on daytrips destinations, and other areas of France:
An Hour from Paris by Simms.
I very much also like Daytrips: Paris by Steinbicker.

Chartres is a popular daytrip. The Cathedral is the largest in France. for train service, go to : http://voyages.sncf.fr trains leave Paris from Gare Monparnasse.
At the Cathedral, Englishman Malcolm Miller gives his wonderful tours usually twice daily, excepting Sundays, also not on days a special event is taking place in the cathedral (like a wedding).
The two tours each day are different from one another. Each is about an hour and a quarter, and starts near the gift shop in the cathedral. If you want to check to make certain he will be there:
Email : [email protected]

If he's not going to be there, there are other guides available
Service Accueil-Visites de la Cathédrale Email : [email protected]

I've done a coach tour to Mont St Michel. It was a long, tiring day, but worth it to me because it's not a place that's on the beaten track for most travelers to France. I decided to book it at the Parisvision office, 214 rue de Rivoli. The itinerary included a 7:15 am departure, a multi-lingual guide, lunch on the Mont at one of the La Mere Poulard places, admission to the Abbey, and the return to Paris at 8:30-9pm. We had heavy traffic on the way back and were still back at the Parisvision office at 8:45. Parisvision website

The Cityrama offering was similar, it was a few euros more, but it also included a dinner stop in Caen, and a return to Paris at about 10pm. www.cityrama.fr
I had my doubts in advance about the likely quality of the dinner, so that, and the later hour of return, made me decide instead in favor of Parisvision.

The ride each way was about 4 hours, including one bathroom stop. The bus/coach did not have a toilet of its own.
The guide did some narration during the outward-bound trip, but not for the whole time. She spoke English and Spanish; she had a colleague with her who spoke Japanese. The narration was not in depth, and the English wasn't entirely fluent, but it sufficed. I'd done a little reading on my own.
It is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
a mini-website: www.monum.fr
Note that in order to visit the Abbey it is necessary to climb up hundreds of steep stone steps. There are a few landings, but no resting places along the way, and very few handrails.

I left out two websites for Mont St Michel

www.parisvision.com for the coach tour

official MSM website
www.ot-montsaintmichel.com/accueil_gb.htm

www.normandy-tourism.org/w/ville/MtStMich2.html some interior pictures

Vaux-le-Vicomte chateau and gardens, Auvers-sur-Oise and the impressionist show at the Auvers Chateau have been our favorites

Troyes is well worth a visit. My wife enjoyed Angers as a day visit.

Fontainbleu is also a nice day trip. Maybe an hour train trip and you can easily do it in a half day and get back to Paris for some sight seeing.

Hi K,

We liked our visits to Auxerre, Beaune and Dijon.

You can also get to Strasbourg or Nancy in a couple of hours.

Chartres is a great day trip - short and sweet - world's greatest and original Gothic cathedral IMO and finest stained-glass windows

A recent thread talks about Chartres and infamous Malcolm Miller on whom there are varying opinions.

Fodors.com > Travel Talk > Europe > Other than the bleedin' obvious is there
anything else to see and/or do in Chartres?
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35082404

If you have any interest in renaissance art, the Chateau of Ecouen is fabulous.
Ecouen (pronounced Ay-kwan)is a 22- minute ride on the SCNF from Paris. You follow the signs from the train station through a forest to the Chateau that is now the National Museum of the Renaissance. Its collection had been in storage at the Cluny Museum since the beginning of World War II. You will see the most gorgeous tapestries, paintings, sculpture, stained glass, Maiolica, and much more.It's easily a 2-hour visit and there is a nice restaurant in the Chateau. Trains run frequently throughout the day. It was a marvelous day trip for us in April.

Thanks all for the replies. I'm sussing out Chartres, Fontainebleau, Giverny and Auvers-sur-Oise. I have been to Beaune before and of course loved it. Also Versailles but was disapointed in the palace quite frankly, I did enjoy the little town tho' and the market there. Looks like it will be Auvers-sur-Oise with the Van Gogh interest. So much to see in Paris, it hardly seems necessary to go outside it. I have been there three times before and it is my favourite European city. Will also be In Luxembourg, Germany and Switzerland so I can't wait to get going.

I was alone one year and visited Brussels.

Regarding that Cityrama Mont St. Michel tour I did it and the dinner in Caen wasn't memorable. Worse was the breakfast stop (included in the price). It's at a local hotel on the way, staff were robotic and not friendly, and food was not the best. Wish they would not include meals and charge less.

We were in Paris in May, and made some day trips by train, or using Orange Card 4 zones. It is very convenient
- Chantilly
- Vincennse
- Malmaison
- St Germain en Laye
- Rambouillet
- Vaux-le-vicomte
- Reims

We visited also:
- Bois de Boulogne
- St Denis

Some years ago, we visited (like day trips):
- Versailles
- Rouen
- Chartres
- Fontainbleu

None of these journeys was longer than 1- 2 hours by train

Hi Francophile
Your comment reminded me of a lunch stop I had in Lake Lugano. The driver recommended everyone high tail it to an expensive Movenpick restaurant that they all complained about later because of the high prices. I bought a nice lunch to go and strolled the lovely gardens along the lake shore, guess who had the better experience and got more out of it. Those who ate at the Movenpick then had no time left to see the gardens.
I looked at Cityrama's website and the prices are IMO quite high. Nearly all of my most enjoyable day trips that were escorted have been on mini coaches, more personalised and fun, this applies to all the countries I have visited and taken a day tour in.

Lots of good suggestions for you in this thread- please keep an eye on the strikes - they will start up again on the 13.

Brussels. Happy Travels!

Bookmarking since there is so much good info in this post!