texasbookworm

What would be a recommended day trip to take from Paris on the last day of the itinerary below? I have already made a list but thought I'd get input from here before refining it.

On my other recent thread, I put a lot of background/explanation/defense of decisions—I will just give itinerary below so you can see what we have already seen. We are DEFINITE about the first 7 days, so don’t need any comments on those. Day 8—from Amiens through Rheims/Reims to Paris—is flexible; we might go through Beauvais and see Chateau Chantilly on way to Paris area. EITHER Day 10 or 11 will DEFINITELY be only in Paris. The other day might be, but I’m interested in hearing of your favorite day trips. I am leaning way away from Versailles, but other chateaux are appealing.

Day 1—I am “staying behind” on a student tour which began in Scotland and went through England before 2 days in Paris; DH will be flying into CDG and we will somehow/somewhere meet up and spend as much of the day as we can IN PARIS. We will stay near CDG that night because of car pickup.

Day 2—Pick up car, drive to Chartres and see cathedral, drive to LeMans and go into the pits or do whatever we can connected to the 24-Hour Race that begins the next day. We have parking and access tickets on the way which are good this day. Then drive to the closest hotel I could find in Sille Le Guillaume.

Day 3—24-Hours of Lemans—all day—race begins at 3 pm.

Day 4—Mont St. Michel as main goal. Have rooms south of Bayeux.

Days 5 and 6—From our B&B in Villers Bocage, one day will be a big loop around/visit to as many D-Day sites and beaches as we can and the other will be a visit to Bayeux (tapestry and cathedral at the least) and probably Caen Memorial.

Day 7—Drive to Amiens and see cathedral. There are a couple things we might drive through or see during the long drive. Have B&B very near town center.

Day 8—Probably drive to Rheims and then to CDG area. Turn in car. Have hotel there.

(I know—people grumbled at me already about staying near CDG. But 2 of these last 3 nights we really need to be near the airport—drop car as late as we want first night and not mess with luggage, etc., and then we want to be at airport the night before we have early flight, so it doesn’t make sense to move 3 times just to be in Paris one night when we can ride the train in and not mess with moving. Luxury or even cute isn’t the goal these 3 days.)

Days 9 and 10--????One will be all in Paris. Thinking about a day trip on the other one. I know we won’t be “through” with Paris in the limited time we have, but we might want to see something within a day-trip range instead of another day in the city.

We love history, taking pictures, ruins, and cathedrals more than art or gardens—which we also love.

Thanks.

StCirq

You might start with a search here on Fodors, as there are hundreds of threads on daytrips from Paris and not everyone wants to reinvent the wheel.

My favorites are Auvers-sur-Oise, Chantilly and Senlis, and Ile des Impressionistes/Maison Fournaise.

Cathinjoetown

Agree with St. Cirq on Senlis and Chantilly. You could keep the car another day as both quite close to CDG and therefore your hotel.

FrenchMystiqueTours

There are direct buses from CDG to Senlis that take about 25 minutes. If you were staying at an airport hotel this would save you from having to go into Paris to catch a train elsewhere. Also, there are buses between Senlis and Chantilly that take 30 minutes.

Look at this website for info about buses between CDG, Chantilly and Senlis. It will refer to CDG as Roissypole:

http://www.oise-mobilite.fr/

If you want to see pictures of Chantilly and Senlis you can look at a report I wrote about visiting these places: http://tinyurl.com/ch2odst

Here are the tourist office websites for those places:

http://www.chateaudechantilly.com/fr/

http://www.chantilly-tourisme.com/

www.senlis-tourisme.fr/accueil-senlis.php

If you want me to post my lengthy list of most popular day trips from Paris let me know.

billandcindy

Agree with StCirq as to other threads with great ideas. Have been to Chantilly and Senlis. Excellent. Annabel Simms' "An Hour from Paris" has more than 20 possibilities, including Auvers-sur-Oise, Chantilly & Senlis (these last 2 can be done together). The Fountainebleu is impressive, of course. Also, close to Paris (via metro) is the castle in the Bois de Vincennes. It's a fun trip, a quite a change of pace from Paris. But, before that, I would consider Sceaux, a little visited, small town about 10km south of Paris (on the RER B line -- the same line that you would likely take to come into Paris from the CDG). In my opinion, the gardens at Sceaux rival those at Versailles. I'm assuming that you're making this trip between April and October. Not sure I would go to the Bois de Vincennes or the Sceaux gardens outside that window.

texasbookworm

Thanks all

Yes, I did look at Fodors--and guide books and websites and maps. So I have a list of ideas, which includes many of what you all mentioned. Thought I might try a new thread hoping for current input as well as input that MIGHT be specific to our situation, based on the rest of our itinerary.

So great ideas--again, thanks--

mamcalice

You are already including some common day trips in your day 1-8 itinerary (Chartres, Reims). Why not spend your final 2 days in Paris? Or, if you stay near CDG, you could keep your car and drive to Giverny, our favorite after Chartres.

PalenQ

We love history, taking pictures, ruins, and cathedrals more than art or gardens—which we also love.>

How abou Compeignie (sp?) or Chantilly - two lovely chateaus in smallish towns a short train ride north of Paris.