Interesting Day Trips from Paris
 

We are in the process of planning another trip to Paris - We anticipate being there just after Christmas and into January 2018, Probably from 12/27 - 1/10/2018. We are looking for a few interesting day trips. We have been to Dijon, Strasbourg, Versailles, Bruges, and will be coming from Amsterdam prior ..

Requirements: Ability to get there by train within 2 to 3 hours and back late in the same day. A good walking city with some historic sites or interesting sites...

Any suggestions would be appreciated

Reims or Angers

Our favorite day trip has been to the Chateau Vaux-le-Vicomte [inspiration for Versailles], and the town of Auvers-sur-Oise to see the locations of Van Gogh paintings and the multi-media impressionist show at the Auvers Chateau. Also Troyes is a realtively short train ride.

Chartres and Reims are my favorites for nice regional cities with some blockbuster sites.

Chartres the great Gothic Cathedral (do take Malcolm Miller's spellbinding tours that bring the cold stones and windows to life-there are other old churches, a petit venise - old canal lined by old mills and workshops.

Reims has a stunning cathedral and famous ornate Champagne Houses to visit and sip away after touring the curing caves- do a couple or more! Reims is a bigger city than Chartres I'd say and has a bustling town center with Les Halles style old wrought-iron market shed and also the WW2 Room in an old schoolhouse where the Allies plotted the final assault on Germany - name placards still on the table and original war maps on the walls - right behind the train station.

Both easy train rides - check www.voyages-sncf.com for trains and fares and for general info on trains around Paris and where to go with them - www.budgeteuropetravel.com; www.ricksteves.com- check www.seat61.com for loads on getting discounted train fares if going to Reims or farther afield to Angers - another lovely town with an imposing castle right inside it.

Chartres
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mksfca...401029366/show

Fontainebleau
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mksfca...7623316531799/ and subsequent pictures

Vaux-le-Vicomte
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mksfca...7623316531799/ and subsequent pictures

Giverny
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mksfca...7624436592493/

Reims has become a bedroom community thanks to fast TGV access to Paris.

Giverny - the former house, studio, and gardens of Claude Monet. About 45 minutes by train from Gare St. Lazare on the line to Rouen.

Rouen is a nice day-trip target, with its typical but I don't think it runs during the winter months - you will need to research that.half-timber buildings etc.
It is where Monet painted the façade of the cathedral about thirty times in varying light etc.

Chambord: I had a great time making a day trip to Blois, by train from Austerlitz station. There is a castle right in Blois, and nearby is the most remarkable of them all, Chambord,with the double-helix stairs - fascinating! See http://www.chambord.org/en/

I took the castle bus from outside the Blois station, it goes around Blois (castle) - Chambord - Cheverny (a "castle" that's more like a large villa chockfull of antiques) - Blois. I doubt that this bus runs during the winter months - you may want to contat the tourism ofice in Blois about that.

Tours (the city) - trains leave from Montparnasse station, and there are a number of castles within reach of Tours.

Oops, a sentence got juxtaposed in the above, in the second paragraph ignore the words from "typical" to "that" - I don't know why Fodors doesn't allow re-entering a post to make corrections, but there you have it.

While I was typing, Michael beat me to it with Giverny...

One of our favorite daytrips was to Nancy, an hour and a half by TGV. The tourist office is in the spectacular Place Stanislas, an easy walk from the station. The Museum of Fine Arts and the Museum of Lorraine are nearby. I loved the Museé de l'Ecole de Nancy, with its wonderful collection of Art Nouveau. It's a ten minute bus or taxi ride away.

https://www.google.com/search?q=nanc...w=1173&bih=619

FrenchMystiqueTours posts an amazing list. You could search his posts to find the list

You should take a look at "Paris to the Past" by Ina Caro. The entire book is day trips from Paris and the significance of the destinations.

FrenchMystiqueTours posts an amazing list. You could search his posts to find the list>

highly endorse FMT for the most best list of Paris day trips I've ever seen anywhere!

Reims has the cathedral church of St Remi, in addition to it's more famous cathedral, but I believe that St Remi is one of the most gorgeous cathedrals in the world.

Yup, FMT has the definitive list.

I think my favorites are Auvers-sur-Oise and Chantilly and Senlis.

Using the search box for something like this question can be extremely beneficial. Here's a recent thread:
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...near-paris.cfm

Enjoy!

Lille is 55 minutes from Paris by TGV. I go there at least twice a year.

the Loire Valley chateaux can be a day trip - take a train to Tours - about an hour- and hook up with mini-bus tours from the station to 2-3 of the more famous castles.

Nancy is a good idea.

I'll also throw in Auxerre.

Provins -to me an Italian hill town in the Paris area is also an easy and nice day trip by train:

https://www.google.com/search?q=prov...HUuTDPkQsAQIGQ

You can also consider cities like Rennes (1,5 hour from Paris, from next spring) or Nantes (2 hours from Paris), in the western part of France, to discover another rich part of French heritage and history (Brittany).

Could spend a month day tripping from Paris and not exhaust the possibilities!