Outside of Paris before Flight
 

Anyone have a suggestion of a pretty town to stay in the night before we leave Paris? We'll have stayed in the City upon our arrival and would like to stay somewhere out of the City for our departure. Our flight is at 2 in the afternoon so we would want to be about an hour away by train at the most so we don't have to rush.

What do we like? Eating, shopping, pretty scenery, walking...

thanks!

Chantilly is a nice town with a fine chateau and Senlis is a even sweller town - both towns are in the vicinity of CDG airport.

How do you plan to get to the airport? I think that makes a big difference as it sounds like you plan to get there by train which really limits the options.

Yes, sorry about that. Will be traveling by train.

Are you departing from CDG? Most of the trains directly in/out of CDG (if not all of them) are TGV's. They go to places like Lille, Dijon, Tours, etc. I've taken an early TGV from Dijon to CDG for a flight. It worked out really well.

Are you willing to transfer in Paris to the RER to get to the airport? That increases your options but unfortunately your travel time as well.

Hey PalenqueBob, you're usually up on rail stuff. Any idea when the TGV from CDG east to Metz, Nancy and Strasbourg is going to open?

Last I read it was 2006 but in March it didn't look like they'd make it when I say the bare rail beds still being graded.

Yes, departing from CDG. I would prefer not to transfer but would if there was a really special town out there that I would miss otherwise.

iluvs2travel you said "towns" so in my mind that leaves out Lille and Dijon on the direct TGV lines. These are definitely cities. I enjoyed them both.

I'll give the edge to Lille for people watching as Dijon did not seem to have many big plazas where people went by in throngs. The medieval layout to the city limits the street sizes. I will give a huge thumbs up to Dijon's art museum. It's one of France's finest outside of Paris.

To change trains in Paris for the airport Gare du Nord is your best bet. Second best is Gare de L'Est 500 meters away. They give the easiest access to the RER B line to CDG.

Out of Est I liked Troyes a lot. 1.5 hours from Paris. Many half-timbered buildings in the old town, a nice cathedral, 5 or 6 little museums to go through, it has a lot to offer. Two big outlet malls are on the edge of town that I've never seen as I don't shop much.

Out of Nord I was in Reims this spring. Also 1.5 hours from Paris. I loved the champagne tours. I ended up taking 3. I was surprised as I thought I'd only do one. Nice cathedral and basilica, a few small museums, my favorite was the Museum of Surrender (Reddition in French.) It has the actual room still intact where the Germans surrendered at the end of WWII. There's an inner city bus that runs every day except Sunday. It laps the town center hitting most of the tourist sites.

On the Reims line and closer to Paris is the champagne town of Epernay. I've read good things about it but have never been.

CHAMPAGNE TOURS? Now you are speaking my language! I neglected to mention that is something I would love to do - we also enjoy wineries.

Is there somewhere on the web I can go to find out more about these tours?

THANK YOU!

I think a lot of the champagne houses themselves have web sites, but the city of Reims does, also, with lots of good info.

There isn't any way you can stay in Reims and be only one hour from CDG by train, though. I think that train is from Gare de l'Est, so you could walk from there to Gare du Nord (or take the metro, it's one stop) and then go to CDG. I'd count on 3 hours total transit for that. Of course, Reims isn't a small town, although I enjoyed it as a small city and you can have a dinner in a champagne house.

Here is the Reims URL
http://www.ville-reims.fr/

Specific links and info on all the champagne houses
http://www.umc.fr/traduction/english/limach_gb.htm

I toured P-H, Martell and Mumm in Reims. Here are two web sites.

www.piper-heidsieck.com

www.mumm.com

I don't know which champagne houses are in Epernay though I think Moet-Chandon is.

If you want more of a description of Reims you can read my trip report from March. Reims was my first stop so it's close to the top.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34595516

Christina is right. I was incorrect in my previoius post. Reims is out of gare de l'Est not Nord.

I should have remembered my aimless wandering trying to walk between the two. :-)

Thanks everybody! You've been a tremendous help!