Quaint village
 

HI. I am taking my children to Paris. My son is 13 and he is interested in history.He asked me if there is a quaint village near Paris. I believe that he is looking for something that looks like a town that you would see during World War II. Certainly if there were any towns that have preserved anything from that time he probably would love to see this. I would appreciate your input. Thank you.

You'll get a lot more interest and replies if you title the post "Quaint villages near Paris"

I've asked the editors to tag this thread for France.

So you're not looking for something that would be described as "modern day charming" but for something that has not changed much in 60 years. I'm sure there are plenty of towns like that but there may not be any activities or sightseeing - just the town to look at. Is that what you have in mind? I would not describe the later as "quaint" but untouched by time.

It would be a very long day trip (better an overnight) but Oradour-sur-Glane fits the bill, although the horror of it might be a bit much for a 13 year old.

ww2, do you mean a ruin?
There are villages that stabilised at the 100 years war.

What about Bayeux in Normandy which was virtually untouched by WWII? It is a charming town. However, it is a bit too far from Paris to visit on a day trip - an overnight would work better.

Senlis's center is quite old, narrow winding streets, etc. but no "evidence" of World War II in terms of damage. The center certainly looks much as it would have in 1940 or 1740 for that matter. An easy day trip, can be combined with Chantilly.

<< something that looks like a town that you would see during World War II >>

I took that to mean no modern shop signs, yellow or white street lines, traffic lights, etc. Something you'd see in "Wish Me Luck" or "Foyle's War."

This link included tonnes of day trip ideas many of which are likely to fit the bill

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...s-446088-2.cfm

I would suggest you go to Auvers-sur-Oise. It is a village and has some historical interest due to Van Gogh living and dying there. It's fairly quaint as far as those things go, and not far out. It's small enough that you can walk around on country lanes, see the cemetery and Van Gogh's cottage, etc.

They also have a neat special effects show in the chateau about history. see http://www.chateau-auvers.fr/

http://www.auvers-sur-oise.com/

as for WWII, you could easily visit Bayeux in a day trip, I did. The train trip doesn't take that long, only a couple hours as I recall, which gives you more than enough time to see things in Bayeux.

That wouldn't include a WWII sites tour, but if you want to do those, I did one in an afternoon as a day trip (from Bayeux), and enjoyed it a lot. There were several teens in it.