We will be in Paris for three weeksin August and would like to take 2-3 two or three day side trips. Any suggestions?

Hi V,

While waiting for answers, enter <Paris and daytrips> in the "search this forum" box.

Please forgive the spelling...Fountainebleu, Giverny, St. Germain-en-Laye. The castle, The home of a great artist, an interesting suburb & park.

I have a favorite side trip: Fontainebleau and Vaux le Vicomte on the same trip.
A new development has made this trip quite feasible on weekends: Vaux now has a shuttle bus service on weekends through October 2. You can get the details on the web site. Just go a Google on vaux-le-vicomte.

Reaching Fontainebleau from Gare de Lyon is quite easy.
Trains are frequent. Once at the Avon station, there is a city bus line that goes along the main street of the city right to the chateau.

From Fontainebleau, you can take a train to Melun and wait for the shuttle bus to Vaux. A taxi ride out there is a little expensive. I recall paying 20€ each way.

At those prices a day tour from Paris that goes to both actually becomes more economical because of the guide services and the convenience of having transportation to the door.

If you don't know about either place read up on them. (Google again.) Fontainebleau is a piece of French history. Not only was it a hangout for French kings, it was the Paris residence of Napoleon I. Vaux is/was a masterpiece of design and construction. Nicolas Fouquet gave the designers room to operate without undue interference and they came up with a uniqe blend of architecture, interior decoration, and landscaping. Andre le Notre was the landscaper, and his name is legendary.
Louis le Vau and Charles le Brun were architects and artists respectively.

After Louis XIV had his fit of jealous rage over his finance minister upstaging him, for which Fouquet was jailed. Then Louis hauled off all the furniture and comandeered the three designers to do even more -- Versailles.

The 3 had a larger budget, but the end result to me is excessive opulence even if it is fully commensurate with the financial excesses of the Sun King and his successors. As you know, the whole regime paid the ultimate price: some of those mean younguns around Paris lopped off their heads in a public ceremony.
Messy, but effective.

I just did the Fontainebleau/V-l-V day trip. If you're curious, you can read about it here:

http://makeashorterlink.com/?S1755116B

We had a car, and I was surprised by how much ground we managed to cover.

If you've an interest in modernist architecture, Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye is well worth a visit. It's easy to combine this with a visit to St-Germain-en-Laye. I did this in January:

http://makeashorterlink.com/?N2011557B

I've also done a half-day visit to the Loire Valley by taking the TGV to Tours and joining a local tour group.

Another main competitor would be Chartres, where I thought about going, but I still haven't made it.

The other standard day trips that people will bring up: Chantilly, Giverny, Auvers-sur-Oise (this is the favorite of one of the posters on this forum). I can't speak about any of these as I've not yet been to these places.

Then I'm sure that someone will suggest Rouen or Reims (where, again, I've not been).

If you read French (or can deal with it), this is a very nice guidebook:

http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASI...784364-1797814

A trip to the Loire valley to see the Chateaus there could be a good 2-3 days trip. I am planning to do that in the next week.

Normandy and the WW II beaches,
cemeteries.

-Consider staying in Bayeux. See 900 year old trapestry there.
-Visit Peace Museum at Caen.
-Visit Honfleur, pretty coastal town

All the above are within one hour from Bayeux by car.

Versaille and Chartres are easy day trips by train. Cityrama does a day trip to 3 chateaux and another one to Bruges-not cheap but guides were good and someone else drove! Haven't yet been but heard Bayeux tapestry is excellent. Enjoy!

We appreciate all the suggestions and I will follow up on them. Keep them coming, we are not leaving until Aug. 9th.
Thanks!!!

Virginiafish, can I highjack this thread and ask a relevant question? We have 9 nights in Paris (early sept) and would like to choose between Giverny or Fountainbleu, which would people choose if you could only do one?

It kind of depends on your interests (Giverny v. Fountainebleau) but Giverny would be better in the Spring.

Several days ago while in Paris a French friend who lives in Paris took me to Moret sur Loing. It is a 45 minute train ride from Gare Lyon. It is very medieval and very rustic with the river, the stone arch city gates, bridges, old mills, beautiful Gothic cathedral etc. Do a Google search and see what you think.

Larry J

Isn't Moret-sur-Loing near Fontainebleau? If memory serves, the Michelin guide whose link I gave mentioned this.

(I hope I'm not confusing this with something else.)

To 111OP

Sorry for the delay but yes Moret sur Loing is two train stations beyond Foutainbleau or maybe another 10 minutes. You might consider doing both in a day from Paris.

Larry J

Thanks Larry. Since I was just in Fontainebleau in July, I doubt that this is an area where I'll be visiting again any time soon (but I did enjoy my day trip).

thanks for all of your help! please see my trip report.