Help please--I'm planning a surprise trip to Paris (5-6 days) for my husband's 50th birthday. Don't know exactly when yet, but probably October or November. This will be our first trip to Europe without the children and second trip to Paris. The first time through the Louvre was a marathon with three kids in tow so I know we're going to do a day there, open to close. We've seen all the tourist sights and would appreciate some off the beaten path suggestions including galleries, markets and flea markets.

Also, I'd like to take him somewhere for a few days outside of Paris that's scenic, easy to reach by train and pedestrian friendly. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

You've been to Paris only once before and you've "seen all the tourist sights"? Hard to believe. Also hard to imagine doing the Louvre from "open to close." Do you both really enjoy that?

With only 5-6 days I'd humbly suggest that you stick to the very many things in Paris that you can't possibly have seen on one previous trip. Been to the Jacquemart-André? The Bois de Boulogne? Au Lapin Agile? The Parc St-Cloud? The Orangerie? Auteuil? The Marmottan? Ile des Impressionistes?.....

For galleries, do a search on Degas' posts. He did a nice writeup of the main ones. There are flea markets on weekends at Porte de Clingancourt. There are markets listed at http://www.v1.paris.fr/EN/Living/markets/markets.asp

If you must leave Paris (and how many days is "a few days" out of a 5- to 6-day trip?), there are innumerable day trips you can do by train: Versailles, Chartres, Rouen, Chantilly, Senlis, Fontainebleau, Vaux-le-Vicomte, Auvers-sur-Oise,Reims....all scenic, reachable by train, and pedestrian friendly.

DITTO!

I agree with St. Cirq. After 4 trips to Paris, I still have a list of places to be seen next time. One of those, the Orangerie, was closed so not attainable until recently.

Why did I not see everything? Well, we wanted to visit other places too for some variety and there was always that feeling of "I will be back soon."

Paris in virtually infinite as are London and Rome.

I respectfully dissent.

Confining your exploration to Paris is like limiting a trip to the U.S. to New York City.

There is nowhere in Paris that is "more important to see" than anywhere else. Take StCirq's last paragraph and run with it. And add Normandy to the list.

Getting out of Paris will afford the opportunity to experience a completely different France.

Honfleur, the most charming town in Normandy with a picturesque harbor.

Thank you for the suggestions StCirq--THOSE are the types of destinations I am looking for--not the typical tourist sites that I mention we have seen--and yes--since I spent most of my career at a natural history museum we can and have crawled museums from open to close!

I concur Robespierre; you miss an entirely different flavor by only seeing the urban areas. I spent three weeks in Paris with my oldest daughter who was in a summer language program. My husband and boys joined us our last week there and he loved Paris but didn't have time to do the city justice which is why I want to take him back. One of the few side trips my daughter and I had time to take was to the Normandy coast which I loved and thought of returning there this trip.

I know I'm well in the minority, but Paris just isn't one of my favorite cities but my husband is French and it's a city he's always wanted to explore in greater depth and this trip is all about him so I appreciate all suggestions. As I said, this will be our first time back to Europe without kids so we are looking at travel from an entirely different perpective. In other words we don't feel compelled to hit every major site and we no longer have to find at least one McDonald's.

One question in particular is about the Rhone-Alps region; his grandmother was from Montlimar and his father was born there also so I thought that would be a very special part of France to take him. Any idea how long or how difficult it might be to get there from Paris? This trip is in it's infancy stages of planning and we'll have about 2-3 weeks so I'm open to any suggestions.

Hi J,

Neither www.voyages-franc.com nor www.viamichelin.com show a Montlimar.

There is a Montelimar. If that's what you mean, it's about 4 hr by train.

Not been yet, but Lyons gets a lot of praise on this site and it's a few hours from Paris by train. If it were sprind/summer i would like the Honfleur idea, but it might be chilly by the sea.

Tours [only about an hour from Paris] would amke a good base to tour [sorry about that] the Loire region, or Chartres for the northern side.

too many choices!

if you can rent a car (one stop before you get off at Tours...the name of the town eludes my memory) you could ramble around the Loire.
Otherwise, I'd stay in Paris and train to Versailles for a day.

That would be a beautiful time to visit Burgundy. The cote d'or will really live up to its name at that time. TGV from Paris to Dijon is about 1.5 hrs. You can explore Dijon in the AM, take an afternoon tour of the Cote d'or - perhaps one that will end in Beaune rather than round trip back to Dijon - dinner in Beaune, evening TGV back to Paris from Dijon (local train to Dijon from Beaune takes ~25 min.).

You could take the train to Amboise and explore the Loire Valley. It is a short train ride away from Paris, but I think you would want a car once you got there.

Thank you for all of the wonderful suggestions. We've never rented a car in Europe because there have always been five or six of us and too much luggage. It sounds like we're going to have to take the plunge and do some driving in order to be able to really explore.

If you do go to Rhône-Alpes, you'll certainly need a car--there are a lot of green routes (the Michelin designation for a scenic drive) in that area. We've not been to Montélimar, but we've stayed in Nyons a couple of times, and we loved it. You'd be close to Grignan the site of a chateau where Mme de Sévigné's daughter lived. There are some wonderful place names are in that area as well--La Roche-St Secret, Le Poët-Laval, Dieulefit ...