An interesting place near (but outside of) Euro-Disney

Make time to go to Paris. Why would you settle for a suburb? Not a whole lot of history and culture in suburbs.

Seems a little ironic, wanting to experience the "real France" from Euro Disney.

You could try Chartres, to the southwest of Paris. It has a spectacular gothic cathedral and has a decent medieval core. You'd need a train from Disney to Paris, then take the metro to the Montparnasse station. From there it's a little more than an hour to Chartres. Overall, probably 2.5 hours from/to Disney.

Thanks for replies. To be clear, Disney is not a "choice" - we will be mostly trapped in corporate meetings all week. We may be able to make a short trip somewhere nearby. Meaux? Anywhere else? Thanks.

I feel for you - meeting room walls are the same in London, Paris, New York or Disney.
TGV from Marne La Vallee Chessy to Champagne Ardenne takes less than 30mins.

http://www.planetware.com/tourist-attractions-/reims-f-champ-rei.htm

you can take the bus from the Disney Paris train stop to Provins, a 13th centurth medieval walled town. Bus ride is 2-3 euros. Ask your hotel for the schedule, about a 45 minute ride. However, it's only a 40 minute commuter train ride staight into Paris.You could take the train, walk around, eat dinner in Paris and take the train back anytime til 11pm or so. RT train with all day pass for Paris transport is only 15 euros or so. There are many trains each way all day/night. I would go to Paris, even if it was to walk around for an hour and then to dinner and back by 9pm. Meaux has the new WWI museum.

If you want to visit the "real France" only with public transport from Disneyland Paris I think you will be too limited in what you can visit without spending too much time moving around. I have stayed a few times near Disneyland and with a car there are a lot of places within a fairly easy reach.

Besides the WOI museum and Provins it´s reasonable easy to go to Senlis, Chantilly and further away Pierrefonds, all north-east of Paris. South-east you can visit Vaux-le-Vicomte and Fontainebleau with nearby village Morêt-sur-Loing. Staying close to the A4 freeway Reims is about an hour away with a car.

If public transport is the only option you can visit places along the RER line to Paris, like Château de Champs-sur-Marne, not the most exciting but to me it was a nice place. Closer to Paris Château de Vincennes.