Chartres, 3 days or 4? As a base for exploring

Maybe you should think about Sarlat instead, with their wonderful market and medieval streets. It’s seems to hit more of your interests than I remember of Chartres.

Why Chartres? If châteaux aren't your bag, I am not sure what you'd supplement with.

It is a nice place but I’m not sure what I would do for 3 days there. We were there 1 night and it was a good visit.

If you're not into châteaux, then Chartres is a great place to stay. I'm not sure there's enough to hold your attention for that long unless you're into wheat fields (heading west) or Paris to the east

One terrific thing about staying overnight in Chartres is the Chartres en Lumières light show. We took the little train around town, enjoying the light shoes displayed on buildings and on the river, culminating with a beautiful display on the façade of the cathedral. It was spectacular!

Laurie

Exploring what? What month? I could see one night, two max. Yes, the cathedral is a peak experience in a nice town.

Thanks folks. So here's why we chose Chartres:

We wanted a town with its own interesting character, but not a city. We have 3-4 days and we want to "pick a spot" because we tend to have better experiences that way, finding local shops, bars or cafes, settling in a bit. I wish we had longer. This trip is only 2 weeks, a week in England and a week in France, which is quick and short, but we've visited both countries before and we mostly want to "vibe" as the kids say!
We don't want to spend 5 hrs on a train or driving there from Paris. So that leaves us with maybe 60-80 miles' radius from Paris.

A few years ago we spent 5 nights in a tiny town in Provence, and had a great time. We easily drove to the Pont du Gard, and took a slightly longer drive to the ocean, visited the market in Uzes, wandered Roman sites at Nimes, but also got to know the local village, ate a couple of times at the one restaurant in town, attended a "food truck night" in the local square, walked to the same boulangerie down the block, bought hyper-local wine at the tiny grocery. Perfect balance of discovering and settling in. So--THAT is what I want, but closer to Paris!

We considered Reims (not Rouen, OMG I can't keep the place names straight) for its cathedral (everything we've read puts Chartres and Rouen on par with Notre Dame de Paris), but honestly the champagne tourism didn't interest us either. We don't like "one night stands" as far as hotels go and the light display at Chartres is highly recommended. We are there in May, currently scheduled for the Wed 14-Sun 18. So, we are hoping to find markets, local events, and historic sites or villages, within about another hour's drive from our base.

An hour and a half's drive west from Chartres is one of our favorite areas in France, the Perche. It's centered around the town of Mortagne au Perche and the hilltop village of Belleme. It is a pretty, rural, hilly part of France dotted with manor houses from the 15th century.

When we first went there Mortagne was a country town. All the shops were geared to local residents for clothes, shoes, eyeglasses, bakeries, and so on. Then the area became the darling of Parisians who've been buying weekend homes in the area, and the restaurants and stores reflect this new clientele. There were always a few excellent restaurants in the area, but now there are many.

The little town of Tourouvre has an interesting museum with two different focuses--one is the emigration from the Perche to found Quebec in the 1600s, and the other is on commerce and brands, which sounds dull but is in fact very entertaining, very playful, and I'm sure nostalgic for French people.

Don't go on a Monday. In fact, if there's anything that grabs you, make sure it'll be open when you hope to be there.

I can't recommend the tourist office of Mortagne, but the OT at Belleme and the OT at Remalard are both excellent.

If you decide to take the drive west, the route through Senonches is more scenic than the more southerly route through the flat Beauce. Heading back east, either route will give you an early glimpse of Chartres cathedral.

You will need two nights to get through all the illuminations in Chartres. They are excellent!

If you're in Chartres on the first Saturday of the month, it's open day at Brasserie de Chandres at Sours, SE of Chartres. They make several good beers. You don't need to reserve; the visits are at 10h30 - 14h30 - 16h00. Six euro.

Now I see you won't be there at that time. Sorry. Maybe next trip.

There are a lot of low key architectural pleasures in the area south and west of Chartres. A good part of this area is what I'd call unspoiled and a leisurely drive can take you through a lot of scenic countryside

45 minutes from Chartres is Fraze. The village is tiny, but the view of the chateau and its two gatehouses is wonderful, worth a jog off the Oceane. Nice church interior too, right by a rushing stream.

The church at La Croix du Perche has an impressive ceiling.

There is Illiers-Combray, of Proust fame, but it didn't seem like an attractive village to us.

Nogent le Rotrou is nice and has a big Saturday morning market. La Ferte Bernard is charming. Both are about an hour from Chartres, so doable for a day trip. I can recommend two good places to eat in La Ferte. Lovely church with unusually elegant stone lettering and perhaps there will be a wedding on the day you are there. La Ferte has several streams running through channels in town, a street lined with sycamores aka plane trees.... I'll stop there but if you are interested I can come up with more info.

To sum up, once you get off the flat, boring, plain of the Beauce, you can find interesting villages.

We considered Rouen for its cathedral (everything we've read puts Chartres and Rouen on par with Notre Dame de Paris), but honestly the champagne tourism didn't interest us either

You don't have to worry about champagne tourism in Rouen, as there is none there. I note kindly that for champagne tourism, you would have to go to Reims.

If you want to think about Rouen some more, you could look up the Rouen trip report that Avi wrote a couple of months ago; it might give you some ideas.

I like the idea of the Perche though. It is really beautiful there. Crumbs has given you some great ideas.

Kim, OMG. I means Reims. Sorry.

Crumbs, thank you, quite encouraging and we'll dig deeper. I appreciate your time! And to all, I appreciate your generous replies and suggestions.

I lived in Chartres and have also lived in Rouen. Love them both, but Chartres is quite sleepy in comparison. Rouen offers so many more bigger-city amenities while also having an old city feel. Also the museums are to die for and the location for visiting other Normandie cities is great. In this case, I'd choose Rouen unless you just want a sleepy town.