Chateau Maintenon as Day Trip from Paris

Le Georges is a Michelin restaurant, easily accessible by walking.

Yes, I have Janet. I used to live nearby and would take the TER train to visit the chateau.

It's about a 15-20 minute walk from the gare de Maintenon and google walking directions are very sufficient. You'll walk through the town to get there leading all the way to the place Aristide. Along the way you'll cross some cool bridges and you'll find it's a lovely sleepy village. There are some great boulangeries along the way, too. Once I even had a pretty darn good lunch on the square in front or the chateau. It was Le Soleil. Their menu du jour was reasonable and delicious.

The chateau itself is one of my favorites. It's lovely and the aqueducts make the outside so very enchanting. It's certainly not a big chateau, so it really only takes a morning. The man working the counter tried to short changed me the last time I was there, so be on guard there. But the chateau itself is gorgeous. There's also a room away from the chateau entrance that shows a video history. I've never been there when it's crowded.

The last time I went was in 2013. I'll be going back this May. If you have any specific questions, let me know.

The Eure-et-Loir is my old stomping grounds. On the Paris to le Mans TER there are a number of charming day trips. I lived between Chartres and Le Mans in the city of Nogent-le-Rotrou. Hidden from most tourists, but the chateau there is fabulous (a protective fort). Where I lived I had a view of the Chateau every day. There are also excellent churches and a cool town square. It's the capital of the region known as le Perche.

That is so helpful. We have done most of the obvious day trips from Paris and are trying to identify a few more. Maintenon is one of those. We will be in Paris for 5 weeks end of April/May and would like to do at least one trip a week during that period. I would be very interested in your advice on other trips along this corridor you mention. We will have Navigo Decouverte but I suspect most trips will now be outside the Ile de France.

I'll check out le George Thanks

Have you seen the book An Hour From Paris: 20 Secret Daytrips by Train by Annabel Simms? I checked it out from our library and really enjoyed it, but I haven't been able to try any of them yet. Hopefully on my next trip. At least a few of them were in Zone 5 or closer. It has pretty good reviews on Amazon.

I just thought I'd check and there are quite a few other posts on this forum that reference the Simms book if you want other ideas. This may actually be where I first heard of it. Definitely worth a read!

I have done nearly all the trips in the Simms book and many others not in the book in numerous trips to Paris so I am not looking for things that are less well known. I got the idea for Maintenon from Caro's book 'From Paris to the Past'. Alas there were not many sites in it near Paris that I had not visited but this was one. Someone on TA reviews of the chateau recently indicated that it was under heavy restoration with a giant crane in the drained moat. I hope it is gone by May as the outside views appear to be the most desirable part of the trip. Simms book is excellent for people newish to Paris who want to branch out to somewhat less well known sites. I particularly enjoyed Moret sur Loing, Crecy la Chapelle, and the guinguettes on the Marne and the Seine near Paris.

I just read Caro's chapter on Chateau Maintenon last night, be sure to turn right out of the station instead of left as she did;)
If you decided to check it out, please report back and/or blog about it.

Yes, you certainly want to leave the station, go down the road a bit and then make a RIGHT turn (onto Avenue de Général de Gaulle) where you'll go quite a ways (around 1.5km) before you make a left turn (rue du Pont Rouge)...then finally a left (rue de Collin d'Harleville) that leads straight to the chateau. This street takes you through the centre ville de Maintenon and you will see some boulangeries, restaurants, etc. It's a charming little city.
Really only about 3 turns to get there.

After visiting the chateau and having lunch ( quite like the Café le Soleil in the Place in front of the chateau. I usually check out the Église -Saint-Pierre.

It's not a touristy city by any means (a fact that makes the visit all the more endearing! ) If one doesn't speak much French they'll do a lot of pointing I imagine. You're going to love it, Janet! I can't wait to see your blog post about it.