Chateau near Paris

My favorite is Vaux le Vicomte but you have to arrange a taxi from the train station in Melun except during the times they run a shuttle to the Chateau. You can see our visit here:
https://janettravels.wordpress.com/2010/09/20/vaux-le-vicomte-our-last-chateau/

Another great, probably the next best choice, is Fontainebleau which is easy on public transport; the bus goes from the train station to the chateau. It is historically important and has lovely grounds although not as nice as Vaux le Vicomte.

Rambouillet is the summer home of the President of France and the chateau may be visited when he is not in residence. The park is lovely.
https://janettravels.wordpress.com/2011/07/02/rambouillet-summer-palace-for-the-president-of-france/
Sceaux has a wonderful park; the chateau Ecouen is the French Renaissance museum. Malmaison is charming, easily reached, and the home of Josephine.

Chateau Malmaison is easily reached in a 15 minute bus ride from La Defense. When you get off the bus there is a pretty tree-lined roadway up to the chateau. The chateau never seems to be crowded at all for some reason and is a nice way to spend a morning or afternoon away from the city but not too far away, if you are a Napolean buff.

I just visited Paris last week, and saw Malmaison and Fontainebleau. I highly recommend both. Malmaison is smaller but quicker to reach from central Paris. It's also cheaper as you can use normal Paris transport tickets to get to La Defense by Metro and then on the bus. One warning is that Malmaison closes for lunch from 12:30 to 1:30.

A further hint on travelling to Fontainebleau - the main French rail website only shows longer distance trains between Paris and Fontainebleau. There are additional ones which are just as fast and use the same tickets which are operated by the Transilien Paris suburban network, and can only be seen on the Transilien website. Don't bother buying tickets in advance as there's no special discount.

Philip reminds me of the time we were once at Malmaison as the lunch hour approached. We had not realised the chateau closed for lunch and we were astonished at being chased out of the place like naughty children. It was very funny. But there is (or was?) a very decent restaurant at the bus stop down the road from the chateau so all was well.

Last month we saw both Vaux-le-Vicomte and Fontainebleau in an easy day, using ParisVisions to get there. It's DIY once you get there, that's one of the nice things about this option, you only use ParisVisions for bus transport, to get there and back--this saves unproductive transportation time compared to trying to see one or both of them using public transportation.

Hi,

All good suggestions here. Since you're looking for an alternative to Versailles, I vote for Fontainebleau, all the more so if you're interested in Napoleon. Some of those recommended above are not so easily reached by public transportation. The train goes Paris to Avon for Fontainebleau. Immediately outside of the station is the bus stop where you catch the bus to the Chateau Fontainebleau. Walking it takes ca 40 mins., ie from train station to Chateau. The bus stops in front of the tourist office, the Chateau is on the opposite
side.

Vaux-le-Vicomte is way less crowded than Versailles, there were maybe a couple hundred people there and it's a huge place. Fontainebleau was more crowded, but nothing like Versailles, the day we were there (it was a weekend).

The Man in the Iron Mask was filmed on location at Vaux-le-Vicomte, which in the film was standing in for Versailles. Vaux is apparently where Louis XIV got some ideas for designing Versailles. The owner of Vaux was the king's finance minister, M. Fouquet. Fouquet had it built, when it was completed he invited the boss over for the open house. Bad idea, as it turned out. The king was jealous (this is the story that's told), I guess because at that time he was "only" living in the Louvres. So the Roi Soleil had Fouquet imprisoned and used his architect, landscape architect, and interior designer to design the king a nice new palace at Versailles.

Le Chateau de Maintenon is my favorite. It's on the Paris-Chartres train line and you could visit both in the same day. Every time I go to the Chateau de Maintenon I am usually alone... there aren't too many visitors. It's small but very beautiful. Plus the aqueducts in the background make it very romantic and historic.

I understand that Rambouillet (also on that train line) has a chateau, but I've yet to visit it.

OR, if you don't want to see a romantic chateau, but rather a "fortification", I highly suggest the Chateau Saint Jean in Nogent -le - Rotrou. It's on the same train line (Paris-Chartres-NLR-Le Mans). This city doesn't see much tourism at all but it has a charming downtown and excellent restaurants.

Visited last Tuesday Chateau de Mainthenon and has stolen my haert too. I was very lucky with the weather, almost clear blue sky and temperature around 20 °C. The garden is well manicured, roses in full blossom, with the aqueduct and adjacent golf course there is a very pleasant atmosphere, worth to spend a few hours. Just a little lovely gem this place! And I think too very well to combine with Chartres in a daytrip. Rambouillet is nice, but (to my opinion) Maintenon is more appealing.