Countryside Paris Day Trip

there are dozens of great day trips from Paris within an hour or so. You can see some of the recent places we have been here:
https://janettravels.wordpress.com/category/day-trips-from-paris/
A guy who goes by French Mystique does personally planned bike tours in the countryside and doing that you can get to places charming and off the beaten track if you like to bike. You can find his site by googling. He is an American ex pat married to a French woman and has been doing these tours for years.

Some other possibilities are Chartres, Auvers sur Oise (where Van Gogh lived his last days), Giverny and Monet's gardens, Rouen (more a small city than the countryside). There are lots of options. Provins is a little tourist trappy for my tastes but it does offer a medieval moment.

We took a suggestion from Ina Caro's book Paris to the Past and took the train from Gare Montparnasse to Chartres for the day, then back to Paris late afternoon in time to see the classical music concert at Sainte Chapelle that evening. We saw the Cathedral there with Malcolm Miller, had a great lunch and toured the town a bit.

You could also stay in Chartres for the evening, catching the last train back, or spend the night. Either way, it's an easy trip from Paris.

Ina Caro's Paris to the Past is a great source. Another one I liked was Annabel Simms' An Hour from Paris. I used both of these when I spent a month in Paris. They have great ideas that you wouldn't otherwise have thought of.

Don't rent a car for a day trip. Choose a day trip destination that can be reached by train or a combination of train and other transportation (other than a rental car).