Day trip from Paris 1-2 hour by train

Senlis? Moret Sur Loing. Provins

Metz. Prettier than Reims or Chartres, an easy train ride puts you in one of the oldest cities in Europe. Huge Roman presence, excellent museums, good fortifications, good food; one of my favorite day visits.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/PbQOXnx.jpg[/img]

A few more for you to consider:

Giverny
Fontainebleau
Chartres
Chantilly

All of these are 2 hours or less from Paris.

Moret-sur-Loing is a good call. Senlis as well, but you need to take a bus.
Both are small towns rather than villages.
Other suggestions are large towns or even small cities.

I also like Chevreuse, a delightful 40 min walk from the southern end of RER B (Saint Rémy lès Chevreuse), and Montfort l'Amaury is worth considering.

Numerous places I can suggest....a few are Metz, (as suggested above), Arras, Fontainebleau, St Cloud, Troyes, Romilly-sur-Seine,

Thank you! I am leaning towards Moret-sur-Loing. Any recommendations on what to do and where to eat there?

Those little villages you are looking for offer not enough to spend a whole day. I think best is looking for other places to combine with.

Like the train to Moret-sut-Loing stops in Fontainebleau too. Not a village, however lively and lovely and famous for it’s Royal Château. Packed with history it's one of Frances finest, if you have time left worth a visit to my opinon.

It has been a while since we went to Moret su Loing -- we went in November and things were pretty shut down but we loved it anyway.
https://janettravels.wordpress.com/2013/03/03/moret-sur-loing-for-charm-always-follow-the-impressionists/
We only found one restaurant open; the one near the back gate of the town. It was surprisingly excellent. On a nice day a picnic on the river past the back gate of the town would be great -- there are covered picnic facilities. We walked along the Loing to the Seine and then down the Seine to St. Mames another small town in the region where we caught the train back to Paris.

I'll go on record here as saying Metz is in no way prettier than Reims IMO. We stopped in Metz for lunch and couldn't wait to leave. Just a touristy mess in our experience, a nightmare if you have a car and need to park, with so many hands held out seeking tips.

I suppose if one's primary interest were churches one would have a very different perspective. But I'd choose Reims every time. Then again, I absolutely love Champagne. That might affect my judgment, in several ways.

I have done a day trip to Reims and recently spent 4 nights in Metz. Metz is hands down IMHO a more interesting and pretty town. both have wonderful Cathedrals but Metz's has the most square footage of stained glass in Europe and is amazing. good museums, decent restaurants and very pretty walks along the Moselle. Reims is fairly modern courtesy of being well bombed during the big wars. Champagne houses are excellent but the town didn't do much for me.

I think when you make a brief stop you are not in a good position to evaluate a place --- we hated Florence the weekend we first visited and loved it when we spent a couple of weeks then a couple of months there. (and most recently kind of hated it again because while always full of tourists now it is brimming over with tourists)

Metz's central old town is full of garbage fast food and I can imagine it would be an unpleasant short stop. We loved walking along the river, visiting the old town gate and the new Pompidou museum and the archeology museum is wonderful given the rich archeological area that is this part of loraine -- heck they discovered a Roman bath while excavating for the museum and then incorporated it into the building.

I believe you intended to say Colmar rather than Coman. And In my view it's not too far and certainly worth it.
Don't miss Chartes.

If you have a car, aside from going to Fontainebleau for the obvious reasons, I would suggest a place close by...Barbizon...very serene, a lovely place.

Troyes is a pretty town under 2 hours by train from Paris.
I spent 3 nights there last month.
There are many old medieval buildings and streets, it’s quiet, has some pretty canals and walkways, lots of interesting churches and no tourists!
Just don’t go on a Sunday, as everything is closed.
Some restaurants were open, but the only shop I saw open was a small MonoPrix in the main shopping area.

We have recently visited Amiens and can highly recommend this beautiful city with its amazing cathedral. It is easily and quickly accessible by train.

I liked both Amiens and Troyes a lot. At the time of my summer 2017 visit, Troyes had virtually no other foreign tourists. It's rarely mentioned on this forum, so I doubt much has changed on that score.

Beaune qualifies.