Day Trip From Paris.. Loire Castles or Fountainbleu and Viex

The Loire chateaus are a bit far for a day trip. Fountainbleu is much closer and I believe on the Paris Museum Pass if that is of interest.

We took an early morning trian to Tours, walked across the square outside the train station to the tourist office where several tours started. We visited four castles. They were amazing. We stopped and picked up sandwiches and had dinner on the train back to Paris. It was a long day but worth it.

I have not been there, but I understand that Chateau Chantilly is worth considering, and it is very close to Paris. You didn't say if art is a big interest, but it contains a major art collection, the Musée Condé - not just some dusty, fading portraits of the family.

Not only is the Loire quite far, but it requires a car or an organized van tour to get to any, widely separated Chateaux.

We also did the train to Tours as csu15269 describes. We were on a bullet train. 1 hour trip. Train left out of Montparnasse station. Signed up for the 4 chateau tour. As I recall, they do different chateaus on different days of the week. We visited Villandry, Usse, Langeais, and Azay le Rideau. We enjoyed it. Sounds fast paced but it really wasn’t. Extra time was give in villandry for lunch on your own. Bullet train back to Paris. Yes long day, but we were glad we did it.

We also did Fontainebleau on a different trip, and that was easy by train and local bus. Enjoyed Fontainebleau also. Lots of restaurants nearby for lunch. Easy to get back as well. Shorter day trip than Loire, but we enjoyed both.

Enjoy your trip.

I love the Loire chateaux but I’d stay closer to Paris... my favorite is Vaux-le-Vicomte (is that the one you meant?).
I do love Fontainebleau as well, but Vaux is my favorite. Chantilly was disappointing for us.