Are there interesting day trips from Paris to see and learn a bit about the French countryside - the geography, flora/fauna, agriculture, villages? Something not focused on cathedrals.
Posted by
IJzendijke, The Netherlands
2084 posts
If possible I like to drive through the Parcs Naturel Régional in France. There are a few in the vicinity of Paris like west of it PNR du Vexin and de la Haute Vallée de Chevreuse south of Versailles. This are protected area’s to preserve their original character as good as possible.
I have visited both parcs a few times, but have the idea there is more to discover. For Vexin you can drive from Gercy-Pontoise at the outskirts of Paris to (following A15 direction Rouen) Guiry-en-Vexin and visit for instance the agricultural tool museum in nearby Wy-dit-Joli-Village. Liked driving from Arthies to Maudétour. Further Domaine Villarceaux is stunningly beautiful and guess still free, Ambleville, Omerville, Véthieul and last but not least La Roche-Guyon. nice area to explore.
Stayed several nights in la Haute Vallée de Chevreuse and liked visiting Vaux de Cernay abbey, Château de Bretieul, Port-Royal des Champs abbey, driving through La Celle-les-Bordes and Dampierre-en-Yvelines (think it’s château still covered with scaffoldings, so can be a letdown) and so on.
Downstream from Rouen PNR des Boucles de la Seine with it’s abbeys and the cottages of Marais-Vernier is certainly worth to visit too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_nature_parks_of_France
Posted by
Los Angeles, CA
700 posts
I bought two books on this subject. I think one is "30 minutes from Paris" and lists 10 or 20 good locations within 30 minutes of travel from Paris. The other one was "1 hour from Paris" which similar. I believe they were sold as paper books on Amazon, but I bought the e-versions of them, like I do for all travel books so I can always put them on my phone, iPad, or computer.
I have personally driven to Provins, Sens, Troyes, Rheims, Orleans ... maybe more like 45 - 90 minutes. There is not really a lot of nature around Paris. I recall a lot of big farm fields if anything.
You can easily make a day trip via TGV to Strasbourg or Bordeaux, but those are similarly not full of flora and fauna.
The main place for that is probably along the Med coast. I enjoyed seeing wild flamingos in the dozens from the train window going from Perpignan to Montpellier.