Day Trip- TGV train

If you want to do a day trip I'd suggest to look at places where you have a direct trip and no need to change anywhere. A few suggestions: Lyon, Antwerp, Bordeaux, Geneva, Aachen.

I recently took a day trip to Arras from Paris: December for the Christmas market. The train journey is just short of an hour from Gare du Nord. It is a pretty town with two adjacent squares and Belgian architecture. I believe there is at least one town market per week. There appeared to be lots of inviting restaurants. Oops, I don't think it is TGV.

Bordeaux would be lovely, about the same time on the train as Colmar and I think you can get a good grasp of the city in a day.

Or, much closer to Paris and thus cheaper, Le Mans. Beautifully well-preserved late medieval old town. Great cathedral, too. Might give you mild Colmar vibes, but the architecture is different.

Reims is just 45 minutes by TGV and touring Champagne houses is fun. There is also the great Cathedral and a good WWI museum and the lovely Basilica St. Remy. One cellar tour is enough -- we did Taittinger -- but there are many shops and restaurants where you can do Champagne flights or tastings.

Reims is cool. Tours is handy.

Going from Paris to Arras is on the TGV, a 40 min ride or so. The ticket is not that cheap. The TGV departs from Gare du Nord.
to Arras. The TER trains are pretty fast for doing trips too.

What's your desired radius for this day trip. Paris Est to Metz is also on the TGV as is to Strasbourg but much cheaper and shorter in duration.

We would like our travel time to be 2 hours or less each direction. As I mentioned, we loved Strasbourg and Colmar as we are close to considering going back there. We love natural beauty and old world charm.

Rennes is a wonderful city in Brittany with many half-timbered buildings and a couple of nice plazas with restaurants. I'd go back in a heartbeat. TGV to there as I recall is about 1-1/2 hours each way.

Nancy. 1.5 hours via the TGV and a fantastic city. The main part of the old city is a 10 minute walk from the main train station and there's lots to see and do. Multiple trains daily.

For a charming town around 2 hours away, that sounds very much like Bordeux or Lyon, although the train usually takes a few minutes more than 2 hours to both of them. That will give you plenty of time in the city of your choice, and still some time to experience the train journey (and to ask yourself why trains in North America are so much slower).

On the edge of Metz, the musee de la grande guerre offers a modern take on WW1 from the view of the everyday French citizen.. Be careful; there is at least one other museum with a similar name.
https://www.museedelagrandeguerre.com/en/home/

Thank you all. I am going to look into all of these.

One other question, how is a day trip to Brussels? Is it a very busy more modern are.a. We love places that have the historic center where it feels like you have stepped back in time. Like Colmar and Alsace area. I know Brussels has is much bigger but didnt' know if we stuck to more the historic area if that would take a day.

Brussels has a charming city centre with the famous Grand Place and the Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert and an impressive royal palace (that I've only seen from the outside). And some charming streets around the area. But, being the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the EU it is very much a large major city that can feel a lot bigger than it is. So while you can certainly have a nice day there, in my opinion there are better choices. If you want to go to Belgium, consider Antwerp instead. It's charming and has direct trains from Paris. Antwerpen Centraal is also one of the most beautiful railway stations in the world in my opinion.

you could certainly go to the Grand Place with the imposing Dutch style buildings all around, maybe visit the chocolate museum (I've never done so) and maybe see the Atomium (a tram ride away), and maybe see the boy in fancy dress having a pee (Manneken Pis) or the girl doing the same but without the fancy clothes (Jeanneke Pis). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanneke_Pis and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manneken_Pis

Plenty of time left over to have a nice lunch and a wander down a few lanes

The link above to the Museum of the Great War is to a museum outside Meaux, not Metz. The cities are not particularly close to one another.

Metz has a museum of the Franco-Prussia War of 1870. https://www.tourisme-metz.com/en/page/838142781-museum-of-the-1870-war-and-annexation.

Thank you for your honest opinoins on Brussels. It does not sound like what we are looking for. i think we definitely like more the Strasbourg/Colmar feel. We love strolling cobblestone streets and seeing history.

I agree with the others bout Brussells, definitely at the bottom of my list. Hubby had a great meal of mussels, but the city was underwhelming.

Frankly, there's not a lot of history on display in either Strasbourg or Colmar that can't be surpassed closer to Paris. Strasbourg has a very good Christmas display, but is expensive and not especially attractive in the summer. And other than the small area right around Little Paris it's not all that charming. Colmar is one of those places that, 20 years ago, was nice but now is overrun by tourists in season. Places like Wissembourg or Varennes-en-Argonne are more authentic, have more history, and are real, attractive, old French towns that don't derive a large portion of their livelihood from selling trinkets to the hordes. I understand the attraction of Strasbourg and Colmar, because they are places most people go to and thus they are the places people know. But to choose Strasbourg over Metz, Nancy, or Dijon is a poor choice. And if you really want some history, go over the border and see Trier, which was the second largest city in the Roman Empire (second only to Rome itself), and is much more historic and attractive than Strasbourg.

Why would you want to go to a place you have already been, where you've seen the main sights, instead of looking for a new adventure?

Thank you for sharing your information. We would like to go to somewhere different, we just enjoyed the charm of Strasbourg and Colmar. Something that is different thatn Paris and more small town. I will definitely look at the suggestions you gave. Thank you for your help/