Day trips from Paris

Check out Annabel Simms website and book for some ideas. A trip to Reims is a nice day with visits to champagne houses, beautiful cathedral, and WWII museums and sights.

If you’re interested in the chateaux, you should spend 3 or 4 days in the Loire valley, a beautiful area with a lot to see and do. I would rent a car for your time there and stay in Chinon or Amboise.

We have visited these chateaux in day trips from Paris: Vaux Le Vicomte (our favorite and a must IMHO), Rambouillet, Chantilly, Sceaux, Ecouen, Malmaison, Fontainebleau, Maintenon -- these are all within an hour of Paris. Other really great day trips: Auvers sur Oise where Van Gogh lived his last days and painted his last pictures, Provins, Senlis, Crecy la Chapelle, Moret sur Loing, Chartres, Rouen, Reims, I might visit the Loire for a few days -- have done -- but you don't need to leave Paris to see chateaux.

You can take a day trip from Paris to see two or three chateaux in the Loire Valley. There are organized tours from Paris by bus but you can also take an early train to Tours (one hour by train) and then hook up with a tour from there - several companies offer 1 day tours to different chateaux from the train station in Tours. Most of the tours start from the station around 9:00-9:30 so you do need to take a pretty early train from Paris.

My best suggestion for the Loire Valley would be to spend 3 nights in Tours and rent a car or arrange for a driver through a tour company. Ours took us to about 3-4 chateaux in a day. The chateaux are pretty spread out, so walking is not really an option unfortunately.

Considering that this will be your third vsit to Paris maybe you'd like to travel out of the usual tourist areas. The Chateau de Vincennes is at the end of the Paris metro line #1.

http://www.chateau-de-vincennes.fr/en/

Weather depending, the Bois de Vincennes and its Parc Floral make for good walking. Later in the summer on weekends there are concerts in the park.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parc_floral_de_Paris

Parc Vincennes also has the ruins of the human zoo from an exposition early in the 20th century where colonials people lived in pavillions from their countries so people could observe the natives and two lakes each of which has rental row boats. The lake near Port Doree has a lovely little Greek Temple on the shore which is quite photogenic.

It won’t win the prize of most interesting château here, but nevertheless I can’t get enough of Pierrefonds (it's more the setting) even it’s a 19th century rebuild. It seems it inspired Ludwig II of Bavaria to let build Neuschwanstein, not directly an example of an original medieval building nevertheless loved by many. Travelling time over 2 hours, that’s a lot of time so think best to visit if it happens you are in the neighbourhood.

Thanks for all the suggestions. Lots of good ideas and food for thought.

I hadn't mentioned it but we have done a Seine river cruise so we've visited Rouen (on a Sunday during a heat wave - not ideal) and Auver sure Oise (yes, an excellent stop for Van Gogh fans).

Gotta say no on the renting a car idea. Cost of a divorce lawyer being too high a price. I do envy those couples who can venture out independently in a foreign country. I know our limits and areas of potential conflict.

Yes, I've heard lots of good things about Prague. Part of the reason for Paris on our own is the fact that we have been there and feel more comfortable steaming independently. But also because the two visits we had were very short, part of a group tour, limited time on our own, and missed some key stops (Louvre - yeah I know hard to believe). The group tour of Switzerland will be fairly fast paced, so we want a more laid back time on our own. Prague needs to wait for a different trip.

Again thanx to all.