Fontainebleau

It is an easy and lovely day trip. You take the train to Avon/Fountainebleau from Gare de Lyon and there is a bus from the station to the Chateau. Nice grounds and very historic chateau. I think Vaux le Vicomte is better, but it is a bit harder to reach with no public transportation to the chateau itself; we had to take a cab both ways there. Fontainebleau is closed Tuesdays.

Definitely worthwhile. The palace is spectacular in parts and much less crowded than Versailles. The park around it is wilder and less rigidly designed.

One inconvenient thing is that, if you are looking up train times from Paris, some of the trains are TER middle-distance services that are visible on the main SNCF website, but others that are equally fast are Transilien suburban trains that aren't shown on that but only on a separate Transilien website. The same tickets are valid on both, though, and there's no need to buy in advance.

Also, you can use normal Paris single-journey transport tickets on the bus in Fontainebleau.

Thanks for the info,I will do this as a day trip.
Thanks
Mike

Viator offers convenient transportation, using ParisCityVision, to get from central Paris to Fontainebleau andVaux-le-Vicomte (3 hours on your own in each place).
We did this a couple of months ago.
Viator/Paris City Vision provides transportation only, not a guided tour, which is what we wanted.
3 hours at each locations was enough time for us.
Seeing these chateaus using public transportation can be complicated, and the Viator transportation made it easy to do both in one day and still be back in Paris for dinner.

If you go to the Watch, Read, Listen section and watch the Paris Side Trips film in the Watch the TV Shows section, there is a really good section on Fontainbleau and also Vaux le Vicomte. This episode is why DH and I are planning a side trip there next spring.

Although they're not covered in Rick's France book, the Paris book has a couple of pages each on Vaux-le-Vicomte, Fontainebleau, and Chantilly, rated 3 stars, 2 stars, and 1 star, in that order. Certainly recommended for people who choose day-tripping from Paris over a stop in the Loire Valley.

Fontainebleau is wonderful. smaller in size than Versailles but just as grand. Less crowded and this lets you get a better look and perspective on how they lived. The history of the place alone is worth going for. If you do take the train and cabs do research before going to make the day go smoother. Wonderful town too. One thing we noticed is less English was spoken there by the staff. Not sure by choice or limited English skills of ticket takers and such, but still probably not as bad as my French. We did feel like maybe we missed part of the tour- all self guided with the little player narration thing- because all/most of the signage is in French.

Fontainebleau is wonderful. smaller in size than Versailles but just as grand. Less crowded and this lets you get a better look and perspective on how they lived. The history of the place alone is worth going for. If you do take the train and cabs do research before going to make the day go smoother. Wonderful town too. One thing we noticed is less English was spoken there by the staff. Not sure by choice or limited English skills of ticket takers and such, but still probably not as bad as my French. We did feel like maybe we missed part of the tour- all self guided with the little player narration thing- because all/most of the signage is in French.

WE went to Fontainbleau in June and I agree with the others that it is a wonderful choice. Rick's Paris book does give a good blurb about how to get there. Train then bus. Be sure to have your train ticket stamped before you board to avoid possible fines. I seem to recall that we bought our tickets at a metro station that was easier than the busier train station - but check Rick's paris book to be sure. Enjoy

We were there Thursday , a short 40 minute train ride , and a 10 minute bus ride through the town , we were there around 11:30 spent a few hours walking through the chateau , not busy at all , the outside on the grounds , then went to a cafe in town ,then caught the 4 o'clock train back into Paris . A very good day !!