Starting in a week or so, we'll be on our first and only visit to Paris for 10 days. About mid-way through, we'd like a breather in the woods as a day-trip. Where we live (in New England, USA), we'd head for a fairly easy, wooded trail, or maybe a short, calm kayak or canoe rental.
- We don't want to head somewhere like Giverny. What we're looking for isn't likely to be a tourist destination or any kind of must-see, but probably somewhere that Parisians escape to for a morning or day, to escape the crowds and be in nature.
- We don't want to rent a car or bike, and we do want the trip there on public transportation to be easy. If there are taxis, Ubers, or similar available in the area, we don't mind hiring one for a short distance from and back to the station. Otherwise, we'd like to be able to walk to and from the station.
- Ideally, once there, we could walk or paddle a while without seeing lots of other people, hearing road noise, or being on a thoroughly trammeled trail. But I understand there's probably a tradeoff between ease of access and remote feel, and it's ease that we'd like to prioritize.
Originally, we'd planned to divide our time between Paris and the Loire, and in the latter, we were going to get in a little easy hiking and a kayak rental between Chateaus. But we decided that the Loire was going to take away from our sense of relaxation more than it would add to it, because of the distance, difficulty getting around without a rental car, packing up for a second hotel, etc.
Where can we go that we'll feel more relaxed for having gotten out of Paris for a day, and ready to re-engage with the city, not less relaxed because of the logistics of getting there and around?