Near Paris

I would suggest the Loire valley. About an hr and lovely areas with castles.

Hi,

In which direction from Paris? To Lille you'll have to take the TGV.

About two hours north of Paris on the regional train is Amiens, roughly one hour on the regional train is Beauvais, about half way between Paris and Amiens. You won't see any tourists or Americans either. I like Beauvais, went as a day trip, would definitely go back. Not as far as Lille, about 40 mins on the TGV is from Paris Nord is Arras. You'll be the only Americans there, all the times I've been there in over 20 years, I've never seen any Americans there. What about Compiegne?

Good ideas from the other posters. The advantage of Lille (in the case it not really meets expectations) is that you can do a daytrip with the train to Bruges, Ghent or Brussels (even Doornik just across the border) in Belgium. You can rent a car to visit Ypers and / or the two former (WWII) V2 bases around St. Omer an hour driving or so west of Lille if it is of interest.

You can also stay closer to CDG in lovely Senlis and visit nearby Chantilly. And visit from there also Auvers-sur-Oise for Van Gogh, however have no idea how easy to get there with public transport. With a car Pierrefonds south of Compiègne is worth a trip to my opinion too.

Thanks for the ideas, they give us more options to explore.

Lille would be worth it just for this:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/france/macarons

I would suggest the Loire Valley, too. Take the TGV from la Gare Montparnasse to Tours. RS doesn't care for Tours, I think it's the bees knees. It's a great place to catch excursions to the Chateaux of the Loire Valley. Some are quite easily accessible via public transportation (eg: Villandry), some via train,and some require a minvan excursion. I've never rented a car in the Loire Valley and I've never had a problem.

Fred may not have seen Americans in Arras but there's a good chance of bumping into Canadians (all tourists look alike?). The city is the base for visiting the Canadian national war monument at Vimy. On my one-day visit I encountered a TV producer who was a friend of a friend, and a tour group guided by a prominent historian. Arras is worth a visit for its own sake, with a nice cathedral, street scenes that resemble its Belgian neighbour, and plenty of its own history from both 20th Century world wars.

We just returned from 10 days in Paris and took the very early morning TGV to Lille last Wednesday for a day trip. One hour ride. Lovely town with lots of good places to eat, snack and drink. Be sure to visit the tourist information for info and places to visit. We got lost while walking to Notre Dame and a lovely lady stopped and asked if we needed help. She was on her lunch break and took a few minutes to show us a cool way to the church and then asked us what type of food we'd like to eat. She gave us several suggestions and all were on spot. If you go to Lille, don't miss Le Chopp'ing - a tiny pub with at least 18 Belgium draft beers (and good wines too). Full of locals, laughter and life, and my husband was in beer heaven.

TGVs also depart from CDG toward Reims in Champagne (about an hour with one connection at the end). But the TGV still comes with the trade-off of trying for an advance ticket discount vs. worrying about a late flight arrival.

I have seen Canadian tourists at Vimy, most definitely, at the monument since I 've been there myself a few times over the years. If the tourists look alike, they don't sound alike. You pick up the (North) American accent distinctly, just by honing in on it. Never saw any Americans, except once two US college backpacker girls at the Arras train station, not in the centre ville, (that covers a lot of ground) the British WW1 cemetery, post office, or the stores.