Need help planning day trips from Paris

For walking tours in Paris, I suggest Paris Walks. Here is a link to the October schedule.

http://www.paris-walks.com/download-pdf_m.html

I know many people do Normandy as a day trip but to me it is too far, especially this time of year when you have less daylight. Here are your daylight hours for Oct 15.

Twi: 7:38am
Sunrise: 8:10am
Sunset: 7:03pm
Twi: 7:35pm

Many here go to Reims to the Champagne houses but I've not done it so no personal advice from me on that.

I have done day trips to Chartres and Giverny but from your list I'm not sure either would be of interest to you. Monet's home and gardens in Giverny closes Nov 1.

Pam, thank you for your reply!

I love Normandy and go every other year (sometimes more often). But I do not recommend it as a day trip. Most of your day would be spent getting there and back, and most of the sights you are likely to want to see are very far from one another. You should really spend at least a couple of a nights there.

The day trip to Reims is quite easy to do. I recommend it. Here is a thread about that which gives you information on things to do in Reims and how to get there. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/france/reims-champagne-tour-on-our-own-leaving-from-paris Another pretty easy daytrip is to Dijon. Fast trains to Dijon leave from Gare de Lyon and take about 95 minutes. I quite like Dijon. The covered market (Les Halles) is fun. You could do a wine tour from Dijon or a wine tasting there. I did a walking tour of the market combined with a cooking class that was led by a chef who is now retired but I bet you could find a great cooking class or a Pinot Noir tasting by looking at the tourist office website. https://en.destinationdijon.com/

I have a friend who did a day trip and another to Mont Saint Michel from Paris. Both were 14 hour days with about 8 hours of travel time on a coach bus. He regrets neither so if you really, really want to go to Normandy for a day trip and understand that you will be on bus for 8 hours, my friend highly recommends City Tours.

For wonderful day trips i highly recommend:
Vaux-le-Vicomte
Malmaison
Senlis
Sceaux
Fontainebleau

A book called “An Hour from Paris” is full of wonderful day trips.

http://anhourfromparis.com/

We did not care for Reims at all, soul-less and devoid of charm imo. There are so many amazing day trips within an hour of Paris, no reason to go farther out. And i agree with Pam and PharmerPhil, Normandy is not a day trip.

search this topic on trip advisor france. There is a guy who posts there who publishes a list of about 20 day trips from Paris with links. It is an excellent source. There are many within an hour of Paris includihg Reims by TGV for Champagne Tours and Auvers sur Oise for Van Gogh sites and of course the obvious Versailles, Chartres, Giverny. The poster is French Mystique.

Here are some we have done and some of those are lesser known:
https://janettravels.wordpress.com/category/day-trips-from-paris/

I would not waste time on distant trips like Normandy -- there is so much close at hand.

Thank you all for your replies and suggestions. Appreciate the expertise!

With regard to a Seine River cruise, there are dinner cruises offered by several companies and they have gotten mixed reviews in the past; some good, some not so good. Personally, we think it's better to have a great meal somewhere before the cruise. That way we can concentrate on the views of the city and not have to split our attention between eating and watching the view. That's just our opinion. Vedettes du Pont Neuf is a river cruise company we've used several times and It is not a dinner cruise. We never had to have a reservation. You might want to google them to see if that is still the case. The evening cruises with the city all lit up give new meaning to "the city of lights".

Thx all!
In my research of the Djon tourism site, I stumbled on an event called Fascinant Week-End 2023. Is anyone familiar? It looks like an annual wine festival (?) held in various regions. It looks really interesting. But it is hard to tell from the website exactly where and when the events are happening. Here's the link below:

https://www.fascinant-weekend.fr/activites-fascinant-week-end/

Appreciate any feedback if you are familiar with this.
Thanks in advance!