Pierrefonds as a base?

No , Pierrefonds is not a great base , I love it , and have visited 3-4 times over my life , but to stay there , there is only a few places to eat and some souvenir shops .

Stay in Chantilly or Compienge, or anothe town who's name escapes me at the moment .

Pierrfonds is a nice place to visit , but I wouldn't stay there .

Thanks for the advice. Is the other town you were thinking Senlis, perhaps? I have been searching on booking.com and homeaway but not finding an abundance of options. I wish RS covered some of these areas!

Even if Senlis is not the place pat is thinking of it's worth to stay there. In combination with Chantilly very worthwile to my opinion. Nearby Ermenonville is lovely to drive through and it’s reasonably easy to get to Auvers-sur-Oise and Royaumont Abbey.

Thanks, Wil, I will check those out.
Pat, just curious...did Pierrefonds seem safe? Friendly? I will keep looking at all the areas suggested on this thread, but if anyone has specific lodging recommendations in the region I would be all ears:)

I'll second Senlis. It's interesting in its own right, and convenient to other places worth seeing. And it's very convenient for getting to CDG; we've stayed there a couple of times when flying out of CDG.

Pierrefonds is barely anything.. there's the lake.. and a few restaurants around it for tourists to buy over priced coffees and lunches after touring the "castle", a few other houses, and I think there was a small church.. its really not even a village , no hotels that I have ever seen , but I believe there are likely a few b@b type rentals around.

Its not a horrible place to stay , maybe for one night, it just doesn't make sense as a base ..yes, Senlis is the town I was thinking of and it make far more sense and is lovely in itself, that or Chantilly .

As for friendly, hmm. not in the American way, my experience has been that people are always polite.. but most keep to themselves, the french tend to be super nice to those they KNOW , but to strangers, more formally polite. . I had a relative that lived about 5 minutes from Chantilly in Lamorlaye, he and his sweet wife lived there for at least 5 years in a nice little suburb with neighbors all around him, he is super social , but even explained he only had "nodding " aquaintance with his neighbors. Shop keepers will be nice to you, and if you go to the same bakery or cafe ( as most folks find their favorite and tend to stick to it) every day you will develop a rapport with the patron.. but its not like anyone is going to be your buddy from a 3 day visit..

I love the whole area..
its a nice break from our city visits to Paris..

Thanks so much! I have a much clearer picture of the area now. I did find a place in Senlis that looks like a good fit for us and will be booking that. Three cheers for the all the fellow travelers who helped me fine tune our trip:)

Kate, I don't know what place in Senlis you've found, but here is where we stayed on our most recent visit; it was fantastic.
http://fabhouse.fr/