My wife and I will be in France in mid-October. The first 7 nights will be focused on Paris. Note this is my 3rd trip and my wife's 2nd. Along with Paris, we've also been to the Normandy region, Loire Valley, Burgundy and Champagne regions in the past. We have two additional nights I am trying to figure out where to spend the time. I was thinking of catching a train down to Lyon (looks like a 3.5-4 hour trip each way from Paris) and spend our two nights there. Any thoughts as to this or recommendation of somewhere else to go for a couple of nights?
Posted by
Chicago
8815 posts
If you are flying out of Paris, I'd put your side trip at the start so you finish in Paris if you can still arrange housing that way. We often do side trips when we are in Paris -- usually for 3 or 4 nights -- but two nights gives you a full day somewhere. We did a two night trip to Lyon and it was great -- we spent the first afternoon visiting the Basilica with the funicular and the Roman ruins and then the full day mostly wandering the traboules. The morning of the last day we headed to Part Dieu and checked our luggage there and then walked over to Les Halles Paul Baucuse and got lunch there and walked back to the train station and got our bags and headed back to Paris.
Another good two night side trip would be Chartres. The illuminations are fabulous. And you can climb the towers of the Cathedral. Pretty little town. If you go get dinner at https://restaurant-moulin-ponceau.fr/fr/
Strasbourg would be good for 2 nights -- boat trip, fabulous Cathedral, charming old town, excellent Alsatian food.
St. Malo in Brittany is beautiful. If you have read All the Light We Cannot See , it would be fun to see it. Charming town. Good restaurants. Amazing sea movements -- you can walk out to the nearby islands at low tide every day.
All these places are easily reached by train from Paris.
Posted by
Minnesota
1 posts
We are planning our first trip to Paris coming up in 9 weeks. We also had 2 days free at the end of our Paris itinerary, so we plan to take a high-speed train (2 hrs) to Strasbourg in the region of Alsace (bordering Switzerland and Germany). After 2 nights there, we'll take the train directly to CDG to return to the US.
Posted by
Alsenborn, Germany
1755 posts
If you have not yet visited Metz or Nancy, I'd put those at the top of the list. Le Grand Est is quite different than Paris. Another consideration would be to do the WWI sights starting with Verdun. Or, if you have any interest in Roman history, visit Trier. And last, Luxembourg. All of these are less than 2 hours from Paris.
Posted by
Long Beach, Ca, usa
1686 posts
Annette,
You will find multiple comments here about heading to CDG on the day of your return flight not being wise. A delay in the train, accident, track work, strikes, could easily make you miss your flight. It is almost universally recommended to spend the night before your return flight in Paris, or at a CDG hotel. Please reconsider moving your trip to Strasbourg up a day.
Posted by
Chicago
8815 posts
What Judy said. Always be in the town of a high stakes flight the day before. You could return to CDG as late as possible that night having dinner in Strasbourg before you head out -- or a great lunch with sandwiches for the train. Serious train delays are not that rare. We did some train travel last fall and had major delays both coming and going to our side trip. A few years ago someone jumped onto the tracks near Rotterdam and our 3.5 hour trip from Amsterdam to Paris became an 8.5 hour trip as a result.
If you could put the sidetrip on the front end of your time that would be better, but I assume the lodging is booked and so you don't have that flexibility.
Posted by
Paris
10505 posts
I was thinking of catching a train down to Lyon (looks like a 3.5-4 hour trip each way from Paris
The train to Lyon takes 2 hours.