Recommended Side Trips in France with No Car

Hi!
Thankfully, Paris is the country's main transportation hub and there are dozens of places to visit for the day or the weekend without a car. I will list a personal selection that covers broad interests.

For weekend trips, the first that come to mind between now and the end of the year are:

• Strasbourg (2 hours) for the Christmas Market, which should start on 26th November, Covid-permitting. Colmar also very good, a little bit further. Beware, accommodation gets booked up quickly.
• Nîmes, perhaps a bit far, but it only takes 3 hours by direct TGV and if you have any interest in Roman history, it is hard to beat. Great sights in town, and Pont du Gard within easy reach by bus.
• Lyon (2 hours) is a popular destination (food, history, beautiful cityscape with hills & 2 rivers). I personally do not "get" it, but I am a minority. I also really like Lille, but not in the fall. And the Loire valley chateaux are a possibility even without a car, but I do not know enough to give proper advice there.

For day trips, I would suggest:

• Chartres (1 hour, cheap regional train): stunning cathedral and pleasant, atmospheric old town
• Provins (1.5 hour, suburban train covered by Paris weekly & monthly passes): walled medieval town, very well preserved if a bit 'Disneyfied' in season
• Fontainebleau (1 hour, suburban train as above): impressive palace and grounds, one of the top sights around Paris really
• Le Mans (1 hour, TGV high-speed train best booked ahead): a fairly drab modern town hides a stunning medieval center on a hill, with glowing yellow stone and timber buildings, a huge, gravity-defying cathedral that is really distinctive, all with surprisingly few tourists

Rouen, Reims, Amiens are very good options as well, but being north of Paris they get a bit wetter or colder - not by much, but still noticeably so.

It may ? be out of print, but Earl Steinbicker’s “Daytrips in France” ISBN 0-8038-1586-7 has:
The Ile de France
———-
Versailles
Chartres
Fontainebleau
Moret-Sur-Loing
Provins
Chantilly
Senlis

Normandy and the North
——
Giverny and Vernon
Rouen
Caen
Bayeux
Deauville and Trouville
Honfleur
Amiens

Champagne Burgundy and Beyond
—-
Reims
Auxerre
Dijon
Beaune
Lyon

The Loire Valley
——
Angers
Amboise
Blois
Bourges

Provence
——
Marseille
Air-en-Provence
Arles
Avignon
Nimes

Riviera
—-
Old Nice
Nice-Cimiez
Monaco
Menton
Cagnes-sur-Mer
Antibes
Cannes
Grasse
St. Tropez
St. Paul
Vence
Var Valley

Ina Caro's Paris to the Past: Traveling Through French History by Train has descriptions of 25 day trips by train from Paris that cover 700 hundred of years of French history. Great book.

https://www.amazon.com/Paris-Past-Traveling-through-History-ebook/dp/B005459QZG

Hey there! I studied abroad in Paris too (but like 7 years ago now). The great news is that you can get almost anywhere without a car from Paris. With my study abroad program, we even took day trips to Brussels and Geneva (fast trains are the best!). I would definitely echo the Strasbourg note for a great long weekend, I think it would be beautiful in the fall and add a side trip from there to Colmar. If you like Champagne, you could also take a really quick ride out to Reims and visit some of the wine caves there and their famous cathedral. Perhaps not the most authentic experience, but I also did a day trip to Disneyland Paris with some friends which we had such a great time doing even though it poured the whole time. For a chateau visit (outside the obvious Versailles), Chantilly and Fontainbleau are good options reachable by train. It would be a bit harder in one day without a car, but you could also try to visit some Loire castles (Blois might be the easiest option). Have so much fun!

So many. WE not long ago did 5 days in Brittany/ 4 nights in an apartment in St. Malo which we used as a base to visit other towns by bus and one night in Carnac where we visited Neolithic sites..

The year before we did two nights in Anger (which has a stunning castle which contains the magnificent Apocalypse Tapestry) and 3 nights in Nantes which has the amazing :
https://janettravels.wordpress.com/2019/09/13/les-machines-de-lile-nantes/

Lyon would make a nice weekend -- we are planning two nights there in October.

You could go to Bayeux and then book a tour of the WWII beaches.

Nice is a long train ride, but is a good base for visiting towns along the riviera by train.

I agree an excursion by train to Chartres would be great. Even better would be an overnight to enjoy the light show on the facade of the cathedral. Our hotel was 5 minutes from the train. A tour of the cathedral, beautiful stained glass, quaint walkable town and wonderful cuisine makes Chartres a memorable journey from Paris! We were there in the fall & it was lovely.

https://www.chartres-tourisme.com/en/our-major-events/chartres-light-show

"A Hour From Paris" by Annabel Simms

As hinted at above, the more-distant destinations will require use of TGV (ultra-fast) trains, and those tickets can be very, very expensive if purchased close to the date of travel. Before falling in love with the idea of a place like Nimes or Lyon (just two examples), check out the fare on the SNCF website for possible travel dates during your stay in Paris. You might be able to snag a low-priced ticket for a weekend toward the end of your stay that would be much more costly (as in over 100 euros each way) if you wanted to travel there next weekend. It might be worth planning ahead if there are one or two distant places you especially want to see. Of course, that means making a decision before you know anything about the weather forecast.

Of course, doing side trips, day trips, without a car from Paris is possible. In which direction? Depends on your interests.

By train I 've done two places Normandie...Bayeux, Caen, . You can go on to Rouen.

I've focused on going north and east of Paris, going to Chateau-Thierry, Meaux, Metz,, Arras (Nord Pas de Calais), Amiens, Beauvais, Compiegne, Lille,

On the topic of money and bookings, there are special deals for same-day TGV round-trips on Saturdays, which need to be booked a few weeks in advance typically, but save a ton of money.

And the recommendation for Annabel Simms' book is really excellent, everything in there is worthwhile (with perhaps one or two exceptions, in my opinion) and many suggestions are covered by the "Navigo" public transportation pass, which you probably need for your studies anyway.

As others have pointed out there are also dozens of workable day trips by public transport. We have done most of those in the Simms book and several in Caro's From Paris to the Past. Versailles, Ecouen, Rambouillet, St. German en laye, Meaux and the museum of the Great war, Reims, Rouen, Giverny, Crecy la Chapelle, Moret sur Loing. Here is one we did to Maintenon from the Caro book:
https://janettravels.wordpress.com/2020/04/03/chateau-maintenon-home-of-louis-xivs-second-wife/
And there are loads of great places where a night or two pays off as has been noted. Strasbourg, Nantes, Lyon, St. Malo, Bayeux, etc etc.

Day trips from Paris by direct train to:
Versailles (RER line C to Versailles Château Rive Gauche ([eft bank] station).
Chartres (from Paris Montparnasse station [1h 15m]).
Giverny (Paris St Lazare to Vernon – Giverny station [1h] then catch shuttle bus to Monet’s Garden).
Lyon (Paris Gare de Lyon-to-Lyon Part Dieu station [2h]).
Reims (from Paris Est station [1h]).
Strasbourg (from Paris Est station [2h]).
Day trips from Avignon (Provence) by direct train (or bus) to:
Avignon Centre station to Nimes Pont du Gard station (30-minutes). Nimes Pont du Gard station to Nimes Centre station (15-minutes). Nimes Centre station to Avignon Centre station (45-minutes).
Bus from Avignon to Uzès (1h).
Orange (from Avignon Centre station [30-minutes]).
Arles (from Avignon Centre station [30-minutes]).
Bus from Avignon to Les Baux (45-minutes).
Bus from Avignon to Saint-Rémy-de-Provence (45-minutes).
Bus from Avignon to L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue (45-minutes).
Marseille (Avignon Centre station to Marseille St Charles [2h]).
Aix en Provence (Avignon Centre to Aix en Provence TGV [45-minutes]).
Day trips from Nice (French Riviera) by direct train (or bus) to:
Villefranche sur Mer (from Nice Ville station [ 15-minutes]).
Monaco (Nice Ville station to Monaco Monte Carlo [30-minutes]).
Bus from Nice to Grasse (1h).
Antibes (from Nice Ville station [30-minutes]).
Cannes (from Nice Ville station [45-minutes]).

We're in Paris for a few months without a car, and did a day trip to Giverny (Monet's house and garden) last Saturday. Would highly recommend (open only until end October). Train St Lazare - Vernon, shuttle to Giverny. Train journey about one hour. Chartres is also a good idea. When I was doing my study abroad in Paris (MANY years ago), a group of us decided on a whim to go to Amsterdam for the weekend - bus trips overnight each way, one night in a hostel. Great memories!
Look at a site like this one https://www.campusfrance.org/en/how-to-travel-in-France. As a student you should be able to get discounted fares. Or consider a bus.