Seeking suggestions-Small town to spend 3 days prior to 2 weeks in Paris

What about Autun in Burgundy? It’s a pleasant town (population about 15,000), some nice Roman ruins, great church, city walls.

Four hours from Paris could easily be close to five hours from your apartment in Paris. And the outbound trip from your arrival airport might be longer still. Do you really want to spend that much time traveling? You have three nights for this pre-Paris trip segment, and that's less than three full days. If even one of you is severely sleep-deprived or jetlagged, you'll have just two full days to explore.

I favor towns of some size for multi-night stays. The small places are the destinations I day-trip to, from the larger place where I am based. I'd consider places like Rouen (about 90 minutes), Troyes (very few foreign tourists and about 90 minutes by train), Nancy (home of French Art Nouveau, 1-1/2 to 3 hours), Colmar (quite touristy, about 3 hours). Those are all very pretty, atmospheric places. Le Mans (1 to 2 hours) sounds very nice, and not full of foreign tourists, but I haven't been there yet.

Reims has a beautiful cathedral, and of course there are the champagne houses. I did not find it a particularly attractive city by French standards. It wouldn't be my choice for three nights.

There are many other options, including Chartres.

Aix-en-Provence might be worth adding to the list. Fly into Marseille and take the shuttle bus to Aix, or train from CDG. There is an Adagio Apartment Hotel in town, if you need an apartment for 3 nights. Cafe culture, daily farmers market, shops, country walks and tours by the Aix tourisme office. It’s a university town, so younger vibe in the cafes for your daughter. Aix is also home to the Ballet Preljocaj and Grand Théâtre de Provence (since you mentioned Versailles ballet).

I agree that Chartres would be a great choice. It is very close by train and a charming city. When we did Normandy, Honfleur was not doable by train. Rouen is close and you could day trip to Giverny. Fall in Burgundy is stunning. You might consider Beaune, easily and quickly accessed by train.

When I read the title of your post the first place I thought of was Honfleur. And another option nearby in Normandy is historic Bayeux near the WWII landing beaches.

Catdog-

Just an outlier's thought- Since it falls within your 4 hour train ride window and you haven't made airplane reservations yet, how about an open jaw flight into London for 3 days then train to Paris for 2 weeks then fly home from Paris?

Have a great trip!!!

Where are you coming from? If you want Paris to be your final destination and fly home from there, then I would suggest you fly to France at an airport convenient for your first three days. You will have jet lag that first day, so two days is what you will have to explore the area. Strasbourg is quite lovely, and an easy train ride to Paris. You can explore Colmar from there as well as the little wine towns. To do that, it's best to rent a car for the day. https://www.rome2rio.com/s/Nearby-Airports/Strasbourg If you fly into Paris, you could catch the train directly to Strasbourg after going through immigration, etc. It would take just under 2-hours. Keep in mind it can make for a long day. To me, the Alsace region is totally worth it.

I was assuming Catdog was committed to flying into Paris. If not, that would open up more options that wouldn't require round-trips from Paris.

Honfleur has only bus service, which makes it not an ideal base for side-trips--which I think you would need with a 3-night stay, because Honfleur is not large. I believe the best day-trip option from Honfleur would be the coastal resort of Deauville. Honfleur is even quite a long day-trip from Rouen or Bayeux. It's much closer to LeHavre, but I don't have any idea whether Le Havre would be an attractive place to spend 3 nights. A plus for Le Havre is that one could day-trip by bus to both Honfleur and Etretat (on different days).

I'd suggest looking for a small city that you can reach directly by train from CDG, without going into Paris on your arrival day. This website provides routes and schedules, though right now it shows schedules only through February. But it can help you judge how long and/or complex a train trip from CDG to various destinations would be. Enter your starting point as "Aeroport Paris-Charles de Gaulle." Wikipedia tells me that CDG's TGV station serves Angers, Besançon, Bordeaux, Dijon, Le Mans, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier, Nantes, Poitiers, Rennes, Strasbourg and Tours, no doubt with intermediate destinations along the longer routes. This website is a great source for rail travel in France and elsewhere. Look for a reasonably simple ride to a destination that meets your goals, starting several hours after your flight lands (especially if it's transatlantic). You might find yourself changing at one city for a smaller one (like Dijon for Beaune or Tours for one of the Loire Valley towns).

Versailles, Rouen, Chartres, Honfleur, Bayeux, and Reims are all close to Paris, with enough sights and activities to keep you going. Trains to them leave from various stations in Paris. If you choose one of these (or another like them, these are just the ones I've been to), I suggest a taxi from CDG to whichever Paris station is involved, rather than the RER commuter train. For three people a taxi will not cost much more than the RER and will be much simpler.

Hope that helps. I think your basic idea is a very good one, to ease through jetlag and acclimate to France in a smaller place. Good luck with planning this.

Direct train to Brussels and then a local train to Bruges, a much smaller town with a lot to see, or Ghent which is slightly larger. Or fly directly into Brussels and out of Paris.

The last I checked, it takes a long time (3.5-4 hours, at least) to get to Honfleur via bus, or train to LaHavre and then bus. LaHavre might be an interesting place for 3 nights, day trips to Honfleur, Sainte-Adresse(seaside resort town where Monet painted) and Etretat, perhaps. The day trips would all need to be via bus, I believe. LaHavre can be reached by train, though it's a longer trip than one would think.

As already mentioned Chartres would be an excellent stay that would address your wishes. I would consider it to be a walkable quaint town.
After a long flight it makes sense to take the short train ride & enjoy everything Chartres has to offer. Our hotel was 5 minutes from the station with a view of the cathedral. We stayed 2 relaxing nights. It was one of our favorite stays on our RS Loire to the South of France Tour. Enjoy your planning! https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/chartres-cathedral-the-age-of-faith-in-stone-and-stained-glass

I haven’t done this yet, but have plans to stay a couple of nights in Chantilly prior to a ‘Paris and the Heart of France’ tour. It has a lovely chateau that serves as a museum, a horse museum with live demonstrations, forest walks. It can be reached from CDG by bus - change in Senlis. 1 hour train ride to Gare du Nord in Paris.

I follow Vero Savoye, one of RIck's guides, on social media.
She recently moved to Tours in the Loire Valley and it looks like a wonderful 3 day visit.
You can check out her videos on Facebook and YouTube -- French Girl in Seattle or France with Vero.

I agree with Chartres. The light show at the Cathedral in summer is lovely. We stayed at the former monastery that is recommended in Rick's book. Great location and cheap enough for us to get our daughter her own room. There's also another church within easy walking distance that is enjoyable to see.

We saw the light show in Chartres as well. It is, of course, on the cathedral, but also on many other buildings. It was much more than we expected. We enjoyed eating at a restaurant right next to the cathedral. We walked along the river below the cathedral. Quite charming. We underestimated Chartres and only stayed a day, we would have enjoyed more time. If you needed more to do there, I would guess there are some wine tours to Vouvray or other nearby wine region.

I would suggest Chartres (close to Paris in a pinch). Even bigger? Check out Rouen. Even smaller? Check out Nogent-le-Rotrou.

In my mind only.......I am planning trips to all of these places.....