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overnight side trips from Paris

My husband and I will be in France for 9 days, (Paris for 6) the end of September. We are looking for a two day side trip on the front part of our trip. We are flying in to CDG. We are looking for somewhere that is not a longer train ride than 2-3 hrs.

Posted by
24 posts

The city of Tours is a good base for touring the Loire Chateaux - about an hour by train from Paris. Caen is a good base for touring Normandy & the D-Day beaches - about 2 hours by train. Think about renting a car for about 3 days; you can drive from CDG to Normandy almost as fast as it would take you to get into Paris & depart on a train. Compared to driving in the L.A. area, the French countryside is a breeze.

Posted by
24 posts

The city of Tours is a good base for touring the Loire Chateaux - about an hour by train from Paris. Caen is a good base for touring Normandy & the D-Day beaches - about 2 hours by train. Think about renting a car for about 3 days; you can drive from CDG to Normandy almost as fast as it would take you to get into Paris & get on a train. Compared to driving in the L.A. area, the French countryside is a breeze.

Posted by
24 posts

The city of Tours is a good base for touring the Loire Chateaux - about an hour by train from Paris. Caen is a good base for touring Normandy & the D-Day beaches - about 2 hours by train. Think about renting a car for about 3 days; you can drive from CDG to Normandy almost as fast as it would take you to get into Paris & board on a train. Compared to driving in the L.A. area, the French countryside is a breeze.

Posted by
24 posts

The city of Tours is a good base for touring the Loire Chateaux - about an hour by train from Paris. Caen is a good base for touring Normandy & the D-Day beaches - about 2 hours by train. Think about renting a car for about 3 days; you can drive from CDG to Normandy almost as fast as it would take you to get into Paris & board a train. Compared to driving in the L.A. area, the French countryside is a breeze.

Posted by
24 posts

The city of Tours is a good base for touring the Loire Valley Chateaux - a bit over an hour by train from Paris. Caen is a good base for touring Normandy & the D-Day beaches - about 2 hours by train. Think about renting a car for about 3 days; you can drive from CDG to either destination faster than it would take you to get there by train via Paris. Compared to driving in the L.A. area, the French countryside is a breeze.

Posted by
4132 posts

Three hours does not narrow things down a whole lot--you could even go to Marseilles in that time! (It rules out the Southwest, though.)

What do you and yours like to do? And are you locked in to returning from CDG?

Posted by
251 posts
  1. I absolutely love the the Saturday Market in Rennes (Place de Lices) It is hands down my favorite market in France. Rennes has a great old town area to wander around, and there are some pretty decent authentic crepes to be had on the edges of town. (called gallettes de ble noir). Rennes is about 3 hours from Paris.

  2. I also love the cathederal and village of Chartres. on a non-church day in the fall the church is so beautiful and peacefull. They may even have the chairs us so you can walk the labryinth. Even if you are churched out it stands as a halmark for early European cathederals and of course the stained glass windows are fascinating.

Happy travels.

Posted by
20 posts

Hi Vickie--Erika from Seattle again. You might consider a little side trip to the Champagne region. I did it as a day trip; as I recall, it's maybe a 90 minute train trip each way. The two main cities are Epernay and Reims, both on the same line. Reims is also where Germany surrendered at the end of WWII--la musee de la reddition is a small, modest school house where Germany delivered its unconditional surrender to the Allies. Reims also has a stunning cathedral that hosted the coronation of kings for centuries and was painted numerous times by Monet.

I only went to the champagne houses within walking distance of the gare, Moet Chandon in Reims and Mumm in Epernay, but still managed to have four glasses by 3 pm!

Bon Voyage!

Erika