Recommendations for a VERY Short trip to Paris and surrounding areas

Have you ever been to Paris? If not, you might want to spend your time there, especially since you depart from there 4 days later.

You don't really have enough time to do any of the day trips on your list except maybe Reims. Germany is another trip altogether...

Since it's a short trip, you probably don't want to spend much of it on long train rides. Bayeux, Normandy (or Rouen) might work as a hub. You arrive on a Sunday. After you deplane, travel into to Paris to Gare St. Lazare (the train station for Normandy) and catch the first train to Normandy. Spend Sunday night at your base, explore the town on Monday, day trip on Tuesday (perhaps a van around the D-Day sights?), train back to Paris on Wednesday and see the Eiffel Tour or the Louvre (or D'Orsay if you like Impressionists) and something else Thursday very early as you want to leave for the airport around 10:30 or so.

Bruges is also less than three hours from Paris, so that works as a base too.

https://www.seat61.com/ and rome2rio.com have helped me with trains.

You're in luck regarding doing day trips to the cities listed...Amiens, Reims, Rouen and Strasbourg, if you stay in Paris. From Gare de l'Est you can reach Strasbourg on the TGV, direct, if you mind the round trip price. Likewise going to Reims from Est, also direct , take the TER regional train.

Going to Amiens is even easier, more doable, departing from Gare du Nord, direct. I've done a couple of times as day trips.

For Rouen you need to depart from Gare St Lazare, as you're heading into Normandy...still doable as a day trip. Take the early train for all these place so as to arrive prior to noon.

I admire your effort for traveling so far with so little time available. I would suggest heading to Normandy and spending your 3 full days in that region. Good luck.

How about taking a train directly to Strasbourg from CDG and using Strasbourg as a possible base? Perhaps you could take a few hours for quick Paris sight-seeing as you swing back to reach ORY? I believe there are trains direct from CDG to Strasbourg, including on Sunday. I have not looked into further logistics. You may not be able to fit all your wishlist in, but Strasbourg is closer to Germany.

Have fun. Brief flings like this can be so exciting and memorable.

Be advised that it is quite doable for you to include Germany on this trip, instead of deferring that until next time. It's a matter of how much traveling around you're willing to do or not. If that is irrelevant, then going to Cologne is logistically quite easy and feasible.

Take the TGV from Paris Est to Strasbourg, spend the day and night in Strasbourg, take the early tram, sort of like the S-Bahn Strasbourg to Offenburg, ca 30 mins.

The trunk lines in the Upper Rhine area pass through Offenburg. There is a direct ICE from Offenburg to Cologne central station. Time it right, you'll arrive in Koeln Hbf before noon.

Hello Everyone,

Thank you all for your great info and suggestions. So, a bit more on my trip, while I am becoming convinced I should stay in Paris, the issue I’m running into right now is the price of lodging in Paris, vs Brussels (or pretty much anywhere else in a 300 mile radius for that matter) are noticeably higher. While I don’t necessarily have a hard budget for that, I’d like to minimize that cost so I have more for experiences and food. Also, I have to admit I am a bit Intimidated by the City of Paris, the sheer size, and the reputation for Rudeness of Parisians, particularly toward Americans (not sure if these are true or not, but the rudeness part seems pretty consistent- I’m guessing much like the rep New York gets)

My thoughts as of now if I do decide to stay in Paris, is to focus on the basics of Paris, the 18th (I’m prepared to push through the jet lag with LOTS of Caffine) and the full 19th. Yes I know Monday is bad for Museums, but I’m happy just taking in the beauty of the city. Visit the Eiffel Tower, take a guided city tour. On the 20th, I make an excursion to Strasbourg and explore that area, return to Paris at an as yet undetermined time, then on the 21st to Bruges Belgium. This last day could also be replaced with Cologne, or Achen, Brussels or another City in France.

That’s just a thought. I had a similar mindset for basing out of Brussels, or Strasbourg, but essentially skipping much of Paris.

Tough choices for sure though

Amazing the you would spend $$$ for such a short visit to Paris. You will arrive on the 18th and have half a day to recover from jet lag, won't get much done that day and have the 19th, 20th and 21st to tour. On the 22nd you will have to go to the airport three hours before your flight and won't have much time to tour.

Still, that is your decision. Don't try to leave Paris, wasting more time traveling. You could spend two weeks in Paris and not see everything worth seeing.

Also, I have to admit I am a bit Intimidated by the City of Paris, the sheer size, and the reputation for Rudeness of Parisians, particularly toward Americans (not sure if these are true or not, but the rudeness part seems pretty consistent- I’m guessing much like the rep New York gets)

Oh my, you are operating under the widely held false impression RE "rudeness" - I have been visiting Paris for 40 years, and was just there for 3 weeks in May, and I have never encountered the mythological rudeness, particularly towards Americans.

Paris is a big city, so you bite it off in small chunks - one day you spend in Montmartre, the next day you visit the Latin Quarter, etc. Paris is a mix of neighborhoods, easy to get around on the Metro...

Upon further reflection, i think ill probably stay in Paris, then figure out what to do from there. Though i like the ide of staying in Strasbourg instead too.

In recent years, we haven't encountered rudeness in Paris, but I remember in the 80s when I was first in Paris, encountering several instances of rudeness.

This was all in Paris, and came from a few service people and taxi drivers. I was working in Saudi Arabia for the US Army and had a French friend that I played tennis with back then. He wasn't from Paris and said that some Parisian waiters were rude to him, even though he was French, but had an accent from outside Paris.

Also, he told me that the Communist Party (in the early 80s) was the third largest party in the country and anti-American and that was a possible source of rudeness.

I have been all over France and found the people outside of Paris to be fantastic and friendly. It was just those visits I had in the early 80s in Paris.

Going to Strasbourg will eat 1/2 day each way, whether you fly to Paris, to Frankfurt, or change flights to get to Strasbourg.
I would stick with cities that you can reach with a direct flight from LAX. 3 days is a perfect intro to Paris, adding anything else will eat too much of your precious time :)
By the way, Paris is smaller than Los Angeles ;)

Since we are polite, and use our limited French to reach out, we have never in multiple trips to France encountered anything like rudeness. Now, I have seen the Rude American. I saw a man with a clear Texas accent demand coffee from a startled busboy who might not have understood much English. Now THAT person should have been treated rudely.

We love France. French people behave as they do. As tourists, we are guests in their house, and always remember that.

Regarding Rude Parisians, it really helps if you greet them with Bonjour upon entering the establishment, rather than being rude yourself. If you will tell us your interests, you will get better help on this forum. If you want to see cathedrals, a day trip to Chartres. It's not cheap, but you might enjoy a food tour of Paris-we did one from Secret Food Tours and it was fantastic. Do not be intimidated by the subway-it is easily deciphered. I find Paris more user-friendly than NYC.

About the rude thing- I feel a bit better reading the replies. I do know a little French and read up on proper etiquette, including the huge importance of bonjour.

On Strasbourg, I thought that was a 1hr 45 minute to 2 hr train ride according to Google maps. Is there construction or something that is making that longer?

The train itself does take 2 hours. But you have to get to the station first. From most places in Paris, you should leave ~1 hour before your scheduled train departure. And once on Strasbourg, it takes 15-20 minutes to get to the city center. So that's 3.5 hours, basically a whole morning. Hence why I say "1/2 day". There's also the mental energy: I find it hard to enjoy sightseeing when my day is "timeboxed" by trains or planes.

Going from CDG airport to Strasbourg, it's even worse: you need to allow at least 2, preferably 3 hours between landing time and train departure time from CDG airport train station, so if you land at CDG in the morning, getting to Strasbourg before 2-3 PM is a challenge.

Oh wow, thanks for the information about the additional time needed. I ll stick to Paris .

So many times we've heard that certain cities are expensive to stay in. We've done the usual suspects that are on this list; Paris, Rome, and London. And we have never found these places to be anything other than average in pricing compared to any sort of the same level of lodging in the USA.

Amiens is an all day trip from Paris, by train. The cathedral is interesting, Amiens isn't.
You didn't mention Versailles as interesting. This is also an all day trip, and rather expensive, but worth it.

Take a gander at the you tube channel of Les Franchise to capture accurate visuals of how to shed concerns about being intimidated by visiting Paris. You are visiting a city with a HUGE menu of opportunities and can create a wonderful journey during your time there.