stopovers between Paris -Amsterdam

Bruges. You could also extended your visit to Amsterdam for a couple days and do some day trips to places Haarlem, Delft, The Hague.

Thanks. We actually will have time in Amsterdam to do some day trips so good suggestions. Just trying to figure out where to stop inbetween.

It all depends on your interests. On different trips to Holland and Belgium, I have enjoyed Rotterdam, Antwerp, and Bruges. I was less taken with Ghent, and didn't care at all for Brussels, except for my wonderful Art Nouveau tour with ARAU: http://www.arau.org/en/tours. But others definitely have different opinions on these places (a search on this Helpline will quickly show you this). A friend of mine enjoyed a few days in Lille, but I have not personally been there. Any of these places would make an easy stopover between Paris and Amsterdam. However, since most of these routes are on all-reserved trains whose price increases closer to departure, you will need to decide your stopover(s) now, unless you don't mind paying high prices (look at tickets for tomorrow and for your intended travel dates, to see the difference). Closer to Amsterdam, I really liked Utrecht and Leiden, and did not like Delft or the Hague as much as Rick Steves (or others) did. Antwerp, Bruges, Ghent, Brussels, Delft, and the Hague are all covered in Rick Steves Amsterdam, Bruges and Brussels. I recommend this book for your Amsterdam portion, so take a look at these other places to see which ones appeal (either as stopovers or as daytrips from Amsterdam, as appropriate). He just has a small bit on Utrecht, a paragraph on Rotterdam, and nothing on Leiden; he also does not cover Lille in his France book. So, you'll need other guidebooks for these.

Hi, I agree with the above suggestion of Lille if you want to stay in France over Holland and Belgium. It's the cultural center of northern France, but I prefered one city more between Lille and Paris, ie, Amiens on the Somme. That's worth a day and a half to two days.