What is the best day trip from Paris?
Cathedrals, chateaux, a tidal island, a painter's garden and a theme park. All of them reachable and back before dinner.
1Palace of VersaillesLouis XIV's court, the Hall of Mirrors and Le Notre's gardens.1000pts
2Normandy D-Day beachesOmaha, Utah and the American cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer.595pts
3ChartresA cathedral with the best-preserved medieval stained glass in France.595pts
4Champagne cellars of EpernayThe Avenue de Champagne and the chalk cellars beneath it.507pts
5Chateau de FontainebleauA royal residence used by every French ruler from Francois I to Napoleon.440pts
6ReimsThe cathedral where French kings were crowned, in the middle of Champagne.372pts
7Auvers-sur-OiseThe village where Van Gogh painted his last seventy days and is buried.372pts
8Chateau de ChantillyA moated chateau with the Conde art collection and the Great Stables.372pts
9RouenThe Normandy capital and the cathedral Monet painted about thirty times.372pts
10GivernyMonet's house and water garden, 75 km from Paris and open April to November.293pts
11Loire Valley chateauxChambord and Chenonceau, two hours south by train.293pts
12Vaux-le-VicomteThe chateau whose garden made Louis XIV jealous enough to build Versailles.200pts
13Mont-Saint-MichelAn abbey on a tidal island off the Normandy coast.200pts
14Disneyland ParisMarne-la-Vallee, forty minutes out on the RER.200pts
15ProvinsA walled medieval trade-fair town with its ramparts intact.0pts
#travel84#landmarks16#france48#paris3#day trips1
Comments
Seventy-five kilometres out, and shut for the whole winter — a real handicap against Versailles and Chartres: https://youpick.best/articles/monet-ranked-many-ways
