Why You Should Not Take Day-Trips From Paris by hquittner
Paris is so full of things to see, that day-trips waste your time. There are only 2 sights near Paris worthy of a day trip: Versailles and Chartres. While there are commercial very long day trips to Mont-St.-Michel or the Loire, it would be better to plan to come to France again and see them as part of a real trip to France, especially by car. Outside of Paris, driving is easy. There are some places very near Paris that are really French , but it is best to spend the night in them. 100 miles (150 km) up and back consumes 2-4 hours of a sightseeing day. The way to minimize the loss of time is to make such a visit as the intermediate stop on your way somewhere else. Unfortuntely there are many sights around Paris worthy of a visit, so you have to visit Paris a great number of times OR you can do as we usually do. Avoid Paris completely. Arrive at Orly or de Gaule and get into a rented car. Plan to visit immediately a close-by place (Ecouen, Rambouillet, Fontainebleau, etc), also choose a small inn nearby to bed down at when fatigue (jet-lag) hits (look up the Logis de France or if you are upscale Chateauxhotels.fr). Do this on the last day/night as well. We have stayed at Senlis(Fontaine-Chaalis 5 km east), Moret-sur-Loing, Recloses (in Fontainbleau forest), Chartres, and others. We would do more but are now too old. It is another way to enjoy France. Incidentally, each of these places have available meals that are delightful and easily affordable with no hassle about getting a table.
