Day Trips From Paris

Paris Day Trips 

Claude Monet's garden in Giverny, less than two hours from Paris

Day Trip List

We list here a few places of interest that the extensive train, Metro, and RER commuter train systems of Paris puts within a one-day trip.   

• Giverny

The home and gardens of the impressionist painter, Claude Monet , an hour and fifteen minutes from Paris, is easily reached by RER train and local bus or private tour from Paris. See transportation details and photos on Giverny pages (link)

• Versailles

The Palace of Versailles is an astounding site, home to the Kings of France between the 1640s and 1780s.   The local people know it as the Château de Versailles if you are seeking directions.  The sprawling complex of buildings and gardens is just 15 miles from Paris and easily reached by the Metro to the Pont de Sevres exit and then by public bus number 171 to the château.  Reach the site also by RER train or by commuter train from Gare Montparnarsse or La Defense Stations to Gare de Versailles Chantiers (train station) and then walk or take a small tourist shuttle for 2 Euros to the site.   Details on Versailles pages, (link Wikipedia)

Reach the Palace of Versailles by RER train from Paris

Fontainebleau

Less than one hour from Paris Gare de Lyon by local train, (40 miles) the palace built during the 16th century French Renaissance and later augmented by Napoleon is surrounded by a 50,000 acre hunting preserve. Nearby, the village of Barbizon was made famous by painters such as Rousseau and Millet who founded an art colony that prompted the name Barbizon School.

 In the area Django Reinhardt Festival

Gare Lyon in Paris serves trains to Avignon and the South of Paris

• Chantilly

Famed for its racecourse, this village is just 30 miles north of Paris from trains out of Gare du Norde. The Chateau de Chantilly and the Musee Conde are the sights here. Tourism Office (link)

• Chartres

 Chartres is a Medieval city 60 miles southwest of Paris where you must go if you love Gothic cathedrals.           One hour out of Gare Montparnasse, the village offers a cathedral completed in 1220, an icon of Medieval architecture, and a surrounding village where many houses are in their 700thyear.  Tourism Office (link)

• Rouen

Rouen at 70 miles from Paris is still a day trip because of train service out of St-Lazare Station.

Rouen is 70 miles from Paris and  

reached by train within a day-trip 

 The Hundred-Spired city,  the capital of Normandy, was damaged during the Normandy invasion but still has walls dating to the fourth century and buildings that stood in the time of Joan of Arc who was executed at Rouen in 1431.              Tourism Office (link)

Many ancient buildings still 

stand in Rouen. 

• Further From Paris

The city of Dijon is just 1.5 hours south of Paris by TGV train from

Gare de Lyon

Over Two Hours from Paris could still be a day trip because TGV trains have brought many distant places closer to Paris then ever.
The Provence city of Avignon (link) is just 2.5 hours from Paris by TGV Train out of Gare Lyon.  Closer is the city of Dijon (link) at just 1.5 hours out of Gare Lyon. 

Avignon Palace of the Popes, two and a half hours from Paris by TGV train