#34 - Day Trips from Paris by train

We love Paris, but today we’re going to escape the city’s hustle and bustle. Join us as we discover historic, delicious, fascinating and enchanting destinations you can reach from Paris by train on a day trip. And we’ve made sure that nowhere takes longer than 2 hours by train. We’ll share what to see and do, the must-sees, the secrets and some top tips and fun facts.

Discover Claude Monet’s house and gardens in Normandy, captivating cities like Bordeaux, Lyon and Strasbourg, magnificent castles including dazzling Chantilly and fabulous Fontainebleau, and many, many more amazing places that are easy to reach from Paris in a day and all by train. Ready to explore? Let’s go!

Plus a listener asks “What is the Frenchest of French food?” We reveal all…

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Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 3:32 Day Trips from Paris by train
• 21:30 Q&A Section
• 23:37 Conclusion

Transcript

Episode 34 -  Day Trips from Paris by train

Janine: Bonjour and a warm welcome to The Good Life France podcast. I’m Janine Marsh your host, and I’m chatting to you from northern France, Pas-de-Calais where I’ve had a home for 20 years. I’m the editor of The Good Life France Magazine and website, I’ve written four books about France, and I travel all over France year-round. In the next few weeks, I’ll be in Menton, a lovely colourful town on the French Riviera where I’ll be going to a lemon Festival – they make giant sculptures out of oranges and lemons! Then I’m off to the Gulf of Saint Tropez to explore the hilltop villages and beautiful seaside resorts. After that I’ll be going back to school, but not like any school I’ve been to before, one is in Paris and the other is in Yssingeaux in Haute-Loire in the Rhone-Alpes region, the locations for Chef Alain Ducasse’s culinary and patisserie schools. Chef Ducasse is one of the most influential chefs in the world and he has 21 Michelin stars to his name – the most of any chef alive today. I’m hoping to pick up some tips and of course I’ll be eating cakes – a lot, I hope! And then I’ll be going to lovely Lyon, known as the capital of gastronomy in France. When I’m not travelling, writing, looking after my 4 dogs, 7 cats and umpteen chickens and ducks, I love chatting to you on this podcast with my podcast partner Olivier Jauffrit.

Olivier: Bonjour, coucou, hello – yes I’m Oli and guess what – I live in that lovely Lyon Janine just mentioned! I moved here recently after 20 years of living in the UK which is why I may sound almost British to you when in fact I am French! I’m still finding my way here as I’ve never lived in Lyon before, I’m from Nantes, Pays de la Loire, but I can tell you that it’s true this is a foodie heaven – so many amazing restaurants – more than 16,000 of them. And 20 Michelin starred restaurants – all in one city. Incredible. I’ve only tried a few restaurants so far, I have a big job ahead of me to try them all! 

Janine: Well I’ll be trying quite a few when I’m there including the famous gastronomic Paul Bocuse restaurant, and a bouchon. 

Olivier: Ah les bouchons – the soul food restaurants of Lyon. These restaurants are unique to this city and serve traditional Lyonnaise cuisine, hearty and robust like sausages and coq au vin. They’ve been a part of Lyon’s history since the 16th century when this city was a centre of the silk industry and women chefs set up small inns to cook meals for the tired workers who needed warm and filling food after a hard day’s work.

Hmmm I’m hungry already – we’d better move on! So let’s get ready for today’s topic – Janine what are we going to be talking about today? 

Janine: Well I love Paris and I know you do too, in fact Paris is the world’s most popular city for tourism, so us Paris lovers are a big tribe and if you missed our Paris episodes you can find them all on the podcast section of www.thegoodlifefrance.com website. But today we’re going to escape the city’s hustle and bustle. Join us as we discover historic, delicious, fascinating and enchanting destinations you can reach from Paris by train on a day trip – and nowhere that takes longer than 2 hours by train. We’ll share what to see and do, the must-sees, the secrets and some fun facts and legends. Ready to explore? Let’s go!

JINGLE
 
 Olivier: And since we’re talking about Lyon already – let’s carry on talking about it since that’s a destination you can reach from Paris in 1 hour 56 minutes by fast train! 

You can take the train from three different stations, Paris Bercy, Paris Austerlitz and Paris Gare de Lyon but check the timetable carefully for the fast train, because slow trains take twice as long. 

Janine: I like to travel from Gare de Lyon so that I can ogle the Train Bleu – the poshest station buffet in the world! It’s expensive, but it’s a very Paris experience. Decorated in neo-baroque style, think Versailles gold, glitz and glamour with gorgeous painted ceilings, chandeliers and soft banquettes. Stop for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or a cheeky glass of something during the day. Like I say, expensive, but worth it for the experience. And fans of Mr Bean – this is the restaurant Bean dined at and emptied his oysters into a fellow diner’s handbag!

Olivier: Yes I like this route too. Gare de Lyon to Lyon Part Dieu station is easy – if you catch the 7.30 train in the morning you’ll be there before 9.30. And there are lots of trains back to Paris, the last one is at about 10 o’clock. 

There’s tons to see in Lyon and I would recommend lunch at a bouchon, visit the covered food market, wander the old town and it’s traboules, the word for the narrow covered streets where the silk workers lived and worked as this used to be a very famous centre of silk production. And take the funicular railway to the top of the Fourviere Hill where there is a beautiful Basilica, which is built on top of a former Roman forum, and you can also visit the Roman remains like the wonderfully preserved amphitheatre and enjoy stunning views over the city. 

Janine: Oli you are always saying that France is the most popular country in the world and beyond, yes Oli thinks as do all sensible Frenchies, that if there is alien life out there then they would love France more than anywhere else on earth too. But did you know that Lyon has form when it comes to aliens?! 

Oli: Yes indeed, there is a legend that in the year 832, 4 Lyonnais were seen emerging from a UFO! Of course everyone said oh no, it’s not aliens, it’s witchcraft but they did manage to persuade the right people that they were telling the truth. Lucky for them! Almost 800 years later in 1621 a UFO was reported in the skies above Lyon. And in 2015 the Raelian Sect – they believe in extra-terrestrial life – proposed to set up Earth’s first ever alien embassy in Lyon in Place Bellecoeur which is France’s largest pedestrian square! 

Janine: Perhaps the aliens knew that the food of Lyon is out of this world! 

I’ll be sharing more about Lyon in the free to read magazine The Good Life France (you can find it at magazine.thegoodlifefrance.com) after I’ve completed my visit. 

Now for somewhere completely different – we’re heading to the countryside of Normandy and the lovely little village of Giverny where Claude Monet lived. It’s just 45 minutes by train from Paris Saint-Lazare station, which looks pretty much just as it did when Monet painted it, to the Vernon-Giverny station. It’s about 3 miles to Monet’s house and it’s a flat path if you follow the Route de Giverny which follows the old railroad. Or you can take a taxi (about 20 Euros) or the shuttle bus which runs from Spring to Autumn when Monet’s house and gardens are open and that’s 10 euros return.

Monet actually first saw his house from a train carriage as the old railway line used to run along the part of the garden that is now home to the lily ponds. 

Oli: He moved there in 1883 with his second wife Alice and his two children and her 4 children. He became obsessed with the garden, and with water lilies that he grew in the pond and which inspired his famous "Water Lilies" series. 

Janine: Most people don’t know that he had up to 7 gardeners helping him, these days there are 8 gardeners. Monet insisted that the gardeners polish the lily leaves to keep them perfect, and the gardeners grew roses, geraniums, daffodils, poppies and irises and plants that had rich colours because Money developed cataracts and saw colour better than detail, colour was everything to him. Today the gardeners stick to a list of plants that Monet grew and when you wander into the garden it’s like stepping into one of his paintings. His wife actually wasn’t happy with the way he grew flowers, she wanted a neater garden! 

Oli: And the house is wonderful, it feels like he just left the room to go and cut some flowers. The rooms are bright colours like the garden, yellow, blue and green. Pots and pans in the kitchen, Japanese prints that he loved on the wall alongside copies of his paintings.

Janine: The village of Giverny is well worth a visit too, it’s pretty much one street long, but lots to see and do. Great places for lunch or a snack including the Hotel Baudy where lots of artists stayed, and don’t miss a trip to the Hotel garden to see the art studio that looks just as it did when the artists stayed there such as Renoir and Cezanne. There’s also a museum, cute shops and a church where Monet is buried in the graveyard. 

Oli: Ok let’s head now to the enchanting medieval town of Provins, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Just over an hour from Paris, this medieval gem offers a step back in time with its well-preserved walls and towers. Don't miss the Rose Garden and the underground tunnels – a hidden labyrinth under the city! Some of the buildings here go back 1000 years. 

Janine: What surprised me most is how big the city is, and that people are living in the medieval buildings – it’s extraordinary. 

Oli: They host the biggest medieval festival in France here. It takes place usually in June (check their website) for two days and there are hundreds and hundreds of people dressed in medieval costume with dances, music, games, jousting, street performance and a traditional medieval ball plus a parade – it’s magnifique!

Janine: Right – let’s talk castles, and there are loads you can visit from Paris in a day including the dazzling Palace of Versailles. We’ve already done a whole episode on Versailles so pop over to that to find out more but it is an easy day trip from the centre of Paris. 

Another castle you can visit really easily is The Château de Chantilly in Picardy, which neighbours Ile de France where Paris is. From Gare du Nord you take a train to Chantilly-Gouvieux which takes around 25 minutes. Then either walk to the chateau, about 25 minutes through the lovely town, or take a bus from outside the station, hire a bike at the station or take a taxi which takes about 5 minutes. If you take the train from Gare du Nord, when you buy your ticket - ask for a Pack TER Domaine de Chantilly which includes your train travel and ticket entry at a discounted price. 

The castle is absolutely stunning, and you can easily spend a whole day here. Many famous aristocrats have lived here, and the rooms are decorated and filled with incredible artworks including paintings by Botticelli, Van Dyke and Raphael, plus tapestries and furnishings, books and dazzlingly beautiful stained glass. There are also the most magnificent stables, and huge gardens. And… there is a legend that Chantilly cream was invented here. 

Oli: MMm, I love Chantilly cream!

Janine: Me too. In fact I am a Square of the Knighthood of Chantilly Cream Whippers! I visited Chantilly last year when I was a cruise of the Oise Valley in Picardy with CroisiEurope and a Knight of the Whippers showed us how to make Chantilly cream properly and I demonstrated that I could do it, ten long minutes of whipping – and I was inducted into the Brotherhood as a Squire, the lowest level, but I’m very proud of it! Here’s my top tip that I learned – when you whip the cream, icing sugar and vanilla together to make Chantilly cream, do it in a metal bowl that you fill with ice cubes and shake to make it super cold then empty, dry and whip in it. The Whippers call it a cul-poule which roughly - and in its polite translation - means “chickens bum” as they say shaking the ice cubes is like chickens shaking their butts to get the eggs out! 

Oli: Do chickens shake their butts to get eggs out? Hmmm – answers on a postcard please! 

Anther Chateau you can visit is in Fontainebleau. It is the lesser-known cousin of Versailles but no less regal. Explore its opulent halls, lush gardens, and imagine the kings and queens who strolled here. And there's even a lake for boating – very chic! For our nature lovers, the Forest of Fontainebleau awaits. This isn't just any forest; it's a former royal hunting ground with dramatic landscapes and endless hiking trails. It's a breath of fresh air and a favourite with Parisians looking for a nature escape.
 
 

Janine: Up next, the Chateau of Vaux-le-Vicomte, a baroque masterpiece that inspired Versailles. This castle is so stunning that it made a king jealous enough to destroy the owner. It was built by a man called Nicolas Fouquet, the finance minister of King Louis XIV. It took 20 years to build, and he employed the finest architects, garden designers and painters in the land. Just as it was almost finished, and the painters hadn’t quite completed some of the frescoes and the stone masons were still working on the statues that surround the castle - Fouquet held a party and invited the King who was so jealous of its beauty he stormed out and days later had Fouquet arrested on what were likely false charges and poor Fouquet never got to enjoy it, he died in prison. And the statues were never finished – if you go you can see that some bits are still in block form! The chateau was bought by the de Voguë family some 150 years ago, it’s been beautifully restored and preserved. Alexandre de Vogue, the son of the count and countess who live there, told me that when he was a kid, and the chateau was opened to visitors, he had to rush around hiding his toys behind the curtains! The chateau is where the TV series Versailles was filmed as the décor and furnishings are so authentic. And it also starred in the Bond film Moonraker! 
 
 

Oli: Craving a seaside escape? Let’s head to Deauville. Think of it as the Parisian Riviera – chic, elegant, with a touch of glamour. Stroll along the promenade, enjoy the sandy beach, and if you’re feeling lucky, there’s even a casino. This is the town where Coco Chanel opened a shop in 1913 catering to the super rich who flocked here even then. And it’s where a famous film festival is held in autumn – and where you may bump into George Clooney, Angelina Jolie or Matt Damon – they’ve all been there for the festival. And all this, just a two-hour train ride away!
 
 Janine: For our next adventure, we’re off to the medieval city of Chartres, famous for its stunning Gothic cathedral. But there’s more! Discover the quaint streets, charming boutiques, and the peaceful Eure River. Two hours by train.

 Olivier: At around 1 hour 50 minutes by TGV train from Gare de l’Est, the beautiful town of Strasbourg in Alsace is a fabulous day trip. Must-sees including a magnificent Gothic cathedral, it’s one of the most beautiful in France. Strasbourg has a fairy-tale like town centre, UNESCO listed Petite France district, and a network of canals which are perfect for a relaxing boat ride. There are heaps of museums, fabulous restaurants and superb wine bars where you can indulge in a glass of local Riesling or Gewurztraminer before you catch the train back to Paris. And, a year-round Christmas shop for a memorable souvenir even if you’re not there for the famous Christmas markets. Honestly, one day is not enough for this unmissable city…

Janine: Ever wondered where the kings of France were crowned? 45 minutes by train from Gare de l’Est lies Reims, that’s how we English say it anyway. It’s really hard to pronounce properly in French. Oli can you please say it properly?

Oli: Reims… 

Janine: Reims is the capital of Champagne. From the station you can walk to some of the best Champagne houses including Mumm (15-minute walk), and Charles de Cazanove (5 minutes) for a tour and tasting. On the outskirts of town, Ruinart is the favourite Champagne of the French and oldest Champagne house in the world. But you’ll need to take bus no. 3 from the station and walk 5 minutes from the Crayeres stop (total 20 mins – it’s worth it!).

There are also loads of little boutique Champagne bars including the fabulous Pol Couronne, where you can taste and buy affordable vintage Champagnes from the family-run company.

“The city of coronations” or “the city of Kings” as it’s known, houses the great UNESCO-listed cathedral Notre-Dame de Reims, where French kings were crowed for 1000 years.

 Olivier: And we can’t forget about Compiègne in Picardy. Rich in history, it’s where Joan of Arc was captured. Visit the stunning palace, the historic forest, and if you’re a car enthusiast, there’s an incredible car museum. A perfect mix of nature, history, and technology!
 
 Janine: You know you can even do a day trip to Bordeaux from Paris by train now! The superfast trains whizz you to Bordeaux in just two hours! From Bordeaux St Jean Station, hop on a tram to the city centre to discover the wonderful UNESCO listed architecture of the “Pearl of Aquitaine” as the city is known. Visit a unique wine museum, immerse yourself in art at the Bassins des Lumieres, a new art venue in the former WWII German submarine pens – such a beautiful place, it brought tears to my eyes when I went, and splash in the Miroir d’Eau water sculpture and soak up the ambiance of sunny Bordeaux with a glass of regional wine. Ancient churches, Place de la Comédie, fabulous museums, foodie heaven and divine wine bars…

 Olivier: Last but not least, let’s visit Dijon in Burgundy. If you love cities filled with beautiful, historic buildings. If you love fantastic food and wonderful wines. And if you love museums, galleries, sitting at terraced cafés watching the world go by as you sip a delicious local wine, impossibly fabulous street markets, great wine bars and a vibrant friendly vibe, then add Dijon to your must-see list.

This amazing city has all these things by the bucket load including one of the best markets in France… and more.

At just over an hour and a half from Paris Gare de Lyon, Dijon train station is in the city centre and totally walkable.

And there you have it – a whirlwind tour of fantastic day trips from Paris, all within a couple of hours by train. If you’ve enjoyed our adventure, don't forget to subscribe for more travel tales and tips at www.thegoodlifefrance.com. But now it’s time for a listener’s question.

Oli: In every episode of this podcast, we answer one of your questions – and we don’t mind what you ask us! Let’s find out what today’s question is. 

Janine: Today’s question is from Irene Fenton of Liverpool UK, and she asks, “What is the Frenchest French food?”

Ha – that’s a good question Irene. Oli – you’re French and you live in the capital of French gastronomy – what is the Frenchest of French food?!

Oli: That’s actually quite a hard question! There’s just so much that’s very very French! Could be boeuf bourguignon, our unofficial national dish, could be cassoulet, maybe Camembert cheese or Brie, Comte or Maroilles, maybe coq au vin, or croissants even though they were not invented in France, but they are so French. But perhaps it’s the humble baguette that is the Frenchest of foods… 

Janine: It’s definitely a hard question that one but I think I agree with you, because you never ever get a baguette anywhere in the world that tastes just like it does in France – I mean a proper, artisan made one, not a supermarket. And it’s not just the bread, it’s the whole cultural experience of queuing at a boulangerie, picking a baguette that’s bien cuit, well-cooked or not so much, picking which type of baguette, skinny and long, a bit bigger and then eating the crunchy end of the baguette on the way home which is the law in France!

Oli: Thanks so much for that question, Irene. If you also have a question for us – feel free to send it to janine@thegoodlifefrance.com or via our podcast newsletter. And, if there’s a topic you want to know more about – let us know! 

Thank you so much, a massive merci beaucoup, to everyone for listening to our podcast from 148 countries all around the world! And huge thank you for sharing the podcast with your friends and family, we’re truly grateful when you do that. 

You’ve been listening to Janine Marsh and me Olivier Jauffrit. You can find me at parischanson.fr 

Janine: And you can find me  and heaps of information about France – where to visit, culture, history, recipes – everything France - at thegoodlifefrance.com where you can subscribe to the podcast, my weekly newsletter about France and our totally brilliant, totally free magazine which you can read at magazine.thegoodlifefrance.com 

But for now, it’s au revoir from me.

Olivier: And goodbye from me.

Janine: Speak to you soon!