Paris Surroundings
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Map of Around Paris

Versailles chapel

The outskirts of Paris have been swallowed up by the capital's expansion, but despite a bland proliferation of industrial buildings and modern flats, many towns, especially to the south and west, retain their identities and links with the past. Royal or noble châteaux dedicated to hunting and other leisured pursuits once studded the region, and it's surprisingly easy to escape the city on a day-trip to take a stroll in the gardens, parks and forests that surround them. The most renowned Château by far is Versailles, an overwhelming monument to the reigns of Louis XIV and Louis XVI, which is being slowly restored to its former glory. The much more modest Malmaison preserves the exquisite Empire furnishings of Napoleon's wife, Josephine, while all that's left of Marly-le-Roi are its gardens. It wasn't just kings and emperors who liked to escape the city: the countryside around Paris is inextricably linked to the Impressionist movement. Local museums at Chatou and Auvers-sur-Oise bear testimony to this artistic connection with their memories of carousing, carefree painters and musicians in the early 1900s, whilst Meudon claims Rodin's final home and resting-place.

The northern and eastern suburbs have more than their fair share of cités (high-rise housing estates), but are punctuated by distractions. At St-Denis, the impressive Gothic basilica was the wellspring of the Gothic style, and the burial place of almost all the French kings; these days, it stands proudly at the centre of a fascinating multi-ethnic suburb. Whether the various suburban museums deserve your attention will depend on your degree of interest in the subjects they represent: French prehistory at the Château of St-Germain-en-Laye; air and space travel at Le Bourget; and the authoritative collection of china at Sèvres.

All of the attractions listed here are easily accessible by train, RER, métro and bus. For other attractions in Île-de-France, the tourist office (Espace Tourisme d'Île-de-France, www.paris-ile-de-france.com) in Paris is a good source of information.