As I mentioned in an earlier post I’ve been wanting to visit more towns. I decided to move back to France because I wanted a European base. I work remotely, and I only need my Thinkpad (the irony), and my phone for quick emails, Slack, or to use as a hotspot, so I can truly work from anywhere. I saw this as my opportunity to finally do that European road trip I have always wanted to do (and house hunt for a vacation home in Italy). 

Fun fact: 3 Frances = 1 Texas but you wouldn’t know it. I remember one year my friend Jon, who is English and could drive stick, drove us to Villarembert. I swear it took a whole day to get there. We arrived at like 11pm, driving up this mountain in our little Fiat in the snow, and spent a week in Le Corbier (including a day in Bardonnecia). I don’t know why but the drive seemed so much longer than driving around the US. We spent most of it driving the tolls and the cost was like 200€ on tolls alone. Perhaps that’s why France is best travelled by train. 

My research for this post was for towns that can be done in a day that would allow me to come home to my bed. There are a lot of towns that require an overnight stay, and I have no issue with an overnight stay, but this list is for places that are truly a little jaunt away, a one day thing.


This site is for Paris so I’ll make a post on my other blog for places that are further that require a hotel stay. The site I use for cheap travel is a French site that provides packages for all over the world, but they also include a lot of great ‘at home’ ideas for places in France I wouldn’t otherwise think of. It’s a French website, for French people, so they include a lot of places that only the French know about. 


My criteria for towns further boiled down to places that had something to do. Looking at architecture is all well and fine, but you want more to do than a short walk around, and as most French towns are quite small it’s not a long walk. I wanted a real reason to go there so I’ve tried to include that in each description. 


I didn’t include Champagne (which includes Reims), Fontainebleau, and Versailles in this list. Champagne because I think it really needs a longer stay, and requires a vehicle to go from the different houses. An ex of mine is from Reims and he’s offered to show me around so I’ll try to make a post just for Champagne later on. Versailles is the most well known so I didn’t include it because everyone already knows it requires a visit. And of course you can see more about Fontainebleau here.