Peripheral Attractions around Paris

Many of the sights of Paris are within walking distance of one other. However there are also other attractions a little bit further but which worth it. Families will be more than happy by a visit in Disneyland Resort Paris or in the Parc de la Villette and history- and architechure lovers will be amazed by the beautiful Castle of Versailles.
From Paris you will be able to go to these places through the public transports, especially the train.

Parc de La Villette

When the slaughterhouse was metamorphosed into the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie, a rectangle of glass and exposed girders reminiscent of the Centre Pompidou, Mitterand's critics had their fun. As a science museum it duplicates the Palais de la Découverte, only it's a little flashier and more up to date. There are Planétarium shows and 3-D films in the Louis Lumière cinema. Across the Canal de l'Ourcq, the southern half of the Parc de La Villette is occupied by the two new white asymmetrical buildings of the Cité de la Musique, designed by Christian Portzamparc : they contain concert halls, the Conservatoire of dance and music, and a Musée de la Musique with 4500 instruments.

If you want to stay near the Parc de la Villette, we have hotels near La Villette.

Disneyland Resort Paris

32 km east of Paris at Marne-la-Vallée, an RER line and TGV line linked up to Marseille, Lyon, Lille, and eventually London.
The park is a fifth the size of the city of Paris, protected from the outside world by 30 ft sloped dykes. They employ 11000 smiling 'cast members' every year. Large theme hotels are run with guaranteed 'Have a nice day' friendliness. Besides the rides, the fun includes infinite 'shopping opportunities', special shows, characters, food (American, Mexican, Italian and other European), discos and American nightlife at the Festival Disney complex. In 2002 the Walt Disney Studios Park opened, and the original park with Main Street, USA and its four 'lands' (Fantasyland, Frontierland, Adventureland, Discoveryland) is known as Disneyland Park, the two together making up the 'resort'.

We propose you hotels in Marne La Vallée.

Versailles

By RER or train from Gare Montparnasse or Gare Saint-Lazare to Versaille-Rive-Droite.
Versailles' name come from the clods that the farmers turned over with their ploughs, referring to the clearing made for a royal hunting lodge. And so Versailles remained until the young Louis XIV saw Vaux-le-Vicomte and turned sour with envy. He would have something perhaps not better but certainly bigger, and he created for himself one of the world's masterpiece of megalomania. Versailles' 123 acres of rooms are strikingly devoid of art ; the enormous façade of the château is as monotonous as it is tasteful, so as not to upstage the principal inhabitant. The object is not to think of the building, but of Louis XIV, and with that thought be awed ; Versailles contributed greatly to the bankruptcy.

If there is no art in Versailles, there is certainly an extraordinary amount of skilful craftmanship. Besides its main purpose as a stage for the Sun King (Versailles was opened to anyone who was decently dressed, as long as they promised not to beg : anyone could watch the king attend Mass, or dine), the palace served as a giant public showroom for French products, especially luxuary ones. As such it was a spectacular success, contributing greatly to the spread of French tastes and fashions throughout Europe. Today, Versailles' curators haunt the auction houses of the world, looking to replace as much of the original gear as possible – a bust here, a chair there. Even the gardens have been replanted with Baroque bowers.
The Grands Appartements are the public rooms open to all in Louis XIV's day. Then there are the gardens, last replanted by Napoléon III, with their 13 miles of box hedges to clip, and the 110 potted palms and oranges of the Orangerie. Not by accident, the sun sets straight into it on Saint Louis' day, 25^th of August, in a perfect alignement with the Hall of Mirrors. Louis kept a flotilla of gondolas on his Grand Canal, to take his courtiers for rides ; today the gondoliers of Venice come to visit every September for the Fêtes Vénitiennes. The rest of the year you can hire a boat to paddle yourself about or bike to pedal through the gardens, or even catch a little zoo train to a building far more interesting than the main palace, the Grand Trianon. An elegant, airy Italianate palace of pink marble and porphyry with two wings linked by a peristyle, it was designed in 1687 for Louis XIV. The gardens in this area were laid out by Louis XV's architect, Jacques-Ange Gabriel, who also built the rococo Pavillon du Jardin des Français and the refined Petit Trianon nearby, intended for Louis XV's meetings with Mme de Pompadour. Louis XVI gave the Petit Trianon to Marie-Antoinette, who spent much of her time here.

If you want to stay in this area, we propose you hotels near Versailles.

Fontainebleau

The train to Melun continues to Fontainebleau, 65 km from Paris.
At the weekends half of Paris seem to be here ; the forest, with its wonderful variety of flora – incluiding 2700 species of mushrooms and fungi – oak and pine woods, rocky escarpments and dramatic gorges, is the wildest place near the metropolis. It was always exceptionally rich in game and by 1150 had already been set aside as the royal hunting reserve of Louis the Fat. The medieval king managed with a fortified castle-hunting lodge, but along came François Ier, who chose Fontainebleau to be his artistic showcase ; down went most of the old castle and up went an elegant château, fit to be decorated by the artists the king had imported from Italy, especially the great Rosso Fiorentino, a student of Michelangelo. Work on the château continued under Henri II and the exquisite architect Philibert de l'Orme. Henri IV added two courts decorated by Flemish artists. Every subsequent ruler to Napoleon added their bit ; the Revolution destroyed most of its furnishing, while Louis-Philippe hired ham-handed restorers, who left much of the art a shadow of itself.
Visit the Cour des Adieux, the Grands Appartements, the Galerie François Ier, the Chapelle de la Trinité, the Salle de Bal, the Chambre de l'Impératrice, the Salle du Trône, the Petits Appartements and the Musée Napoléon Ier.

If you stay for a while in Paris, then you should take a day to go to one of these places. Paris surroundings abound of many pretty sights and among those we did'nt discribe are: St-Germain-en-Laye, St-Denis, Vaux-Le-Vicomte...
Escape the hectic life of Paris for a while and go have a greatful visit or stay in the adventure park or in castles.