The Palace of Versailles sits inside the similarly named town about 15 miles to the southwest of Paris. This palace first started as a simple hunting lodge that King Louis XIV had transformed into a magnificent chateau. By 1682, the King resided in Versailles and governed France from there.
Architects lined the palace with mirrored halls, ornate frescoed ceilings and secret passageways from which Marie Antoinette famously failed to escape during the onset of the French Revolution.
Make sure to duck outside and traverse the manicured gardens and hedge maze.
To travel to Versailles by train, enter any of Paris' Metro stations with a blue RER symbol that designates the regional rail system. Then take the RER C (yellow) line in the direction of Versailles-Rive Gauche and disembark at the similarly titled station.
A pair of 350-foot-plus spires tower over the Gothic Cathedral of Chartres and have attracted visitors and religious pilgrims since the 1100s. Here, you can join tourists viewing the church's ornate interior of sculpted naves, stained glass and tombs or climb to the top of the towers to look out over the Medieval city of Chartres. Visitors can also descend into the labyrinth built beneath cathedral.
To arrive in Chartres by train, head to the Gare Montparnasse and grab the SNCF line that runs to Chartres.
Even if you're not a hunter, you can appreciate Napoleon's own hunting lodge in Fontainebleau. The Emperor resided here, rather than Versailles, and transformed the simple structure into a palace replete with a frescoed ceiling in the library, a theater and a pair of curved staircases that lead from the cobblestoned drive to the entrance's façade. The lake and gardens outside will enchant as much as the interiors delight.
To arrive in Fontainebleau by train, head to the Gare de Lyon and jump on the TER train headed toward Laroche-Migennes. Disembark at station Fontainebleau-Avon.
Water lilies--you know you've seen them. If not in real life then in the impressionist paintings of Claude Monet. Where he painted these gorgeous gifts of nature lies only a stone's throw from Paris in the city of Giverny.
Monet lived and painted here from the early 1880s until his death. At his home, you can traverse the very same Japanese footbridge Monet painted in "Water Lilly Pond."
To get to Giverny from Paris, head to the Saint-Lazare station, then take the Rouen line train and disembark at Rouen.
