How to plan a day trip
The project
In March 2024 I set out on a project to visit 26 different places in Île-de-France, all starting with a different letter of the alphabet. Here I’m going to talk about how I select the places and why I picked this project.
The main reason is that I’m a big fan of slow travel and exploring what is on your doorstep. In this region, there is so much to see, so much to do and so much to learn. There really is something for everyone! I don’t need to go far in order to experience something new and neither do you. I’m hoping this list can inspire you to go somewhere new even if it’s just for an afternoon.
So, why the alphabet?
I’ve been living in Île-de-France since 2016. When I first moved here, I was working as an au pair. During that year, I did a lot of different day trips within the region because I already had a Navigo (a travel card) so it made for a cheap activity before starting work in the afternoon or on the weekends. Most of my friends were also in the same situation, so we’d often end up picnicking in a park or by a river.
Now, I wanted to challenge myself to visit places that I haven’t been to before, and to visit the places that aren’t often spoken about. I want to find ways of looking at Île-de-France with a new set of eyes.
Picking the place
I combine a few different tools when it comes to looking for places to go. Some places, I have already visited like Auvers-sur-Oise, but most places are going to be new.
Google Maps
This is usually where I start. I have a look at the map to see what towns are displayed. When clicking on a town, you can often see if there’s a reason why people would visit - a château, interesting architecture or because someone famous lived there.
On google maps, I add a label to the towns that I think would be interesting to visit so that I can remember them for later. I also have a Notion page with more information - like why is this place known, a specific reason for going there etc.
Articles
Over my years here, I have also read a lot of articles about places to visit if you live in or are visiting Paris.
Sometimes, I get the inspiration to visit a château so I would search for châteaux in Île-de-France (that’s how I heard about Champs-sur-Marne!). Sometimes I want to spend a day outside in a forest.
List of places
There are 1269 towns in Île-de-france the list can be found here. On this list, they are ordered by département (Essonne, Hauts-de-Seine, Paris, Seine-et-Marne, Seine-Saint-Denis, Val-de-Marne, Val-d’Oise and Yvelines). I took this list and ordered them alphabetically without their département. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing any places.
If I don’t already have an idea in mind then I will go through the list, do a quick search on Google Maps to see if it was the type of place I wanted to visit. Some are really small & mostly residential, others are hard to reach with public transport so in that case they’re not top of my list of places.
There are quite a lot of Facebook groups where people ask for day trip locations (among other things) - and often the same places come up: Versailles, Fontainebleau, or Provins and some that are not in the region but are easy to access like Chantilly and Giverny. They’re all worth visiting (otherwise they wouldn’t be recommended each time!) outside of this challenge.
Type of day trips
There are many different types of day trips within the region. What is the weather looking like? What season am I visiting in? Do I feel like spending time in nature? Do I want to visit something cultural?
Personally, I like to have a variety of different day trips. If I’m doing the day trip alone or with friends, it will also impact how I decide on where to go.
What’s next?
Got any places you want to visit in Île-de-France? Do you do something different when planning a day trip? If so, I’d love to hear how you plan a day trip and where you’re going next! You can reach me via email at contact@abisummers.com or via instagram at @abisummers
You can find a full list of my Alphabet of Île-de-France project here!
published date: 21st April 2024
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