Paris is easy to leave without a car. Trains and RER lines from the city's big stations reach palaces, gardens, a medieval town and theme parks, and a couple of trips end with a short shuttle from the station. These are the outings we'd plan for a free Saturday or a school break, with space for kids to run once you arrive. Here's what we checked, from Versailles to Provins.
Louis XIV's royal palace holds the Hall of Mirrors, the royal apartments and the Royal Chapel. Behind it, formal gardens with fountains and statues run down to the Grand Canal and a huge park. Across the estate, the Trianon has Marie Antoinette's smaller palaces and the Queen's Hamlet, a mock country village.
It suits school-age kids who can handle crowds and long walks; toddlers do better in the gardens.
French kings lived here from the Middle Ages to Napoleon III, and Napoleon I said goodbye to his guard in the courtyard below the horseshoe staircase. Inside, kids walk the gilded Grands Appartements and the Napoleon I Museum.
Outside are the 14-hectare Grand Parterre, a carp pond with a pavilion in the water, and a 1.2km canal lined with paths. It's about an hour's drive from Paris.
A château full of old-master paintings, three gardens and the Great Stables, built in the 1700s as a palace for horses, share one estate. Inside the stables, the Living Museum of the Horse fills 15 rooms, and a resident riding troupe performs under the great dome.
Kids can watch a narrated 30-minute riding demonstration, then run the paths of Le Nôtre's formal garden, the Anglo-Chinese garden and the English garden.
Disneyland Paris is a Disney resort with two theme parks a short walk apart. Disneyland Park is the classic one, built around Sleeping Beauty Castle and Main Street, with rides themed on Disney stories.
Disney Adventure World, the second park, opened World of Frozen and a lake called Adventure Bay in March 2026, alongside Avengers Campus and the Ratatouille ride.
Provins is a walled medieval market town, UNESCO-listed as the only surviving fair town of the Champagne region. Kids can walk the ramparts and fortified gates, climb the 12th-century Cesar Tower, and follow a guide through the underground galleries beneath the streets.
Knights and falconers with birds of prey put on shows at the foot of the walls, and a tourist train takes the hills off tired walkers.
A 17th-century château on a terraced 9-hectare estate in Auvers-sur-Oise, the village where Van Gogh spent his last weeks. Inside are a Van Gogh exhibition and a display on the estate's history. Outside are French formal gardens, a nymphaeum, a maze and 23,000 irises.
Kids can work through a game booklet, run the maze, and join art workshops during school holidays.
Parc de Sceaux is a formal French garden laid out by André Le Nôtre in the 17th century, spread over 181 hectares just south of Paris. Kids can follow the stepped cascades down to the Octagon basin, walk the 1,140-meter Grand Canal and hunt for the statues along the allées.
In spring, the grove of Japanese cherry trees draws families for hanami picnics. The château houses the estate's museum.
Claude Monet lived and painted here from 1883 to 1926. The visit takes in his pink house and two gardens: the Clos Normand, packed with flower beds under arched trellises, and the water garden, where kids cross the green Japanese bridge and spot the water lilies he painted.
It suits kids happy to stroll and look: there is no play area, and queues build once online tickets sell out.
A theme park built on the Astérix comics, split into five themed worlds: Gaul, Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, Egypt and the Vikings. Its 51 attractions run from a mini train, flying chairs and play areas for young kids to big coasters like Osiris Convolvulis.
There are nine water rides and live shows. In fall the park adds haunted houses, and in winter a Gaulish Christmas with an ice rink.
Paris is easy to leave without a car. Trains and RER lines from the city's big stations reach palaces, gardens, a medieval town and theme parks, and a couple of trips end with a short shuttle from the station. These are the outings we'd plan for a free Saturday or a school break, with space for kids to run once you arrive. Here's what we checked, from Versailles to Provins.
Louis XIV's royal palace holds the Hall of Mirrors, the royal apartments and the Royal Chapel. Behind it, formal gardens with fountains and statues run down to the Grand Canal and a huge park. Across the estate, the Trianon has Marie Antoinette's smaller palaces and the Queen's Hamlet, a mock country village.
It suits school-age kids who can handle crowds and long walks; toddlers do better in the gardens.
French kings lived here from the Middle Ages to Napoleon III, and Napoleon I said goodbye to his guard in the courtyard below the horseshoe staircase. Inside, kids walk the gilded Grands Appartements and the Napoleon I Museum.
Outside are the 14-hectare Grand Parterre, a carp pond with a pavilion in the water, and a 1.2km canal lined with paths. It's about an hour's drive from Paris.
A château full of old-master paintings, three gardens and the Great Stables, built in the 1700s as a palace for horses, share one estate. Inside the stables, the Living Museum of the Horse fills 15 rooms, and a resident riding troupe performs under the great dome.
Kids can watch a narrated 30-minute riding demonstration, then run the paths of Le Nôtre's formal garden, the Anglo-Chinese garden and the English garden.
Disneyland Paris is a Disney resort with two theme parks a short walk apart. Disneyland Park is the classic one, built around Sleeping Beauty Castle and Main Street, with rides themed on Disney stories.
Disney Adventure World, the second park, opened World of Frozen and a lake called Adventure Bay in March 2026, alongside Avengers Campus and the Ratatouille ride.
Provins is a walled medieval market town, UNESCO-listed as the only surviving fair town of the Champagne region. Kids can walk the ramparts and fortified gates, climb the 12th-century Cesar Tower, and follow a guide through the underground galleries beneath the streets.
Knights and falconers with birds of prey put on shows at the foot of the walls, and a tourist train takes the hills off tired walkers.
A 17th-century château on a terraced 9-hectare estate in Auvers-sur-Oise, the village where Van Gogh spent his last weeks. Inside are a Van Gogh exhibition and a display on the estate's history. Outside are French formal gardens, a nymphaeum, a maze and 23,000 irises.
Kids can work through a game booklet, run the maze, and join art workshops during school holidays.
Parc de Sceaux is a formal French garden laid out by André Le Nôtre in the 17th century, spread over 181 hectares just south of Paris. Kids can follow the stepped cascades down to the Octagon basin, walk the 1,140-meter Grand Canal and hunt for the statues along the allées.
In spring, the grove of Japanese cherry trees draws families for hanami picnics. The château houses the estate's museum.
Claude Monet lived and painted here from 1883 to 1926. The visit takes in his pink house and two gardens: the Clos Normand, packed with flower beds under arched trellises, and the water garden, where kids cross the green Japanese bridge and spot the water lilies he painted.
It suits kids happy to stroll and look: there is no play area, and queues build once online tickets sell out.
A theme park built on the Astérix comics, split into five themed worlds: Gaul, Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, Egypt and the Vikings. Its 51 attractions run from a mini train, flying chairs and play areas for young kids to big coasters like Osiris Convolvulis.
There are nine water rides and live shows. In fall the park adds haunted houses, and in winter a Gaulish Christmas with an ice rink.
