Paris Day Trips: The Long Weekend Plan
Three days: the two quiet gateways first, then the famous one once you’ve booked the slot it requires. This route pairs Fontainebleau and Chartres, the same 2-day plan , with Versailles added as the payoff day. Need more, the 4-day version adds Giverny on top of exactly this spine.
Lock in these bookings first
- Versailles timed Palace slot (Day 3), mandatory even with free admission, book directly at chateauversailles.fr or through a Versailles skip-the-line tour .
- Check hotel rates near central Paris on Booking.com , Fontainebleau and Chartres leave from different stations, so a central base keeps both mornings simple.
The three days at a glance
| Day | Focus | Travel time from Paris | One-way transport |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fontainebleau | About 40 min | Transilien R (Gare de Lyon) |
| 2 | Chartres | About 1 hr | TER (Montparnasse) |
| 3 | Versailles | 35-40 min | RER C |
Day 1: Fontainebleau
Transilien R from Gare de Lyon, about 40 minutes, then a 14 to 15 minute bus to the chateau gates. Entry is EUR17, gardens are free, no timed ticket required. Fewer showstopper rooms than Versailles, but real elbow room even on a weekend.
Day 2: Chartres
TER from Montparnasse, about an hour, roughly 18 trains a day, fares from EUR12. The cathedral is free and a 10-minute walk from the station. It’s the cathedral plus a slow lunch, not a full day of varied sights, and that’s the appeal at this price.
Day 3: Versailles
RER C reaches Versailles Chateau Rive Gauche in 35 to 40 minutes, then an 8 to 10 minute walk to the gates. Palace-only entry is EUR21; the Passport, adding the Trianon estate and gardens on fountain-show days, runs EUR25 low season or EUR35 high season. Every visitor, free-admission or not, needs a timed Palace slot booked ahead. Closed Mondays, if Day 3 lands on one, swap it with Day 1 or 2.
Why save Versailles for last on this route?
Because it’s the only day of the three with a hard booking deadline, and putting it last means you’ve already settled into the trip’s rhythm, and the timed slot, before the day that actually requires you to be somewhere at a specific hour.
Does doing Fontainebleau first make Versailles feel underwhelming?
If anything, the opposite. Fontainebleau sets a baseline for a “quiet chateau day,” and Versailles’s scale, the Hall of Mirrors especially, lands harder for the contrast rather than blending into “another palace” fatigue.
Screenshot your Versailles timed-entry QR code before leaving Paris; RER C platforms and the walk to the gates have patchy enough signal that a live ticket link is a real risk.