>>2817812
There's a ton you can reach in that range. Do not underestimate the train : you are basically connected to every major and mid-sized city in France. All of them pretty much on a direct line. Only the smaller towns will require two connections or more. Learn to use SNCF Connect and don't underestimate the Avantage card (assuming you aren't young enough to get an even better card, IIRC the cutoff point is 27), ignore the other cards as they're pretty much meant for businesses that need their employees to travel a lot. If you do two or three back and forth trips during the year, you'll have paid for it.
Just with that, you can basically get anywhere in the country, unless you specifically want to go /out/. If that's the case, tough because you're in the worst place for it.
>but I don't want to take the train, it was really really bad in the US
It's better here.
Especially if you get the Avantage card that lowers prices and often lets you ride first class for 4€ more than second class on a ticket that's 40€ or so.

ive never been, so these places could all be crap, but where i think looks neat
Fontainebleau palace
many cities in paris's 2 hour perimeter have a grand cathedral but chartres one of the more famous (amiens, riems, bourges, orleans, beauvis)

towns with chateaux, blois (chambod), amboise
omaha beach, utah beach for ww2 US D-day - theres dozens memorials and small museums if you look up all the allies. la cambe is the german cemetary

u can get a fast train to lyon, thought was pretty nice to walk around for a weekend

giverny is the town of monet paintings

>>2817997
Chartres ONLY has the cathedral and a few okay-looking streets and stairways and that's kind of it. Nowadays it's mostly a dorm for people who work in Paris but don't want to live in Paris so they do the TGV commute every day.
>t. lived there
One thing to note about Chambord is that the castle is pretty isolated. On purpose. So once you get to the Blois station by train, you're not quite there yet and even the station meant for Chambord has a bit of a walk. Same with parking lots, they aren't right on the doorstep of the domain. There's a forest surrounding the castle ground and its gardens as well. But it's well worth the visit.
If you want to do the whole Loire Valley visit, your best option is to stay in Tours or Blois for a week and go on from there because literally every other city in there has an old castle with parts that are worth visiting.
off the top of my head :
>Tours castle is old and mostly used for art exhibitions
>Langeais is very weird because it kept its older fortified parts and liveable Renaissance quarters were added to that
>Chaumont is that but even weirder, you still enter through a narrow drawbridge between two fortified towers but one of the towers houses a tiny concert hall
>Villandry maintains its terrace gardens by cycling through era-accurate plans
>Chenonceau, it's "the one that's a bridge"
>Moulinsa- I mean Cheverny. Still used for a lot of hunting events
>Blois is most interesting because unlike a lot of others it was last touched in the 1600s when plenty of other castles were renovated in the 1700s. So most of it remains in its original state with wings built between the 1400s and 1600s
>Amboise is in a similar situation but some of it fell to ruin during the early 1800s.
>Azay is in the middle of an artificial lake
>Loches is an old fortress that was used as a prison for centuries
>Angers is enormous
>t. tourangeau

File: chartres stairs.jpg (97 KB, 1000x538)

97 KB JPG

The Chartres stairs in question.
That's one of three public stair streets that's somewhat useful.
Other than this, the town isn't that great.
Whatever you do, DO NOT GO TO DREUX.
It is a complete shithole.

>>2818066
not op, but very cool post

>>2817812
Im in a similar situation as you. Where will you be living? And where do you take french lessons?