Village Les Érables

If you enjoy poking around a historic house or two, you’ve come to the right place – the turreted Château de Pierrefonds is 15 minutes away by car and Louis XV’s Château de Compiègne around 25 minutes away. A little further away (but worth the 45-minute trip for the excellent art collections and equestrian shows) is the splendid Château de Chantilly. Also rather historic is La Mer de Sable, one of France’s oldest theme parks and a popular day out for preteens – it’s around a 45-minute drive from the site. The Compiègne Forest, 20 minutes away, is another nearby spot with historic significance, as the site for the armistice signing that ended World War I; these days it’s a lovely place for a woodland walk or an easy bike ride on flat trails. If you’d like your strolls to involve rather more in the way of museums, streetside cafés and famed monument spotting, you can drive to Paris in around an hour and a half.