THREE YEARS AGO, I moved to Fontainebleau-Avon, a commune, or township, 34 miles southeast of Paris. “How’s Paris?” my American friends still ask me, as if the distance between the two doesn’t exist. But Fontainebleau is nothing like the French capital. Which is precisely why a parade of Parisians passes my door on bicycles, on the No. 1 bus and on foot every day: Some are bound for the Château de Fontainebleau, others for the boulder-strewn forest dense with ferns that is a world-class site for the sport of bouldering.  Fontainebleau is just one of the towns Parisians visit when they need a quick break from the city, places with rich and varied histories, surrounded by timeless landscapes. The following are among my favorites. They’re all within an hour’s train ride from Paris and well worth the price—about $18—for a memorable day away.  Fontainebleau is the name of both the town and the 1,500-room palace located there. If I had to choose just one palace to visit during a stay in Paris, this would be it. A castle surrounded by a forest that served as a hunting ground for kings, Fontainebleau gets a fraction of the visitors of Versailles (300,000 a year, as opposed to 7.5 million).  King Francis I tore down most of a 12th-century royal hunting lodge and replaced it with a French Renaissance château, whose splendid, pale stone edifices are arranged around four courtyards and capped with mansard roofs of gray slate. Inside, frescoes depict satyrs, cherubs and scenes of the hunt. The ceilings, intricately gilded and paneled with exotic woods, could give you neck strain.  Most French castles were plundered during the Revolution and are disappointingly stripped of their furnishings. While Fontainebleau was ransacked, most of its original furnishings remain. Here, for example, you can see the emperor’s bathtub as well as his throne, 27 different clocks, and Marie-Antoinette’s Turkish boudoir, an Ottoman-themed jewel box. The bedroom’s centerpiece, a white velvet chaise-longue, framed in its own niche by gold lamé curtains, was commissioned by the empress Joséphine, wife of Napoleon, who redecorated when she moved in. A more recent restoration, begun in 2007, required the services of master goldsmiths and a Lyonnaise velvet-maker, who spent 15 months weaving 26 meters of fabric with which to redo all of the upholstery. Though the palace itself doesn’t open until 9:30 a.m., its gates are thrown open at the break of day to allow free access to its formal gardens, which were designed by André Le Notre and are studded with fountains. (My favorite: an enormous circular reflecting pool in which the castle appears upside down.) Fontainebleau is, in fact, a casual place, where lovers cuddle under the weeping willows, children throw bread to the carp and newlyweds pose for pictures on the horseshoe stairway, standing in the spot where Napoleon, condemned to exile in Elba, bade farewell to the imperial guard.  My husband, who grew up in Paris, remembers Provins from family outings 60 years ago. His memories of the town are still vivid and filled with ramparts and red roses, which grow in profusion and were originally brought back from the Middle East during the Crusades. Under the rule of the Counts of Champagne, from the 10th to the 14th century, Provins became an important commercial center in France and even had its own currency.  The scenery alone is worth the trip. Provins is about 55 miles southeast of Paris, across the plain of Brie, where the famous cheese is produced. Standing on top of the town’s medieval ramparts, looking out over a green and golden sea of wheat and yellow-flowered colza punctuated by grain silos, it’s hard to believe that Paris is less than an hour away.  The 360-degree view from Caesar’s Tower, a medieval prison (how it got its name is a matter of some debate) is even better, and chances are good that you’ll be alone up there except for the pigeons, not only because navigating the interior stone stairway requires the skill of a mountain goat but also, and more important, because most foreign tourists just don’t know that Provins exists. Designated a World Heritage Site for its preserved architecture and medieval urban layout, Provins has all the best features of a town made for strolling: winding pathways that reveal a fresh perspective at every turn, hillsides mounted by stone steps, pretty terraced gardens and canals crossed by footbridges and frequented by ducks. For all of its history, Provins, like Fontainebleau, is a place where ordinary people live comfortably with the past. Teenagers on their way home from school smoke cigarettes down the hill from the church where Jeanne d’Arc attended mass in 1429. Workmen on scaffolds patch the 800-year-old ramparts as, in the distance, tractors growl across the plain. Commuters walk home in the evening along ancient streets hugging baguettes under their arms. A woman in the visitor center, who seemed genuinely glad to see me, said the town has 13,000 permanent residents—about the same number as lived there during the Middle Ages.  Impressionists including Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro came to Moret-sur-Loing, about 6 miles south of Fontainebleau and a favorite subject for painters thanks to its medieval architecture and its setting on the Loing. The river is lovely, but I’m drawn to this fortified village more by the contents of the freezer at Mille et Une Glaces, an artisan glacier on rue de l’Église. No matter how many ice-cream shops you’ve been to, this one is special. (Have you ever tried cassis noir de Bourgogne sorbet? I didn’t think so.) The pièce de résistance is a sorbet-nougat combo in the shape of an artist’s palette (13 rue de l’Église, 1001glaces.fr).  Painter Alfred Sisley spent the last 10 years of his life in Moret, filling canvas after canvas with scenes of the river, the bridge, the mills and the canal. Plaques mark the spots where the impressionists set up their easels, and one way to tour the place is to follow this painters’ trail. Another is simply to wander around—it’s hard to miss the sights in this town of just over 4,000 people. They include the gates that protected Moret through the Middle Ages, as well as an ornate Renaissance facade by sculptor Jean Goujon and architect Pierre Lescot (perhaps best known for their work on the Louvre) which was part of a house that was built here for Francis I in 1523. But Sisley was right: The main attraction is the river itself, luminous and ever-changing. On a recent day, a heron stood transfixed in the shallows and, on the bridge that the painter made famous, a young man strolled back and forth, back and forth, like someone entranced.  Getting There: The Ticket Mobilis, sold at all Paris Metro stations, is an all-day pass good for rail, bus and Metro lines (about $19 for these destinations). Trains for Fontainebleau-Avon and Moret-Veneux-des-Sablons depart from the Gare de Lyon; for Provins from Gare de l’Est. See transilien.com for timetables. Also see the Paris by Train blog, by Canadian blogger Ben Lam (parisbytrain.com).  Touring There: The museum at the Château de Fontainebleau is open every day except Tuesday, from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and to 6 p.m. through September (musee-chateau-fontainebleau.fr). The château’s newly restored Turkish Boudoir and Palace Theater are both worthwhile and must be seen on separate guided tours that you can book through Cultival, a Paris-based travel agency (cultival.fr; +33-8-25-05-44-05).  Tourist information on Provins, including an app available in English, can be found at provins.net.  Moret-sur-Loing does not have an online resource available in English; for tourist information in French go to ville-moret-sur-loing.com.  “An Hour From Paris” covers 20 lesser-known destinations, all of them accessible by train (from about $13, anhourfromparis.com).  Eating There: Tiny, friendly El Selva, hidden on a quiet street in Avon, halfway between the train station and the château, is one of those old-fashioned restaurants where the chef greets you, takes your order, brings it to your table and waves goodbye at the end. The food is Mexican and the mojitos out of this world (9 Rue des Déportés, Avon; +33-1-60-57-01-45).  In Fontainebleau, follow the market vendors to Chez Bernard, a classic bistro across from the château, where Bernard Crogiez lays out enough late-morning bar snacks to revive a hardworking clientele that has been moving produce, in some cases, since 3 a.m. (3 Rue Royale, Fontainebleau; +33-1-64-22-24-68; restaurant-chateau-fontainebleau.fr). If you come on a Friday or a Sunday, you will find at the outdoor marketplace everything you need for a picnic, including the corkscrew (between Rue Royale and Rue de France across from the château on Tuesday, Friday, and Sunday from 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.).  In Moret-sur-Loing, Le Bistrot du Loing is the restaurant of choice among expats, who like to sit on the terrace and enjoy the view that inspired Pissarro, Monet and Sisley (1 Route de St. Mammès; +33-1-64-23-64-67).  La Croix d’Or, located between the train station and the visitors center in Provins, serves classic fare at a leisurely pace in a 13th-century hostelry; on Sundays, it’s packed with French families lingering over magret du canard, local brie, and profiteroles dipped in pots of chocolate (1 rue des Capucins, +33-1-64-00-01-96).
Where do Parisians go for a change of scenery? For culture, history, fresh air and beauty of another order, follow them on quick jaunts to their favorite escapes just outside the city.