Paris, c’est belle. (Ou c’est beau. Qui sait?) But it’s not everything, and it’s certainly not all of France. The most incredible thing about Paris is that just a few miles beyond the city limits is some seriously rural countryside. Here and there you’ll find beautiful villages near Paris — maybe with a train station, maybe with a boulangerie, maybe just a post office. There’s nothing nicer than taking the train to a small town like l’Isle-Adam and setting off across the meadows for another, even smaller village. It’s a necessary part of visiting France.