Ideas for France half term

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We are thinking of driving to France from Dover for a few nights in half term, with the DCS (13&15)

We had originally planned to drive to Lille as a base, and then do a day trip to Paris.

Lille seems really expensive for air bnbs though.

I don’t really know France that well, and so if anyone has any ideas for a 3 night break where we could incorporate Paris, I’d be grateful if you would share
thank you

Do you mean half-term as in next week?

We stayed in Versaille - so on the ourskirts of Paris but very easy to drive to and it was simple to get the train into the centre of Paris for a visit. And you can visit Versaille whilst you're there which is amazing (book in advance!). We stayed at a Huttopia site which was really lovely and a great base for exploting Paris - europe.huttopia.com/en/

To drive in most French cities you now need a Crit-Air (emmisions) permit which might be difficult to get by next week as you have to apply online and the permit is posted to you. You can still drive in France without one but would need to avoid some of the city centres.

I’ve been researching something similar for summer.

I would like to go to Versailles, but is south west/west of Paris, so I’d say perhaps not ideal for driving to just for 3 nights.

Having visited Paris recently, it’s worth noting that lots of things get booked up in advance. Do you know what you want to see in Paris?

Lille - were you intending to get the train from Lille to Paris? I think it’s just over an hour on the TGV, but it gets booked up and can be expensive. Assume you can just get a slower and cheaper regional train but not sure. The good thing with those is that the price doesn’t fluctuate.

There’s a place called Lens just south west of Lille. I’ve never been but they have a branch of the Louvre there.

What about Chantilly. Nearer to Paris and there’s a fancy chateau there. I think there’s also a theme park nearby - Parc Asterix