10 Best Restaurants in Side Trips from Paris, France

Beamed ceilings, tiled floors, and charming accents are just the beginning of a thoroughly enjoyable dining experience at this traditional bistro in the heart of Barbizon. All the beloved French classics—chevre chaud, leeks vinaigrette, entrecôte de boeuf, noix de Saint-Jacques, steak tartare—are served just as they're meant to be for lunch and dinner. If you're hankering after a skillfully prepared, deeply French meal, this is the place—and it's open seven days a week, a rarity in France.

This cozy bistro's namesake studied at the prestigious Ferrandi school and cut her teeth at Joël Robuchon in Paris before returning to her hometown to open her own "bistronomique" restaurant (meaning gastronomic bistro). The refined menu offers seasonal dishes made with ingredients from sustainable farms when possible, and all the wines are organic. Dining on the terrace, overlooking the fountain on Chartres' pretty Evora Square, is a joy in warm weather.

The adventurous cuisine served at Les Feuillantines (one of Chartres’s few gastronomic restaurants) rarely falters and very often soars. Try the superb house-made terrine with tangy cornichons to start, followed by duck risotto topped with caramelized shallots or beef ravioli perfumed with lemongrass and smoked tea. For dessert, the copious cheese plate, vanilla-flecked baba au rhum, and divine melted-chocolate cake all hit the spot. In warmer months, the garden is an added bonus, as is a good, if slightly unimaginative, wine list. The location (on a tiny street near the cathedral) is convenient, and in terms of quality for price this cozy spot can’t be beat.

In the center of town just a few minutes from the Musée Maurice Denis, this contemporary French-style bistro is popular for its bright decor and healthy Swedish-inflected recipes. Appetizers like toasts Skagen—tiny shrimps in homemade dilled mayonnaise on toast—and salmon gravlax or marinated herring are fresh, healthy, and delicious. There's also beautifully prepared dishes like veal and lamb for meat lovers. Homemade desserts are a must. Two- or three-course lunch menus are a good bet for dishes of this quality. Book ahead if possible, especially at dinnertime.

Back in Monet's day, this pretty-in-pink villa was the favorite hotel of the American painters' colony. Today it remains one of the most charming spots in the Île-de-France (despite the tourists), although the surroundings retain more historic charm than the simple cuisine (mainly salads large enough to count as a main course in their own right, or straightforward, if unremarkable, dishes like an omelet or gigot d'agneau [lamb and mutton]). A decent three-course prix-fixe menu is available at lunch and dinner. Renovated to appear as it did in Monet's time, the dining room is stage-set rustic; and there’s an extraordinarily pretty rose garden out back with embowered paths that lead to the studio Cézanne once used.

An unapologetic carnivore, chef Alix Guiet bucks the trend for veggie-conscious cuisine in his handsome new restaurant a quick walk from the palace. The seasonal menu offers all the tried-and-true French classics—sautéed duck hearts, bone marrow on toast, veal liver, and steak tartare—from the famous meat-producing regions of France, served with your choice of delicious, artery-clogging sauce: green peppercorn, béarnaise, beurre Roquefort, etc. There's also a choice of fish dishes. The dining room, in a restored 17th-century town house, is sleek, bright, and comfortable, with wood-beam ceilings, white paneling, and tasteful artwork—and the meals served here are reasonably priced and of extremely high quality. Classic desserts (baba au rhum, brioche pain perdu) round out the meal.

Housed in the stone-vaulted kitchens of the Château de Chantilly's legendary 17th-century chef Vorace Vatel, this quaint restaurant has an open-hearth fireplace big enough for whole lambs or oxen to sizzle on the spit. Reflect at leisure on your cultural peregrinations over mouthfuls of grilled turbot or roast quail, and don't forget to add a good dollop of homemade crème de Chantilly to your dessert. Open from noon to 5, it offers à la carte options plus a €35 prix-fixe menu.

The 15-minute walk from the palace gates to this cozy, well-priced bistro is rewarded by an enticing daily menu of French classics all listed on a blackboard that's brought to your table. Dishes like homemade foie gras, roasted cod, and ham with parsley sauce are made with ingredients fresh from local suppliers. Best of all is the list of 200 natural French wines, many served by the glass, and the very reasonably priced, three-course dinner menu. Be sure to reserve ahead of time, as it's very popular with the locals.