By Annabel Simms

Ok, so you’ve seen Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. You’ve had your coffee in a Left-Bank café and dined at a little Paris bistrot. But you’ve heard people speaking English all around you and you can’t escape the feeling that you are part of a crowd treading a pretty well-worn path.

Have you ever wondered what lies behind the tourist façade of central Paris and where all those busy Parisians rushing past you in the Métro are going?

Actually, four out of five working Parisians don’t live in Paris at all. They live in little towns and villages up to 50 miles away but within easy reach of the centre by train. They commute to Paris on one of the world’s best suburban train networks, the efficiency of which they take for granted, and most of them know as little about the other places served by the trains as any tourist.

The Paris countryside (it’s surprisingly rural 15 miles from the centre) is crossed by a network of little rivers around which are clustered old towns, half-hidden châteaux, cathedrals, a Victorian chocolate factory on an island and even a Roman arena, not to mention country footpaths and small riverside restaurants. Its beauty and its rich history is almost entirely overlooked by the locals – and by everyone else.

So if you get on the commuter trains outside rush hour to explore these places you won’t find any crowds. But you will experience the continuity of a relaxed way of life that is deeply French, underpinning the glamour of Paris. Your foreign accent will be a source of pleased surprise, not a signal to bring you a milky coffee.

I first started exploring the region by train 18 years ago, when I moved to Paris from London. It took me several years to realise that I had the makings of a unique guidebook designed for car-less foreign visitors: 20 little-known daytrips, all within an hour or less of Paris by train. An Hour From Paris was published in 2002. My criteria were interest, accessibility, lack of crowds and added value, in that order. The ‘interest’ might be an artist’s country house, a château or a museum, and the ‘added value’ a forest, park or garden, a local restaurant with open-air dancing, a concert, boat trip or ferry, or a riverside or country walk, ideally leading to a different station. All the daytrips had at least two of these, usually more.

The book was a success, appealing to the adventurous visitors who suspect that there is more to Paris than the Eiffel Tower but don’t know where to find it. It is illustrated with colour photos, specially drawn local maps clearly showing the stations and points of interest mentioned in the text, the essential historical context and enough detailed practical information to enable readers to make the most of the excellent but little-publicised train network. You can find more about the revised 2008 edition at www.anhourfromparis.com.