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Planning a trip to France? Whether you're a gourmand or a history buff, a sun seeker or a shopper, everything in this country seems to derive from or end up in Paris. It's the starting point for most trips, and with its world-class museums, ever-renewing neighborhoods, and cavalcade of classic and new restaurants, it'd be easy to spend your whole trip there. However, the rest of France provides an equally staggering embarrassment of riches. Hop a train south to Provence where Roman ruins sit among medieval villages and pine-covered mountains, and the Côte d'Azur, where celebs and socialites pack sunny beaches and swanky nightclubs.
Art lovers will want to reserve significant time for classics like the Louvre, Musée Rodin, and Musée d'Orsay in Paris, and then head to the many small Impressionist museums in Provence and along the coast. For architectural grandeur, explore the Gothic cathedrals in Reims, the Champagne region, and Normandy, as well as Paris's Notre-Dame, Sainte-Chapelle, and Saint-Eustache. Or head to the Loire Valley to tour (or spend the night in) the region's grand châteaux. And if you'd rather a feast for your stomach than your eyes, head to Lyon, the center of France's butter-and-cream culinary culture, or to Bordeaux, a revitalized city at the center of one of the world's most prestigious wine-growing regions. Any short visit will tend to excess, mais c'est la vie.
The best museums in Paris awe with beauty or provide a deepened understanding of the city. The Musée National du Moyen Age (also known as the...more
see the Paris guidePicasso had his studio in Antibes' Château Grimaldi for just three months back in 1946. But it was a prolific period in which he found inspiration in his...more
see the Côte d'Azur guideLocated at the back of a maze of streets in residential Cagnes-sur-Mer, this complex is made up of two-story traditional Provençal houses with a series of...more
see the Côte d'Azur guideRodin's powerful bronze and stone sculptures would be stunning even if they were displayed in a parking lot, but here, they're housed in a 1728 private mansion,...more
see the Paris guideNice is chock-full of high-energy eating, drinking, and culture, all of which reflects the city's Italian heritage and proximity to Italy. Nice is the fifth...more
see the Côte d'Azur guideLes Arènes, perhaps the world's best-preserved Roman amphitheatre, and the Maison Carrée, ditto in temples (33-4-66-21-82-56;...more
see the Provence guideTowering on the highest point of the city, 532 feet above the harbor, the neo-Byzantine Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde was originally built as a small chapel in the...more
see the Marseille guide
Faith may have helped Bishop Maurice de Sully get Notre-Dame underway in 1160, but ceaseless toil is what finished the job by the end of the century. Despite...more
see the Paris guideNoyers is a remarkably handsome, thoroughly restored medieval fortress town on the Serein River about 13 miles south of Chablis. Artists and artisans d'art have...more
see the Burgundy guideThe massive Palais des Papes, built when the Holy See moved its seat to Avignon in the early 1300s fearing insurrection in Rome, is impregnable and austere. It...more
see the Avignon guide
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