Current Time
Currency
see + do
France see + do
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 vast cobbled square of Place du Palais offers a crash course in the history of European architecture, flanked as it is by buildings dating from almost every...more
see the Avignon guide
The winding, cobbled paths of Père-Lachaise spread over 100 acres in the 20th Arrondissement, knotting around thousands of historic tombs, giant old trees,...more
see the Paris guideThe best approach to seeing the French capital is with a lot of shoe leather and a good guide, which is why it's so much fun to join a Paris Walks tour. Owned...more
see the Paris guideTo get the big picture of the region, visit Parc Rocher des Doms, where on a clear day you should be able to see as far as Mont Ventoux—at 6,263 feet, the...more
see the Avignon guideOn the eastern edge of the city near the Corniche is the 100-acre peaceful oasis of Parc Borély. It boasts the 18th-century Château Borély,...more
see the Marseille guideThe Palais Royal is just across the Rue de Rivoli from the mobbed Louvre, yet surprisingly few people wander into the compound's quiet, colonnaded courtyard....more
see the Paris guideAfter lying dormant for several years, this Art Moderne gallery burst back onto the scene under the edgy aegis of curators Nicolas Bourriaud and...more
see the Paris 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 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 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 guide
RSS Feeds