In Burgundy on the navigable River Yonne, Auxerre is an inland port with a lovable old town and solemn churches that power above the skyline. Those old religious buildings are even more ancient than they appear from the outside: The Abbaye Saint-Germain goes deep into the Dark Ages and has the earliest Christian church frescos …
Where the Limia River arrives at the Atlantic Ocean, Viana do Castelo is a lovely historic city. In the old town, especially at Praça da República, there’s 16th-century Manueline and Renaissance architecture to win your heart. Behind the city looms the Monte de Santa Luiza, which can be reached by the longest funicular railway in …
In Aquitaine’s Lot-et-Garonne Department, Agen is a conventional town that doesn’t concern itself much with tourism. But that isn’t to say there’s nothing to see or do. The Fine Arts Museum is a match for any in the region, and the Canal de Garonne promises bike rides or boat trips along a verdant valley beside …
Starting out as a humble royal hunting lodge for the Forest of Compiègne, this cultured town quickly came into fashion in the 1800s when it won the approval of Napoleon I and Joséphine. In the First and Second Empires Compiègne hosted the imperial court and was completely transformed. Top of your list should be the …
A Provençal town climbing the stiff slope of the Colline du Castéou, Hyères is almost anything you want to it be. For summer fun like watersports and lazing by the sea, there are paradisiacal sandy beaches and matchless conditions for sailing and diving. For culture there’s a lovely old town that winds up the hill, …
An enchanting medieval city, Bourges was the capital of the historic Province of Berry and a centre of trade in the 15th and 16th centuries. The old town is replete with luxurious mansions built for merchants, side-by-side with top-heavy half-timbered houses. The cathedral is an absolute wonder and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, looking like …
Couched in a valley between mountain ranges in the Prealps, Chambéry is a historic city that was once the capital of its own sovereign state. The old centre is a confusion of alleys and dim passageways, ruled by the Château from which the Dukes of Savoy commanded a large tranche of central Europe. The architecture, …
A down-to-earth port city, Sète was planned and built in one go in the 1660s as the Mediterranean terminus of the ambitious Canal du Midi. The city still gets a lot of maritime traffic and is etched with waterways, which are fine for walks or cruises. A roll-call of cherished French artists, poets and musicians, …
Balanced on a rocky ridge above the Charente River, Angoulême is a stone-built city made all the more beautiful by its vertiginous slopes. The old walls that once barricaded the upper town were pulled down in the 1700s to form terrace paths and boulevards blessed with distant views of the Charente and the Anguinne Valleys. …
In the south of Normandy’s Orne department, Alençon is a genteel town on the River Sarthe that many people will already know for its lace-making. In fact the town is often described as the “queen of lace”, and the trade here has won UNESCO recognition as “intangible cultural heritage”. You can investigate this side to …