Winning fame as the closest beach to Paris, the seafront at Dieppe has a long line of 19th-century mansions and hotels from when sea resorts first became fashionable. The windswept pebble beach is invigorating in winter and promises classic fun in the sun in summer. But Dieppe is a lot more than a resort, as …
In the Belle Époque, Europe’s aristocracy fell head over heels for Menton, the last French Riviera resort before Italy. Queen Victoria stayed in 1882 and the Imperial Russian expat community was so big they built their own church. There are still lots of hints about this past, from the cemetery with the tombs of gentry …
“Venice of the North” sounds like an nickname that would be hard to live up to. But Amiens, with its floating gardens and pretty canal district, does a fantastic job. You could catch a barge and cruise through the Hortillonnages, historic farmland reclaimed in the middle ages from former marshes, or stop at a canal-side …
Encompassing a big swathe of south-western France, the Midi-Pyrénées is as varied as it is large. In the north you’re in the craggy limestone foothills of the Massif Central, while to the south the Pyrenees and its foothills provide some of Western Europe’s most invigorating natural landscapes. The revered Way of St. James courses through …
Narbonne as founded as “Narbo”, a Roman settlement on the Via Domitia that grew rich from sea trade via its natural harbour. You can get a feel for the splendour of Norbo’s Roman homes at the Archbishop’s Palace, where wall-paintings retrieved from ancient villas form the largest collection of Roman painting in France. The medieval …
Ancient Nemausus was a city on the Via Domitia, the first Roman road built in Gaul. Now, many hundreds of years after the fall of Rome the monuments constructed here in the 1st century are as good as new. The extraordinary amphitheatre is still used as a stadium for festivals, while the Maison Carrée is …
For much of its existence until the 1980s, Alès was a city nourished by the coal industry. Tourism in the city revolves around this heritage, so you can venture into a former mine and marvel at the hoard of minerals and precious stones at the campus of the city’s old mining school. Alès is in …
At the very south of Burgundy is a sweet town by the Saône, where the region’s glazed roofs and timber framed buildings are replaced by the flat-fronted pastel houses of the south. Suddenly you get the sense that you’re approaching the Mediterranean in Mâcon, which despite being small has lots to hold your attention for …
“Le Mans” means racing: The venerated 24 Hour of Le Mans is still going strong almost a century after the first race. Motorsport lovers can pay homage at the track, and even drive parts of it as the course uses public roads. Then see the veritable treasury of racing heritage at the circuit’s museum. Yet …
The capital of the Corse-du-Sud has the happy knack of packaging all of the things that people adore about Corsica. You’ve got history, because Napoleon Bonaparte was born and baptised in the city, and his family donated lots of exciting memorabilia to the museums. There’s cinematic natural scenery at Pointe de la Parata a few …