It won’t shock you to hear that Champagne-Ardenne is the home of the world’s favourite sparkling wine. Many people will spend entire holidays touring the prestigious Champagne houses and descending into the cool Crayères, chalk caves where vintners have stored champagne for hundreds of years. The city of Reims is steeped in Champagne history, and …
Life in Cannes is turned on its head during those two weeks in May, when scores of paparazzi, industry bigwigs and the world’s biggest stars are in town for the famous film festival. The remainder of the year it’s a sleek pleasure garden for the world’s wealthiest people, and a honeypot for people seduced by …
It isn’t easy to sum up hundreds of kilometres of coastline in one blog, but we’ve put together a selection of what we believe are the best beaches in the South of France, both on the Atlantic and Mediterranean. There should be something for everyone in the list, whether you want epic natural spectacles and …
Lyon is one large World Heritage Site, with a big renaissance old town, Roman ruins, historic industrial districts and the regal 19th-century Presqu’île quarter. The city was founded 2,000 years ago at the confluence of the Rhône and Saône Rivers, and built its fortune on the silk trade. This industry furnished it with beautiful renaissance …
Nantes will always be known as the capital of Brittany, even though it’s now in a different region. The Dukes of Brittany ruled their lands from here until the Duchy was united with France in the 16th century and their former seat of power is still one of Nantes most commanding buildings. The Loire is …
The astounding walls of Carcassonne’s citadel protected the city for centuries and were left to decay, before getting a full restoration by the 19th-century architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. Never mind that his work might not be the most historically accurate, they’re an architectural wonder all the same and draw visitors to the city from far and …
One of France’s prettiest medieval towns is right on the shore of Europe’s cleanest lake. It just doesn’t get much better than this. Annecy is laced with canals and the historic streets have fun passageways darting off to the sides. The lake is glorious, bordered on all sides by mountains and with crystalline waters that …
Reims is champagne-central, and all your favourite houses are lined up for you to tour and taste. What’s more, and you might not know this, but every single French King, from 987 to Charles X in the 19th century, was crowned right here at the Reims Cathedral. The city also sparkles with minor discoveries that …
A Mediterranean resort that also includes Juan-les-Pins, Antibes has 25 kilometres of coastline and is a getaway for the very rich but also one of the French Riviera’s preferred destinations for French families. You can mix afternoons at the beach with day-trips to Nice and Cannes, which are both minutes from the resort on the …
Biarritz had been a humble whaling town on the Atlantic Ocean before it was discovered in the 1850s by Empress Eugénie de Montijo, the wife of Napoleon III. The couple commissioned an extravagant summer home on what was then just sand dunes, and so the Hôtel du Palais and Biarritz’s reputation as a getaway for …