On a plateau between the Jura Mountains and the Vosges is a city that has been hotly contested for a millennium. Belfort was the only feasible route into France for hundreds of kilometres to the north or south, and many French Kings and leaders did their best to fortify it. Louis XIV ordered the Iron …
The largest town in Haute Provence is embedded in the Luberon Regional Park between steep pine-decked hills. Manosque and its surroundings will live up to your image of Provence, in a region of pine scrub, olive groves, tall ochre-painted houses and river gorges. L’Occitane, the Provençal beauty brand is based here and entertains guests on …
In southwestern France’s Gers department, Auch is a city that will steal your heart the moment you see the old Episcopal quarter, raised impossibly high above the Gers River. The Haute-Ville as it’s called, is so steep that in medieval times special stairways were built to help its citizens get down to the river safely. …
In south central France, the pretty town of Aurillac is the capital of the hilly Cantal Department. The harmless-looking green hills that cushion the town have a more violent history. They’re the remnants of the largest stratovolcano in Europe, measuring 70 by 50 kilometres and towering to 4,000 metres. It’s a far cry from the …
On the Loire, Roanne is a former river port that has been reborn as a tourist getaway. Most people are aware of Raonne for two reasons: The archaeological museum, which has an Egyptology department up there with the best in the country. But also for food, as the restaurant La Maison Troisgros here has held …
Billed as the gateway to Burgundy, Sens is a town that had its glory years in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. At that time the archbishop here exerted serious power; future popes studied in Sens, and Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury spent his exile here. These times are recounted at the town’s museum in …
On a plateau above the Marne River, Chaumont is a neat, understated town not far from the Champagne wine region. Graphic designers may already know Chaumont because it’s home to an annual festival for poster design and in 2016 opened France’s only graphic art museum. The headline sight is the 19th-century railway viaduct that continues …
A southern suburb of Paris, Massy is a new town laid out for commuters in the 1960s. Before it was developed this area had been a remote rural getaway for people like the Romantic writer Chateaubriand and Colbert, the powerful Minister of Finance under Louis XIV. You can visit their old homes, which both have …
Ermont is an outlying suburb to the northwest of Paris. But though the capital might seem a long way away, you’re only 10 minutes from Saint-Denis and 15 from the Gare du Nord on public transport. You’ll also have the chance to poke around an area that isn’t seen by many tourists. In the 19th …
In case you need reminding that relations between France and Germany haven’t always been cordial, come to Thionville in the Grand Est Region. The town, close to the Luxembourg border has been hotly contested since it was founded, and has witnessed six sieges in the last 500 years alone. The more recent conflicts between the …