Roughly halfway between Paris and Disneyland. Noisy-le-Grand isn’t a tourist destination in its own right. But if you’re staying here you’ll have a lot of other interesting things to hunt down in the area. The Disneyland resort, with two theme parks and accompanying amenities and attractions, isn’t far to the east. While you can take …
For most of its history La Seyne-sur-Mer was an industrial enclave supporting the Port of Toulon. La Seyne was a shipbuilding town, and its yards were still launching boats in the 1980s. But since then the town has turned to tourism, regenerating the waterside, opening restaurants and building accommodation. This transformation is symbolised by the …
A distant northwestern suburb of Paris, Pontoise is in the Cergy-Pontoise conurbation. This “new town” was built in the 1980s and became a reference for urban design and cutting-edge architecture. The cityscape showed up in several movies in the 1980s, like Eric Rohmer’s Boyfriends and Girlfriends. And even Cergy-Pontoise can pack a punch, especially when …
A former textile town in the southwest, Castres has been a hive of trade and industry going back 2,000 years. You can glimpse this business on the banks of the River Agout, where medieval tanners’ houses were built with basement doors to help them get to water quicker. In the 17th century Castres was the …
Poissy is a town west of Paris, only 20 minutes by train from the capital but with many worthwhile sights of its own. Way back it was a royal city, and the birthplace of Kings Louis IX and Philippe III. The Colloquy of Poissy was a huge event that happened here in 1561, an unsuccessful …
Southwest of Paris, Rambouillet will always be synonymous with its resplendent château. Up to 2009 the estate was a home for Kings, Emperors and French presidents. The château nestles in dazzling grounds with canals and manicured formal gardens. There are also a couple of hidden follies to track down, including a dairy made purposely for …
In northern Gironde, where the Isle River merges with the Dordogne, Libourne is a venerable bastide town with mythical wine labels in its backyard. In medieval times the wine from Pomerol, Fronsac and Saint-Émilion was brought to Libourne’s river harbour to be exported to England, the Netherlands and the Hanseatic trading cities. Now, Libourne is …
To the west of Paris, Nanterre is a residential suburb that overlaps with some of the ultra-modern business district La Défense. Paris-Nanterre University is a local claim to fame as it’s rated among the best in the country. In Nanterre you’re a short drive or train ride from all sorts of cool places, whether it’s …
You’ll already know the name of this southern Parisian by the airport. And while that isn’t a poetic way to sum up Orly, it’s not really known as a holiday destination. But if you find yourself here you’ll be close to the centre of Paris and many underrated places in the Val-de-Marne Department. We’ll start …
This town in the Pays de Loire was caught up in the French Revolution worse than any other in the country. There was a cataclysmic battle here in 1793, when much of Cholet burned down. The battlefield has been marked with a orientation table, and the municipal museum will recount the battle and introduce the …