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 …
On the serene Dordogne River, Bergerac is a medieval town of corbelled houses surrounded by green countryside with vineyards and farms. You’re in an eminent wine region here, and have days-worth of châteaux, cooperatives and museums to tour, while the wine council for the entire region meets at a dignified renaissance cloister in the town. …
Fair to say that Limoges has always been good with its hands: First with its luxuriant painted enamels in the middle ages, and then later when the city became one of the world’s porcelain centres. The Museum of Fine Arts and Adrien Dubouché will bring you face to face with this extraordinary legacy. Limoges’ Quartier …
This beautiful state has it all: history from being one of the original 13 colonies, a gorgeous atlantic coastline, and beautiful nature and mountain ranges. South Carolina manages to balance sophisticated cities with quaint Southern charm tucked away in small towns. Whether you’re familiar with the region or new to town, there are dozens of …
The administrative centre of France’s new Grand Est region, Metz has been a base of power for more than 2,000 years. The Cour d’Or museum, which illuminates eastern France’s late-antiquity and early middle ages, will help you to come to terms with the time when the Merovingian kings of Austrasia ruled their kingdoms from this …
Grasse, on the French Riviera, is the fragrance capital of France and can be an olfactory odyssey if you have a passion for perfumes. The town has an international museum for perfume-making, three perfumeries to tour and if that’s not enough you go to the farms where sweet-smelling flowers are harvested for fragrances. When you’re …
If you want to get the most out of Le Havre you have to come ready to experience somewhere that differs from a normal, picturesque French city. Le Havre looked to the future and hired the modernist Auguste Perret, a mentor of Le Corbusier, to rebuild the centre following the destruction of the Second World …