France Sights And Activities

• Best Place To Kiss: On the steps leading to Montmartre , the longest and most panoramic climb in Paris, especially at dusk.
• Best Prehistoric Decor: The awesome cave paintings at Lascaux and Les-Eyzies-de-Tayac .
• Best Excuse For Drinking: The free dégustations don’t stop as you stumble merrily along the av. de Champagne in Épernay .
• Best Places To Lose Your Tan Lines: The delightfully debaucherous city of Saint-Tropez and clothing-optional beaches in Corsica .
• Longest Shots: The still-loaded German artillery in Longues-sur-Mer ; your chances at the famous Monte Carlo Casino .
• Most Unusual Foods: Blood sausage in Alsace and bone marrow in Paris . Eat up!
• Best Living Canvases: The gorgeous orchards and harbor of Collioure , which inspired Matisse, Dalí, and Picasso; Arles , home of Van Gogh’s cafes and lost ear; the fruit that Cézanne made famous in Aix-en-Provence .
• Best Reasons To Gasp For Air: Hiking Mont Blanc ; crossing the border into Spain through the Pyrenees ; biking to the Loire Valley’s famous châteaux.
• Best Reasons To Wish For World Peace: Normandy’s WWII D-Day Beaches ; tiny Oradour-sur-Glane , untouched since Nazis massacred its entire population; the bones of 130,000 unknown soldiers at the Ossuaire outside Verdun .
• Biggest Egos: Louis XIV, responsible for Versailles ; Napoleon, who still haunts his hometown of Ajaccio ; François I, creator of France’s biggest party house, Chambord .

• Bright Lights, Big City

While Paris is one of the world’s best-known cities—for good reason—you’ll also find plenty to do in France’s regional centers. Lyon once had a reputation for being boringly bourgeois, but ...more

• Your Château Or Mine?

French châteaux range from imposing feudal ruins to the country homes of 19th-century industrialists. The greatest concentration is found in the Loire Valley , where the hilltop fortresses of Chinon ...more

• Into The Wild

The Alps deserve their fame, offering thrilling ski slopes at Val d’Isère and Chamonix , but they are just one of France’s four mountain ranges. To the north, you’ll find the rolling Jura Mountains ...more

• Let Them Eat Cake

Paris has its share of Michelin-starred restaurants, but Lyon is the true capital of French cuisine, brimming with inventive—and pricey—culinary gems. Though the French hate to admit it, much of ...more

• La Vie En Rosé

France produces—and consumes—some of the world’s finest inebriants. To get a taste, start with a champagne apéritif from Reims’s caves (wine cellars;). Try the red wines in Bordeaux and Burgundy ...more

• Here Comes The Sun

The Côte d’Azur attracts two types of people—the stars who create its glamor and the masses who come looking for it. Party among Europe’s suntanned youth in Nice and Juan-les-Pins ...more