France 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 today it provides nonstop action and some of the nation’s best cuisine. Throughout its 2600-year history, Marseille has been an action-filled melting pot. Nice , on the Côte d’Azur, is a glamorous party town of beautiful beaches. With a hybrid Franco-German culture and world-class museums, Strasbourg was the obvious choice to house the European Parliament. Students are the heart of northern Lille and Breton Rennes , cities that mix medieval vieille villes and major museums with a frenzied club scene. In the southwest, Bordeaux has great architecture and better wine, sophisticated Montpellier is the gay capital of France, and rosy Toulouse livens up the Languedoc with student-fueled nightlife and modern art.

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For 52 years, we have published the world’s favorite budget travel guides, written entirely by students and updated every year. With pen and notebook in hand and a few changes of underwear stuffed in our backpacks, we spend months roaming the globe in search of travel bargains.