Things to do in France

24 places worth the trip in France, grouped by what they are. Every guide explains what to see, the best time to go and the practical details, checked against official sources. Best time to visit France: Apr–Jun, Sep–Oct.

Heritage (10)
Cities (6)
Nature (3)
Museums (2)
Landmarks (1)
Mosques & temples (1)
Mountains (1)

Heritage in France

Mont-Saint-Michel abbey and village on its rocky tidal island under a cloudy sky, with the footbridge and grassy salt meadows in front.

Le Mont-Saint-Michel, Manche, Normandy

Mont-Saint-Michel

A rocky islet of about seven hectares rising to 92 metres, topped by a medieval abbey dedicated to the Archangel Michael and ringed by a walled village. It stands in a bay with one of the largest tidal ranges in Europe and is listed by UNESCO, together with its bay, as a World Heritage Site.

Exterior of the Palace of Versailles with its statue-lined roofline above the arched Orangerie terrace and rows of potted trees.

Versailles, Yvelines, Île-de-France

Palace of Versailles

The seat of the French monarchy from Louis XIV to Louis XVI, Versailles combines a vast palace, formal gardens laid out by André Le Nôtre and the more intimate Trianon estate. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979 and is an easy day trip from central Paris.

A narrow shingle beach curving below grassy cliffs, with calm sea and a long headland under scattered cloud

Calvados and Manche, Normandy

D-Day Landing Beaches, Normandy

The stretch of Normandy coast where Allied troops came ashore on 6 June 1944 at five beaches code-named Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword. Around Omaha Beach, the Normandy American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer and the shell-cratered headland of Pointe du Hoc are among the most visited places of remembrance.

The long pale façade of Chambord with its round towers and crowded rooftop, seen across the water under white clouds

Chambord, Loir-et-Cher, Centre-Val de Loire

Château de Chambord

A vast Loire Valley château begun in 1519 for King Francis I and famous for its double-helix staircase inspired by Leonardo da Vinci. It stands in a walled forest park of more than 50 square kilometres and is part of the Loire Valley World Heritage Site.

The pale stone façade and towers of the Palais des Papes above wide steps and the palace square on a sunny winter day

Avignon, Vaucluse, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

Avignon and the Palais des Papes

For most of the fourteenth century Avignon was the seat of the papacy, and the popes built a fortified Gothic palace here that dominates the old town. The palace, the cathedral, the Petit Palais and the surviving arches of the Saint-Bénézet bridge form a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The stone village of Gordes stacked on its hillside with green trees below and a wide valley under a blue sky

Gordes and Roussillon, Vaucluse, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

Luberon hill villages (Gordes and Roussillon)

Gordes and Roussillon face each other across the valley north of the Luberon range, a few kilometres apart. Gordes is a village of pale stone houses stacked below a Renaissance castle, while Roussillon is painted in the warm colours of the ochre quarries that surround it; both belong to Les Plus Beaux Villages de France.

The golden limestone arches of the Pont du Gard rising in three tiers under a blue sky with white clouds

Vers-Pont-du-Gard, Gard, Occitanie

Pont du Gard

The Pont du Gard is the best-preserved part of a Roman aqueduct that carried water about 50 kilometres from springs near Uzès to the city of Nîmes. Its three tiers of limestone arches rise almost 49 metres above the Gardon river, and it has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1985.

The château's long gallery crossing the River Cher on stone arches, with the keep at the far end under a cloudy sky

Chenonceaux, Indre-et-Loire, Centre-Val de Loire

Château de Chenonceau

A Renaissance château built from 1513 on the foundations of a mill, whose long gallery crosses the River Cher on arches. Its story is bound up with Diane de Poitiers, Catherine de' Medici and other women who shaped it, and it is one of the most visited châteaux in France.

Aerial view of the cathedral spire rising above golden-lit rooftops of the old town, with a canal on the right at sunset

Bas-Rhin, Grand Est

Strasbourg

Strasbourg's historic centre occupies the Grande Île, an island encircled by the river Ill, with a red sandstone cathedral whose 142-metre spire was the tallest structure in the world for more than two centuries. The island and the later German-built Neustadt are a UNESCO World Heritage Site that reflects the city's position between French and German culture.

The long line of walls and towers of La Cité on its hill under a pink sky, above gardens and houses of the lower town

Aude, Occitanie

Carcassonne (La Cité)

La Cité de Carcassonne is a walled medieval town on a hill above the river Aude, enclosed by two concentric rings of ramparts with 52 towers. Saved from demolition in the 19th century and restored by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site both as a fortified city and for the influence of its restoration on conservation practice.

Cities in France

The white domes of the Sacré-Cœur basilica beside a tree in daylight

18th arrondissement, Paris, Île-de-France

Montmartre and Sacré-Cœur

Montmartre is the 130-metre hill in the north of Paris that was a separate village until 1860 and later home to artists such as Picasso, Renoir and Toulouse-Lautrec. Its summit is crowned by the Basilica of the Sacré-Cœur, which is free to enter and has one of the widest views over the city.

Aerial view of the walled town on its peninsula, with a long jetty and lighthouse stretching into green sea

Ille-et-Vilaine, Brittany

Saint-Malo

A port city on Brittany's Emerald Coast whose old town, Intra-Muros, is enclosed by granite ramparts on a former island. Once a base for corsairs and the birthplace of Jacques Cartier, it was almost destroyed in 1944 and carefully rebuilt.

The curve of the Baie des Anges and the Promenade des Anglais seen from above the terracotta roofs of the old town, with turquoise sea

Alpes-Maritimes, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

Nice

Nice curves around the Baie des Anges between the Mediterranean and the foothills of the Alps, close to the Italian border. Its seafront Promenade des Anglais, the narrow streets of Vieux Nice and the views from Castle Hill draw visitors all year, and in 2021 the city was inscribed by UNESCO as the winter resort town of the Riviera.

The symmetrical façades of the Place de la Bourse behind the shallow rippling water of the Miroir d'eau under a blue sky

Gironde, Nouvelle-Aquitaine

Bordeaux

Bordeaux curves along a crescent-shaped bend of the Garonne, the Port of the Moon, whose classical stone quays and squares form one of the largest urban World Heritage Sites. The city is the capital of one of the world's best-known wine regions, celebrated in the Cité du Vin, and its Place de la Bourse reflected in the Miroir d'eau has become its emblem.

The spire of Saint-Georges church and a red footbridge across the Saône, with colourful riverside houses beneath a hill

Métropole de Lyon, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes

Lyon

Lyon grew where the Saône meets the Rhône, from the Roman capital of the Gauls to a Renaissance banking and silk city. Its historic site, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1998, includes the cobbled streets of Vieux Lyon, the Roman theatres and basilica on Fourvière hill and the old silk workers' district of the Croix-Rousse.

The stone Palais de l'Isle with its turret standing in the green water of the canal, lined by colourful houses and café awnings

Haute-Savoie, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes

Annecy

Annecy sits at the northern tip of Lake Annecy, about 35 kilometres south of Geneva, where the short river Thiou drains the lake through a medieval old town. Its canals, flower-hung bridges, island prison and turquoise lake framed by limestone mountains make it one of the most visited towns in the French Alps.

Nature in France

Rows of purple lavender in bloom stretching toward a lone tree and a mountain under a pale blue sky.

Valensole plateau (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence) and Gordes (Vaucluse), Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

Lavender fields of Provence

Each summer the farmland of upper Provence turns purple as lavender and its hybrid lavandin come into flower. The best-known fields cover the Valensole plateau between the Durance valley and the Verdon gorges, while the Cistercian abbey of Sénanque near Gordes is framed by the monks' own lavender rows.

White chalk cliffs with green tops curving to an arch and a sea stack, above a shingle beach and turquoise sea under dramatic clouds

Seine-Maritime, Normandy

Étretat

A small resort on Normandy's Alabaster Coast, about 32 kilometres north-east of Le Havre, set in a gap between towering white chalk cliffs. Three natural arches and a 70-metre needle of rock have drawn painters and writers since the nineteenth century.

The turquoise Verdon river winding along the bottom of a steep wooded canyon with grey limestone walls

Alpes-de-Haute-Provence and Var, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

Gorges du Verdon

The Verdon river has carved a canyon roughly 25 kilometres long and up to 700 metres deep through the limestone of upper Provence. Roads along both rims, hiking trails in the depths and the turquoise waters of the river and Lake Sainte-Croix make it one of France's great outdoor destinations.

Museums in France

The glass pyramid of the Louvre in the Cour Napoléon surrounded by the palace wings under a cloudy sky

1st arrondissement, Paris, Île-de-France

Louvre Museum

Housed in a palace that grew from a medieval fortress, the Louvre has been a public museum since 1793 and displays around 35,000 works across eight departments. I. M. Pei's glass pyramid marks the main entrance, and the collections range from antiquity to the mid-19th century.

The stone façade of the Musée d'Orsay with its clock under a blue sky

7th arrondissement, Paris, Île-de-France

Musée d'Orsay

Set in the former Gare d'Orsay on the Left Bank, opposite the Louvre and the Tuileries, the Musée d'Orsay covers French art from 1848 to 1914. It holds the largest collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works anywhere, from Monet and Renoir to Van Gogh and Gauguin.

Landmarks in France

The Eiffel Tower seen from the Trocadéro at sunrise, with a clear blue sky and the Paris skyline stretching to the right.

7th arrondissement, Paris, Île-de-France

Eiffel Tower and central Paris

The wrought-iron tower built for the 1889 World's Fair stands on the Left Bank of the Seine at the end of the Champ de Mars. Visitors can climb or ride up to two platforms and take a lift to the summit, and the tower sits within the stretch of riverbank that UNESCO lists as Paris, Banks of the Seine.

Mosques & temples in France

The twin-towered west front of Notre-Dame de Paris with its carved portals and rose window

Île de la Cité, 4th arrondissement, Paris, Île-de-France

Notre-Dame de Paris

Begun in 1163, Notre-Dame is one of the defining buildings of French Gothic architecture, with its twin-towered west front, flying buttresses and great rose windows. After the fire of April 2019 destroyed its spire and roof, it was restored and reopened in December 2024, and entry to the cathedral is free.

Mountains in France

Snow-covered buildings of the Aiguille du Midi summit station on a rocky ridge, with the Chamonix valley and snowy peaks far below

Haute-Savoie, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes

Chamonix and Mont Blanc

Chamonix sits at about 1,035 metres in a narrow valley at the foot of the Mont Blanc massif, close to the borders with Italy and Switzerland. It is one of the birthplaces of mountaineering and hosted the first Winter Olympics in 1924, and its cable car climbs to the Aiguille du Midi at 3,842 metres for close views of Mont Blanc and its glaciers.

France holiday packages

The Eiffel Tower seen from the Trocadéro at sunrise, with a clear blue sky and the Paris skyline stretching to the right.

CultureCity break

France · 8 nights4★ Hotel

Paris & Provence

Louvre and Seine cruise
Palace of Versailles
Luberon hill villages

Includes accommodation · daily breakfast · paris–avignon tgv train · guided sightseeing

Indicative from

$3,196 pp

Mont-Saint-Michel abbey and village on its rocky tidal island under a cloudy sky, with the footbridge and grassy salt meadows in front.

CultureFamily

France · 7 nights4★ Boutique

Paris, Normandy & the Loire Valley

Mont-Saint-Michel
D-Day beaches
Château de Chambord

Includes accommodation · daily breakfast · private transfers · guided sightseeing

Indicative from

$2,847 pp

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