France has been building since the Romans and rarely stopped. Gothic architecture was invented at Saint-Denis in the 1140s and perfected at Chartres, Reims and Amiens; the Renaissance arrived up the Loire with Italian masons and left 300 châteaux behind; the Republic then turned palaces into museums, which is why the Louvre is the biggest art collection on earth. Add the Roman south — Nîmes, Arles, the Pont du Gard — and the prehistory of the Vézère, and no other country packs this much built history into the same distances.
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If you only do culture & heritage once in France.
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The Louvre The largest art museum in the world, in a former royal palace -
Palace of Versailles The Hall of Mirrors, and 800 hectares of Le Nôtre's geometry -
Chartres Cathedral 176 windows of twelfth-century glass, and a labyrinth in the floor -
La Cité de Carcassonne 52 towers and a double curtain wall — the largest walled city in Europe -
Pont du Gard A three-tier Roman aqueduct bridge, 49 m high and still standing -
Mont-Saint-Michel Abbey A Gothic abbey balanced on a granite rock in a tidal bay
Region by region
Île-de-France
Paris, Versailles and the ring of royal forests and cathedral towns around them
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Paris The Louvre, the Eiffel Tower and twenty arrondissements of it -
Versailles Louis XIV's palace and the largest formal garden in Europe -
Fontainebleau Eight centuries of royal palace, wrapped in a climbers' forest -
Provins A walled medieval Champagne fair town, listed by UNESCO -
Eiffel Tower 324 m of wrought iron that was meant to come down after twenty years -
Notre-Dame de Paris Reopened in December 2024, five years after the fire -
Sacré-Cœur & Montmartre White travertine on the highest hill in Paris, over the old artists' quarter -
Musée d'Orsay The world's greatest Impressionist collection, inside a Beaux-Arts station -
Arc de Triomphe Twelve avenues radiate from it, and the rooftop is the best view of them -
Sainte-Chapelle Fifteen windows, 1,113 scenes, and almost no wall left between them -
The Panthéon Where the Republic buries the people it wants remembered -
Musée Rodin The Thinker and The Gates of Hell, in a garden off the Invalides -
Les Invalides A gilded dome over Napoleon's tomb, and the army museum around it -
The Catacombs Twenty metres down, the bones of six million Parisians -
La Conciergerie A royal palace turned revolutionary prison — Marie-Antoinette's last address - Centre Pompidou Europe's largest modern art collection, in a building worn inside out
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Château de Fontainebleau Eight centuries of French monarchy in one building, and no crowds -
Basilica of Saint-Denis Where Gothic architecture was invented, and 43 kings are buried
Hauts-de-France
Flemish belfries, the Opal Coast and the battlefields of the Somme
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Lille Flemish gables, a giant flea market and the best beer list in France -
Amiens The largest Gothic cathedral in France, and floating market gardens -
Arras Two Flemish baroque squares and the tunnels of the Western Front - Boulogne-sur-Mer France's biggest fishing port, a walled upper town and Nausicaá
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Amiens Cathedral Twice the internal volume of Notre-Dame, and colour-lit after dark - Louvre-Lens A glass Louvre annexe dropped onto a former coal pit
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Château de Chantilly The second-best collection of old masters in France, plus the horses -
Lille's Grand'Place Flemish gables round the old stock exchange, and a second-hand book market inside it
Grand Est
Champagne cellars, the Alsace wine road and Strasbourg's Christmas markets
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Strasbourg A pink sandstone cathedral, La Petite France and the European Parliament -
Colmar Little Venice, the Isenheim Altarpiece and the wine road's capital -
Reims The coronation cathedral, Chagall's windows and champagne cellars beneath -
Épernay The Avenue de Champagne, and 110 km of cellars under it -
Nancy Place Stanislas, gilded railings and the École de Nancy's Art Nouveau -
Metz 6,500 m² of stained glass, and a Centre Pompidou under a Chinese hat -
Troyes Half-timbered Champagne capital, and the original factory outlets -
Verdun The longest battle of the First World War, and its ossuary -
Champagne The chalk, the cellars and the cathedral where French kings were crowned -
Alsace 170 km of wine road, half-timbered villages and the oldest Christmas market in France - Lorraine Nancy's Art Nouveau, Metz's golden cathedral and the battlefield of Verdun
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Strasbourg Cathedral The tallest building on earth from 1647 to 1874, in pink sandstone -
La Petite France Tanners' houses over the canals, on a UNESCO-listed island -
Reims Cathedral Thirty-three kings crowned here, and Chagall's windows behind the altar -
Avenue de Champagne The most valuable street in the world — because of what is under it -
Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg A red sandstone fortress at 750 m with the whole Rhine plain below -
Place Stanislas Gilded ironwork round one of the great squares of Europe -
Metz Cathedral The largest expanse of stained glass in the world — Chagall included
Bourgogne-Franche-Comté
The world's most valuable vineyards, Romanesque abbeys and the Jura's quiet mountains
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Dijon The ducal palace, the Owl's Trail and the top of the Côte d'Or -
Beaune Burgundy's wine capital and the Hospices' polychrome roof -
Besançon A Vauban citadel inside a loop of the Doubs -
Auxerre Yonne riverfront, Chablis vineyards and a Romanesque crypt -
Burgundy 1,247 named vineyard plots, Romanesque abbeys and the Hospices de Beaune -
Hospices de Beaune A fifteenth-century charity hospital under a polychrome tiled roof -
Vézelay A Romanesque hilltop basilica and a starting point of the Camino -
Abbey of Fontenay The oldest complete Cistercian abbey in the world, in its own valley -
Cluny Abbey The largest church in Christendom until St Peter's — and mostly gone -
Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans Ledoux's unfinished utopian factory town, half-built in 1779 -
Citadelle de Besançon Vauban's masterpiece, 100 m above a loop of the Doubs -
Guédelon Castle A castle being built from scratch with thirteenth-century tools -
Rock of Solutré A limestone prow over the Mâconnais vines, and a prehistoric site
Normandy
The D-Day beaches, Mont-Saint-Michel, Monet's Giverny and the alabaster cliffs
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Rouen The cathedral Monet painted thirty times, and where Joan of Arc died -
Caen William the Conqueror's abbeys and the Mémorial peace museum -
Bayeux The Tapestry, an untouched old town and the D-Day beaches next door -
Honfleur The slate-fronted harbour that the Impressionists could not leave alone -
Étretat The chalk arch and needle Monet painted more than eighty times -
Le Havre Auguste Perret's rebuilt concrete city, listed by UNESCO -
Giverny Monet's house, his water garden and the bridge -
Mont-Saint-Michel An abbey on a rock in a bay that empties for kilometres - The D-Day Landing Beaches Utah to Sword — 80 km of coast, the cemeteries above it and the museums behind
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The Bayeux Tapestry Seventy metres of embroidery telling the 1066 invasion, made in the 1070s -
The Cliffs of Étretat The arch and the needle, painted by Monet more than eighty times -
Monet's Garden at Giverny The water lilies, the Japanese bridge, and the house he painted them from -
Rouen Cathedral The façade Monet painted thirty times in different light -
Honfleur's Vieux Bassin Tall slate-fronted houses round a harbour, and the wooden church behind
Brittany
2,700 km of granite coast, standing stones older than the pyramids, and a Celtic language
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Rennes Brittany's capital — half-timbered streets and a student city's nightlife -
Saint-Malo A corsair city inside granite ramparts, rebuilt stone by stone - Dinan Three kilometres of intact ramparts above the Rance
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Quimper Cornouaille's capital — twin spires, faience and the Festival de Cornouaille -
Vannes Walled and half-timbered, at the top of the Gulf of Morbihan -
Carnac Three thousand standing stones, raised before the pyramids -
Belle-Île-en-Mer Brittany's largest island — Monet's needles and the Côte Sauvage -
The Carnac Alignments Around 3,000 standing stones in rows, raised before the pyramids -
The Ramparts of Saint-Malo A complete walled circuit round a city rebuilt stone by stone after 1944 -
Fort la Latte A fourteenth-century castle on its own sea stack, reached by drawbridge -
Locronan A granite square with no overhead wires — which is why films shoot here -
Dinan's Ramparts Three kilometres of intact wall, and a cobbled street down to the port
Pays de la Loire
Where the Loire meets the Atlantic — Nantes, the Vendée beaches and the last châteaux
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Nantes A ducal château, a permanent art trail and a rideable mechanical elephant -
Angers A striped fortress holding 100 metres of fourteenth-century tapestry -
Saumur A white château above troglodyte cellars, and the Cadre Noir -
Le Mans A Roman-walled Plantagenet old town, and 24 hours of racing -
Les Machines de l'Île A 12 m mechanical elephant that carries fifty passengers -
The Apocalypse Tapestry 100 metres of fourteenth-century weaving, the largest to survive anywhere -
Château de Saumur The white fortress from the Très Riches Heures, above the Loire -
Fontevraud Abbey The largest monastic city in Europe, and Eleanor of Aquitaine's tomb - Puy du Fou A history park with no rides, repeatedly voted the world's best
Centre-Val de Loire
The château valley — Chambord, Chenonceau and 280 km of UNESCO river
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Tours The Loire Valley's natural base — and the best rail links between châteaux -
Amboise A royal château above the river, and Leonardo da Vinci's grave -
Blois Four architectural centuries in one courtyard, twenty minutes from Chambord -
Orléans Joan of Arc's city, and the top of the UNESCO river stretch -
Chartres The best-preserved medieval stained glass in the world, in one building -
Bourges A cathedral of extraordinary width, and Jacques Cœur's merchant palace -
Chinon A Plantagenet fortress above red-wine vineyards -
Loire Valley 280 km of UNESCO river and the densest run of Renaissance châteaux in Europe -
Château de Chambord 440 rooms, 282 fireplaces and a double-helix staircase -
Château de Chenonceau Arched across the Cher on five spans — the Ladies' Château -
Château de Villandry Renaissance gardens laid out as geometry, including an edible one -
Château Royal d'Amboise A terrace over the Loire, and Leonardo da Vinci's grave in the chapel -
Château du Clos Lucé Leonardo's last house, with his machines built from the drawings -
Château de Chaumont-sur-Loire A river fortress that runs an international garden festival every summer -
Château d'Azay-le-Rideau Built on an island in the Indre, and reflected in it -
Château Royal de Blois Four centuries of architecture round one courtyard -
Forteresse Royale de Chinon Where Joan of Arc recognised the Dauphin in a crowded hall -
Château de Cheverny Still lived in by the same family — and the model for Hergé's Marlinspike -
Bourges Cathedral No transept, five doorways, and an interior of extraordinary width
Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Bordeaux and its vineyards, the Dordogne's prehistory, and Europe's tallest dune
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Bordeaux An eighteenth-century city on a river, with 6,000 châteaux behind it -
Saint-Émilion A monolithic church cut into rock, ringed by grand cru vineyards -
Bayonne Basque ham, chocolate since the 1600s, and a five-day summer fête -
Sarlat-la-Canéda Golden stone, a Saturday market, and the Dordogne's best base -
La Rochelle Three harbour towers, arcaded streets and the bridge to Île de Ré -
Cognac The Charente, the angels' share, and every house name you know -
Pau A boulevard with the whole Pyrenean chain laid out in front of it - Dordogne Valley Painted caves, clifftop castles and the densest prehistoric record on earth
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Île d'Aix Car-free, crescent-shaped, and Napoleon's last night in France - Lascaux IV A full facsimile of the painted cave — the original is closed for good
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The Vézère Valley Fifteen UNESCO sites and twenty-five decorated caves in one valley -
Saint-Émilion's Monolithic Church Hollowed out of solid limestone over three centuries -
Place de la Bourse & the Water Mirror The largest reflecting pool in the world, two centimetres deep -
Château de Beynac 150 m above the Dordogne, facing the castle it fought for 200 years -
The Towers of La Rochelle Three medieval towers that chained the harbour shut at night
Occitanie
Carcassonne and the Cathar castles, the Canal du Midi, the Pyrenees and the Camargue's edge
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Toulouse Pink brick, Airbus, rugby and the biggest Romanesque church in Europe -
Montpellier Europe's oldest working medical school, and the sea ten minutes away -
Carcassonne The largest walled city in Europe — 52 towers and a double rampart - Nîmes The best-preserved Roman arena anywhere, still in weekly use
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Albi A fortress cathedral in red brick, and the Toulouse-Lautrec museum -
Perpignan Catalan France — a palace of the Kings of Majorca, and sardanes -
Collioure The bay where Matisse and Derain invented Fauvism -
Sète A canal port between sea and lagoon, and water jousting in August -
Rocamadour A pilgrimage village stacked up a 120-metre cliff in three tiers -
Cahors A fortified bridge with three towers, and black Malbec wine -
Millau Under the tallest bridge in the world, at the mouth of the Tarn gorges - Lourdes Six million pilgrims a year, at the foot of the Pyrenees
- Lot, Aveyron & Lozère Rocamadour on its cliff, the Millau viaduct, and the emptiest countryside in France
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The Millau Viaduct The tallest bridge in the world — one mast higher than the Eiffel Tower -
The Sanctuary of Rocamadour Seven chapels up 216 steps that pilgrims once climbed on their knees -
Conques A Romanesque abbey on the Camino, with Soulages' windows in it -
Château de Peyrepertuse 300 metres of Cathar fortress along a limestone ridge at 800 m -
Château de Quéribus The last Cathar stronghold to fall, on a rock spike above the plain -
Château de Montségur Where the Cathar siege ended in 1244 — a 1,200 m climb to the ruin -
The Canal du Midi Carrying boats under plane trees since 1681, from Toulouse to the sea -
Basilique Saint-Sernin The largest Romanesque church still standing anywhere -
Arènes de Nîmes The best-preserved Roman amphitheatre anywhere, and still in use -
Pont Valentré A fortified bridge with three towers, finished in 1378 -
Sainte-Cécile Cathedral, Albi The largest brick building in the world, built as a fortress
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Mont Blanc, the world's largest linked ski areas, Lyon's kitchens and a chain of volcanoes
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Lyon Two rivers, Roman theatres, secret traboules and the bouchons - Clermont-Ferrand A cathedral built from black lava, under a chain of volcanoes
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Vichy A Second Empire spa town, listed by UNESCO with Europe's great spas -
Chambéry The old Savoyard capital, and the doorway to the Tarentaise -
Le Puy-en-Velay Chapels on volcanic plugs, and the start of the Via Podiensis -
Vieux Lyon & the traboules Renaissance courtyards threaded by covered passages the Resistance used - Basilique Notre-Dame de Fourvière On the hill that prays, above the Roman theatres, over the whole city
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Grotte Chauvet 2 A facsimile of the oldest known figurative paintings — 36,000 years
Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
Lavender and Roman arenas inland, the Riviera on the coast, and the Alps behind both
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Nice The Baie des Anges, an Italian old town and the Promenade des Anglais -
Aix-en-Provence Plane trees, fountains, markets and Cézanne's mountain -
Avignon The largest Gothic palace in the world, and a bridge that stops halfway -
Arles A Roman arena, Van Gogh's light, and the top of the Camargue -
Antibes Ramparts, the biggest marina on the Med, and Picasso's castle studio -
Menton A lemon microclimate on the Italian border, and Cocteau's museum -
Gordes Dry stone stacked up a Luberon hillside, with Sénanque abbey below -
Les Baux-de-Provence A ruined fortress on a limestone spur, over a quarry turned light show -
Saint-Rémy-de-Provence Van Gogh's asylum year, a Roman town, and the Alpilles behind -
Briançon The highest town in France, walled by Vauban at 1,326 m -
Provence Lavender plateaus, Roman arenas, perched villages and the light Van Gogh came for -
The French Riviera Nice to Saint-Tropez — the coast that invented the seaside holiday -
Îles de Lérins The Man in the Iron Mask's prison, and a working Cistercian monastery -
Palais des Papes The largest Gothic palace in the world — the papacy's home for 70 years - Pont Saint-Bénézet Four arches of the twenty-two that once crossed the Rhône
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Arènes d'Arles A Roman amphitheatre that spent the Middle Ages as a walled village -
Abbaye de Sénanque A working Cistercian abbey with its lavender field in front of it -
Saint-Paul-de-Vence Walled, hilltop, and full of the galleries Chagall and Matisse drew in -
Château d'If The island prison of The Count of Monte Cristo, twenty minutes offshore
Corsica
A mountain in the sea — 1,000 km of coast, the GR20, and a language of its own
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Ajaccio Napoleon's birthplace, on a bay facing west into the sunset -
Bastia A Genoese old port, and the doorway to Cap Corse -
Bonifacio A citadel undercut on a white chalk cliff above the Strait -
Calvi A citadel, a six-kilometre pine-backed beach and the Balagne behind -
Corte Corsica's mountain capital, and the mouth of the Restonica -
The Cliffs of Bonifacio A citadel undercut on white chalk, with Sardinia 12 km across the strait
Guadeloupe
A butterfly-shaped Caribbean archipelago — rainforest on one wing, dry coast on the other
Martinique
The flower island — Mount Pelée, black-sand north, white-sand south and agricole rum
French Guiana
Amazon rainforest, a European spaceport, and the prison islands of Papillon
Réunion
An Indian Ocean volcano with three collapsed craters, and 1,000 km of walking trails
Overseas collectivities
French, but outside the region geography.
Other things to do
- Food & wine Seventeen wine regions, 1,600 cheeses, and the gastronomic meal on the UNESCO list
- Nature & outdoors Glaciers, gorges, volcanoes and 180,000 km of waymarked footpath
- Sport & adventure Skiing, surfing, climbing, paddling — and the Tour, Roland-Garros and Le Mans
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Cycling Over 25,000 km of signed cycle route, most of it flat and away from traffic - Remembrance The Somme, Verdun and the Normandy beaches — two wars written into the landscape
- Pilgrimage & spirituality Four Camino routes, Lourdes, Mont-Saint-Michel and the Romanesque abbeys
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Spa & wellness Around 90 working thermal spa towns, and the coastline that invented thalassotherapy - Romance The Riviera corniche, a Loire château, a Provençal village, a Paris weekend
- Shopping & savoir-faire Perfume in Grasse, porcelain in Limoges, crystal in Lorraine, couture in Paris
- Nightlife & entertainment Festival season, cabaret, beach clubs and the theme parks