The French gastronomic meal is itself UNESCO intangible heritage — the ritual, not a recipe. Around it sit the wine regions that gave the world its vocabulary: Bordeaux's left and right banks, Burgundy's named plots, Champagne's chalk, the Rhône, Alsace, the Loire. Lyon claims to be the capital and is hard to argue with, but the case is made just as well by a Provençal market, a Breton oyster bed, a Basque ham cellar or a Jura fruitière making comté from one morning's milk.
Start here
If you only do food & wine once in France.
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Avenue de Champagne The most valuable street in the world — because of what is under it - The Côte de Nuits Gevrey-Chambertin to Vosne-Romanée — the most valuable vines on earth
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La Cité du Vin Wine as a world subject, in a building shaped like liquid in a glass - The Médoc Margaux, Pauillac, Saint-Julien — the D2 past the first growths
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The Roquefort Caves The only place on earth allowed to make Roquefort, by law since 1411 -
The Guérande Salt Marshes 2,000 hectares of pans still worked by hand for fleur de sel
Region by region
Île-de-France
Paris, Versailles and the ring of royal forests and cathedral towns around them
Hauts-de-France
Flemish belfries, the Opal Coast and the battlefields of the Somme
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 -
Troyes Half-timbered Champagne capital, and the original factory outlets -
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 -
Riquewihr Inside its medieval walls, essentially unchanged since the 1500s -
Eguisheim Concentric rings of half-timbered houses round a castle -
Ribeauvillé Three ruined castles above a wine village on the Route des Vins
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 -
Auxerre Yonne riverfront, Chablis vineyards and a Romanesque crypt -
Arbois The Jura's wine town — vin jaune, and Pasteur's house -
Burgundy 1,247 named vineyard plots, Romanesque abbeys and the Hospices de Beaune -
The Jura Mountains Limestone gorges, comté cheese, vin jaune and the best cross-country skiing in France -
Hospices de Beaune A fifteenth-century charity hospital under a polychrome tiled roof -
Château-Chalon Vin jaune country — six years in barrels nobody tops up -
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
Brittany
2,700 km of granite coast, standing stones older than the pyramids, and a Celtic language
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 -
La Baule A nine-kilometre crescent of sand, and the Guérande salt marshes behind -
Noirmoutier Salt marshes, early potatoes, and a road the sea covers twice a day -
Château de Saumur The white fortress from the Très Riches Heures, above the Loire
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 -
Chinon A Plantagenet fortress above red-wine vineyards -
Loire Valley 280 km of UNESCO river and the densest run of Renaissance châteaux in Europe -
Sancerre A hilltop above the upper Loire, and the sauvignon blanc benchmark
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 - Arcachon Oysters, a Winter Town of villas, and Europe's tallest dune next door
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Bayonne Basque ham, chocolate since the 1600s, and a five-day summer fête -
Saint-Jean-de-Luz A sheltered Basque bay, and the church where Louis XIV married -
Sarlat-la-Canéda Golden stone, a Saturday market, and the Dordogne's best base -
Bergerac A riverside old town and the Dordogne's own wine appellations -
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 - Dordogne Valley Painted caves, clifftop castles and the densest prehistoric record on earth
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French Basque Country Surf, pelota and red-and-white villages where the Pyrenees meet the Atlantic - The Atlantic Coast Europe's tallest dune, 250 km of surf beach and the oyster basins behind it
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Île de Ré Whitewashed villages, green shutters, salt pans and 110 km of cycle path -
Île d'Oléron The largest French island after Corsica — oysters, dunes and a lighthouse -
Saint-Émilion's Monolithic Church Hollowed out of solid limestone over three centuries -
Cap Ferret Oyster shacks on stilts on one side, Atlantic surf on the other -
Espelette Red peppers drying on every house front from August
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 -
Perpignan Catalan France — a palace of the Kings of Majorca, and sardanes -
Sète A canal port between sea and lagoon, and water jousting in August -
Cahors A fortified bridge with three towers, and black Malbec wine -
Lot, Aveyron & Lozère Rocamadour on its cliff, the Millau viaduct, and the emptiest countryside in France
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Mont Blanc, the world's largest linked ski areas, Lyon's kitchens and a chain of volcanoes
Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
Lavender and Roman arenas inland, the Riviera on the coast, and the Alps behind both
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Marseille The oldest city in France, 2,600 years old, with the Calanques next door -
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 -
Cassis A fishing port at the eastern end of the Calanques -
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 -
Provence Lavender plateaus, Roman arenas, perched villages and the light Van Gogh came for
Corsica
A mountain in the sea — 1,000 km of coast, the GR20, and a language of its own
Guadeloupe
A butterfly-shaped Caribbean archipelago — rainforest on one wing, dry coast on the other
Overseas collectivities
French, but outside the region geography.
Other things to do
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Culture & heritage 53 UNESCO World Heritage sites, and the cathedrals that invented Gothic -
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
- Cycling Over 25,000 km of signed cycle route, most of it flat and away from traffic
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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 - Spa & wellness Around 90 working thermal spa towns, and the coastline that invented thalassotherapy
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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