France's GR network runs to roughly 180,000 km of waymarked long-distance path, from the GR20 across Corsica to the GR34 round the whole Breton coast. Between the Alps and the Pyrenees the country has two full mountain ranges; between them sit the Massif Central's volcanoes, the Verdon and Tarn gorges, the Ardèche, and the Camargue delta. And that is before Réunion, where forty per cent of the island is UNESCO-listed and 1,000 km of trail crosses three collapsed craters.
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If you only do nature & outdoors once in France.
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Gorges du Verdon 700 m deep and turquoise, from glacial rock flour in the water -
Dune du Pilat The tallest sand dune in Europe — 100 m, and still moving inland -
Cirque de Mafate A collapsed crater with no road at all — supplied by helicopter and footpath -
Chaîne des Puys Eighty volcanoes in a line 32 km long, UNESCO-listed since 2018 -
Gorges de l'Ardèche 30 km of limestone canyon, paddled by around a million people a year -
Cirque de Gavarnie A 1,500 m rock amphitheatre with Europe's tallest waterfall down one wall
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
Bourgogne-Franche-Comté
The world's most valuable vineyards, Romanesque abbeys and the Jura's quiet mountains
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Besançon A Vauban citadel inside a loop of the Doubs - The Jura Mountains Limestone gorges, comté cheese, vin jaune and the best cross-country skiing in France
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Baume-les-Messieurs An abbey at the foot of a blind valley ending in a 200 m cliff -
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
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Brest A working naval city, Océanopolis, and the gateway to Ouessant -
Perros-Guirec The base for the Pink Granite Coast and the Sept-Îles seabirds -
Belle-Île-en-Mer Brittany's largest island — Monet's needles and the Côte Sauvage -
Île de Groix A geological reserve and the only convex beach in Europe -
Île-aux-Moines The largest island in the Gulf of Morbihan, and its mildest climate -
Ouessant The far west of France — five lighthouses and the Fromveur current -
Île de Batz A market-garden island with a subtropical garden at one end -
Île de Bréhat Car-free pink granite, mimosa and hydrangeas, on the Gulf Stream -
Îles de Glénan A ring of islets round a lagoon that looks Caribbean and is not -
The Carnac Alignments Around 3,000 standing stones in rows, raised before the pyramids -
Ploumanac'h & the Pink Granite Coast Wind-rounded boulders that really are pink, and a lighthouse among them -
Pointe du Raz A 70 m headland at the end of Brittany, in a permanent gale -
The Gulf of Morbihan An inland sea with about forty islands, and some of the strongest tides in Europe -
The Crozon Peninsula Three arms of cliff and turquoise cove inside a regional park -
Cap Fréhel 70 m of red sandstone cliff, heather on top, seabirds below
Pays de la Loire
Where the Loire meets the Atlantic — Nantes, the Vendée beaches and the last châteaux
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Les Sables-d'Olonne The Vendée's beach town, and the start of the Vendée Globe -
Île d'Yeu A granite wild coast on one side, sandy coves on the other -
Noirmoutier Salt marshes, early potatoes, and a road the sea covers twice a day -
Passage du Gois A 4.5 km causeway to Noirmoutier that the sea covers twice a day -
The Guérande Salt Marshes 2,000 hectares of pans still worked by hand for fleur de sel
Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Bordeaux and its vineyards, the Dordogne's prehistory, and Europe's tallest dune
- Arcachon Oysters, a Winter Town of villas, and Europe's tallest dune next door
- Hossegor A pine-backed beach break that hosts the world tour
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Dordogne Valley Painted caves, clifftop castles and the densest prehistoric record on earth -
The Atlantic Coast Europe's tallest dune, 250 km of surf beach and the oyster basins behind it -
Île d'Oléron The largest French island after Corsica — oysters, dunes and a lighthouse -
The Vézère Valley Fifteen UNESCO sites and twenty-five decorated caves in one valley -
La Roque-Gageac A single row of houses pressed between the cliff and the river -
Jardins de Marqueyssac 150,000 hand-clipped box shrubs on a spur above the Dordogne -
Cap Ferret Oyster shacks on stilts on one side, Atlantic surf on the other
Occitanie
Carcassonne and the Cathar castles, the Canal du Midi, the Pyrenees and the Camargue's edge
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Millau Under the tallest bridge in the world, at the mouth of the Tarn gorges -
The Pyrenees 430 km of frontier range — the Cirque de Gavarnie, Lourdes and the Tour's great climbs -
Lot, Aveyron & Lozère Rocamadour on its cliff, the Millau viaduct, and the emptiest countryside in France -
Pont du Gard A three-tier Roman aqueduct bridge, 49 m high and still standing -
The Millau Viaduct The tallest bridge in the world — one mast higher than the Eiffel Tower -
Gorges du Tarn 500 m deep, 50 km long, and best seen from a canoe -
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 -
The Canal du Midi Carrying boats under plane trees since 1681, from Toulouse to the sea
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Mont Blanc, the world's largest linked ski areas, Lyon's kitchens and a chain of volcanoes
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Annecy Canals, a lake often called the cleanest in Europe, and mountains behind -
Chamonix Directly beneath Mont Blanc — the town that invented alpinism -
Grenoble A flat city with three mountain ranges starting at the ring road -
Aix-les-Bains Thermal baths on the shore of France's largest natural lake -
Évian-les-Bains Belle Époque lakeside, and the water everyone has drunk -
Le Puy-en-Velay Chapels on volcanic plugs, and the start of the Via Podiensis - Alps & Mont Blanc Western Europe's highest mountain and the largest linked ski areas on earth
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Auvergne & the Volcanoes Eighty volcanoes in a line down the Massif Central, and the spa towns beneath them -
Aiguille du Midi 2,800 vertical metres in twenty minutes, to a terrace at 3,842 m -
Mer de Glace France's longest glacier, reached by a rack railway from 1908 -
Mont Blanc 4,806 m — the highest mountain in western Europe -
Lake Annecy Often called the cleanest lake in Europe, ringed by a cycle path -
Puy de Dôme 1,465 m of lava dome with a rack railway and a Roman temple on top -
Pont d'Arc A 60 m natural stone arch the river cut for itself -
The Vercors A limestone fortress of a plateau, and a Resistance stronghold in 1944 -
Lac du Bourget The largest natural lake in France, under the Dent du Chat
Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
Lavender and Roman arenas inland, the Riviera on the coast, and the Alps behind both
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Arles A Roman arena, Van Gogh's light, and the top of the Camargue -
Cassis A fishing port at the eastern end of the Calanques -
The Southern Alps The Verdon gorge, the Écrins, and 300 days of sun on the sunny side of the Alps -
Porquerolles White sand and pines inside a national park, twenty minutes offshore -
Port-Cros France's first marine national park — with an underwater snorkel trail -
Îles de Lérins The Man in the Iron Mask's prison, and a working Cistercian monastery -
The Calanques White limestone inlets between Marseille and Cassis, reachable on foot or by boat -
The Valensole Plateau Lavender to the horizon for roughly four weeks from late June -
Roussillon & the Ochre Trail A village built from the seventeen shades of ochre it stands on -
Mont Ventoux 1,910 m of bare limestone — the Tour's hardest climb, and windiest -
The Camargue White horses, black bulls and pink flamingos on the Rhône delta -
Écrins National Park Glaciers and 4,000 m peaks with no ski lifts on them at all
Corsica
A mountain in the sea — 1,000 km of coast, the GR20, and a language of its own
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Bonifacio A citadel undercut on a white chalk cliff above the Strait -
Porto-Vecchio The base for Palombaggia, Santa Giulia and Rondinara -
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 -
Calanques de Piana Red porphyry towers dropping straight into the Gulf of Porto -
Scandola Nature Reserve A UNESCO marine reserve with no road to it — boat access only -
The GR20 180 km across Corsica's spine — often called Europe's hardest waymarked trek -
The Restonica Valley Glacial lakes above Corte, up a road that concentrates the mind -
Aiguilles de Bavella Seven red granite needles over a pass on the GR20
Guadeloupe
A butterfly-shaped Caribbean archipelago — rainforest on one wing, dry coast on the other
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Basse-Terre Under La Soufrière, at the edge of the national park -
Les Saintes A bay often ranked among the most beautiful in the world -
La Désirade A bare limestone table, a geological reserve, and almost no one -
La Soufrière An active volcano at 1,467 m — the high point of the Lesser Antilles -
The Carbet Falls Three waterfalls in rainforest, the tallest 115 m -
Guadeloupe National Park Tree ferns, the Route de la Traversée, and a UNESCO biosphere reserve
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
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Saint-Denis Réunion's Creole capital, under the Roche Écrite -
Saint-Gilles-les-Bains Réunion's lagoon coast — the reef, the beach and the boats -
Cilaos A village inside a collapsed crater, up 400 hairpin bends -
Piton de la Fournaise One of the most active volcanoes on earth — and it erupts most years -
Cirque de Cilaos Up 400 hairpins to a caldera village, thermal springs and lentils -
Cirque de Salazie The wettest and greenest of the three cirques, with Hell-Bourg in it -
Piton des Neiges 3,070 m — the highest point in the Indian Ocean, climbed for sunrise -
Hell-Bourg Creole villas and gardens inside the Salazie crater
Mayotte
One of the world's largest lagoons, humpback whales, and a double coral barrier
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Mamoudzou Mayotte's capital, on the biggest lagoon in the Indian Ocean -
The Mayotte Lagoon 1,500 km² inside a double coral barrier — one of very few in the world -
Mont Choungui A near-vertical 594 m cone with the whole lagoon from the top -
Îlot de Sable Blanc A sandbank that appears and disappears with the tide -
Passe en S The S-shaped reef pass that makes Mayotte a serious dive destination
Overseas collectivities
French, but outside the region geography.
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Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon A fragment of France 25 km off Newfoundland, on Atlantic Canada time -
New Caledonia The world's largest lagoon, UNESCO-listed, around a 400 km island -
French Polynesia 118 islands across five archipelagos — Tahiti, Bora Bora, the Marquesas -
Wallis & Futuna Three kingdoms, a crater lake, and almost no visitors at all
Other things to do
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Culture & heritage 53 UNESCO World Heritage sites, and the cathedrals that invented Gothic -
Food & wine Seventeen wine regions, 1,600 cheeses, and the gastronomic meal on the UNESCO list -
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 -
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