Two very different halves. East is the French Alps: Mont Blanc at 4,806 m, Chamonix under it, and the linked domains — Les Trois Vallées, Paradiski, l'Espace Killy — that make this the biggest skiable terrain on earth. Annecy sits on the clearest lake in Europe; the Vanoise and Écrins are national parks. West is the Auvergne, a line of eighty extinct volcanoes running down the Massif Central, listed by UNESCO, with Puy de Dôme in the middle and Vichy's spa waters at the foot. Between them Lyon — two rivers, Roman theatres, a Renaissance quarter threaded with covered passages, and a claim to be the gastronomic capital of France that few French people dispute.
- Chamonix, the Aiguille du Midi and the Mer de Glace
- Lyon — Vieux Lyon, the traboules and the bouchons
- Annecy and its lake
- The Chaîne des Puys volcanoes
- Les Trois Vallées — Courchevel, Méribel, Val Thorens
- The Vercors and the Ardèche gorges
- Best time to go
- December–April for skiing; July–September for the high Alps, when the lifts run for walkers and the passes are open. Lyon is a year-round city; its Fête des Lumières in December is extraordinary.
- Getting there
- Lyon Saint-Exupéry and Geneva airports (Geneva is 1h from Chamonix). TGV Paris–Lyon 1h57, Paris–Annecy 3h45. Winter rail runs direct to Bourg-Saint-Maurice for the Tarentaise resorts.
© OpenFreeMap · OSM · terrain Mapterhorn · boundaries © EuroGeographics (Eurostat GISCO)
Headline places
What france.fr leads with in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.
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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 -
Chaîne des Puys Eighty volcanoes in a line 32 km long, UNESCO-listed since 2018 -
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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Gorges de l'Ardèche 30 km of limestone canyon, paddled by around a million people a year -
Pont d'Arc A 60 m natural stone arch the river cut for itself -
Grotte Chauvet 2 A facsimile of the oldest known figurative paintings — 36,000 years -
The Vercors A limestone fortress of a plateau, and a Resistance stronghold in 1944 -
Les Trois Vallées Around 600 km of linked piste on one pass — the biggest in the world -
Tignes–Val d'Isère L'Espace Killy — glacier skiing that runs into June -
Lac du Bourget The largest natural lake in France, under the Dent du Chat
Tourism areas
The names people actually use for this part of France — some of them cross into the next region.
Cities & bases
Where to sleep, and what each place is good for.
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Lyon Two rivers, Roman theatres, secret traboules and the bouchons -
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 - 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 -
Aix-les-Bains Thermal baths on the shore of France's largest natural lake -
Chambéry The old Savoyard capital, and the doorway to the Tarentaise -
Évian-les-Bains Belle Époque lakeside, and the water everyone has drunk -
Megève A working village that the Rothschilds turned into a ski resort -
Le Puy-en-Velay Chapels on volcanic plugs, and the start of the Via Podiensis
Our guides
Full destination guides we already publish in this region.
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes by experience
The themes this region delivers on.
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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 -
Nature & outdoors Glaciers, gorges, volcanoes and 180,000 km of waymarked footpath -
Mountains Six massifs — the Alps, Pyrenees, Jura, Vosges, Massif Central and Corsica -
Cities Paris, and eleven more cities that would headline any other country -
Villages & countryside The 180-odd villages on the official 'most beautiful in France' list -
National & regional parks Eleven national parks and 58 regional ones — about a fifth of the country -
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 -
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
