Key facts
France at a glance
Highlights
The essentials of France
48.86° N · 2.35° E
Paris
By planeCar-freeLuxuryBackpacking
43.39° N · 1.66° W
French Basque Coast
By carCar-freeLuxuryCampingBy campervanBy plane
48.40° N · 2.70° E
Fontainebleau
By planeCar-freeBy car
48.08° N · 7.36° E
Alsace Wine Route
By carBy bikeBy campervanLuxuryBy motorbike
47.03° N · 4.84° E
Beaune
By carBy bikeLuxuryCar-free
45.92° N · 6.87° E
Chamonix-Mont-Blanc
By carCar-freeOn footCampingBy campervanBackpacking
45.77° N · 2.96° E
Chaîne des Puys
By carBy campervanCampingOn footBy bikeBy motorbike
49.34° N · 0.78° W
D-Day Beaches
By carBy planeCar-freeBy campervan
Areas and places
France area by area
Each area has its own page, with its own character, plans and map.
45.87° N · 5.32° E
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
By carBy planeBy campervanCampingBackpackingCar-freeLuxuryOn footBy bikeBy motorbike
48.20° N · 2.90° W
Brittany
By carBy planeBy campervanCampingCar-freeOn foot
47.03° N · 4.84° E
Burgundy-Franche-Comté
By carCar-freeLuxuryBy bike
47.40° N · 0.98° E
Centre-Val de Loire
By carBy planeCar-free
42.70° N · 0.01° W
Cirque de Gavarnie
By carOn footBy plane
42.31° N · 9.15° E
Corsica
By carBy campervanCampingOn footBy motorbikeBy bike
48.08° N · 7.36° E
Grand Est
By carBy planeBy campervanCar-freeLuxuryBy bikeBy motorbike
49.89° N · 2.30° E
Hauts-de-France
By carBy planeCar-free
49.10° N · 0.50° W
Normandy
By carBy planeBy campervanCar-freeBy bike
45.20° N · 0.60° W
Nouvelle-Aquitaine
By carBy planeBy campervanCampingCar-freeLuxuryBy bike
43.70° N · 2.40° E
Occitanie
By carBy planeBy campervanCampingLuxuryOn foot
43.84° N · 5.98° E
Provence
44.10° N · 6.63° E
Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
By carBy planeBy campervanCampingCar-freeOn footBy bikeBy motorbike
48.86° N · 2.35° E
Île-de-France
By carBy planeBackpackingCar-freeLuxury
Destinations
All the destinations in France
Filter by how you travel, who you're with, what you're after and which month.
48.08° N · 7.36° E
Alsace Wine Route
By carBy bikeBy campervanLuxuryBy motorbike
45.92° N · 6.13° E
Annecy
By planeCar-freeBy carLuxury
44.66° N · 1.17° W
Arcachon Bay
By carCar-freeBy bikeBy campervanCampingBy plane
49.07° N · 2.17° E
Auvers-sur-Oise
By plane
47.03° N · 4.84° E
Beaune
By carBy bikeLuxuryCar-free
47.34° N · 3.18° W
Belle-Île-en-Mer
43.45° N · 3.66° E
Bouzigues
By carBy campervanCampingBy plane
48.02° N · 2.17° W
Brocéliande Forest
48.68° N · 1.85° W
Cancale
By carBy campervanCampingCar-free
43.21° N · 2.35° E
Carcassonne
By carLuxuryBy plane
47.59° N · 3.04° W
Carnac and the Gulf of Morbihan
42.89° N · 0.11° W
Cauterets
By carOn foot
45.92° N · 6.87° E
Chamonix-Mont-Blanc
By carCar-freeOn footCampingBy campervanBackpacking
49.19° N · 2.46° E
Chantilly
By planeCar-freeBy car
48.45° N · 1.49° E
Chartres
By planeCar-freeBy car
45.77° N · 2.96° E
Chaîne des Puys
By carBy campervanCampingOn footBy bikeBy motorbike
48.25° N · 4.50° W
Crozon Peninsula
49.34° N · 0.78° W
D-Day Beaches
By carBy planeCar-freeBy campervan
48.45° N · 2.05° W
Dinan
By carCar-freeBy plane
48.87° N · 2.78° E
Disneyland Paris
By planeCar-freeBy car
48.40° N · 2.70° E
Fontainebleau
By planeCar-freeBy car
43.39° N · 1.66° W
French Basque Coast
By carCar-freeLuxuryCampingBy campervanBy plane
49.08° N · 1.53° E
Giverny
By planeCar-freeBy car
44.37° N · 3.41° E
Gorges du Tarn
By carCampingBy campervan
43.74° N · 6.36° E
Gorges du Verdon
By carBy campervanCampingOn footBy motorbikeBy bike
47.40° N · 0.98° E
Loire Valley
By planeCar-free
45.84° N · 1.16° W
Marennes-Oléron
By carBy campervanCampingBy bikeBy plane
48.64° N · 1.51° W
Mont-Saint-Michel
By carBy campervanBy bikeCar-free
43.70° N · 7.27° E
Nice
Car-freeBy plane
48.86° N · 2.35° E
Paris
By planeCar-freeLuxuryBackpacking
49.42° N · 2.83° E
Pierrefonds and Compiègne
By planeBy carCar-free
48.83° N · 3.49° W
Pink Granite Coast
By carBy campervanCampingOn footCar-free
48.04° N · 4.74° W
Pointe du Raz
48.56° N · 3.30° E
Provins
By planeCar-freeBy car
44.89° N · 1.22° E
Périgord Noir
By car
49.26° N · 4.03° E
Reims
By planeCar-freeBy car
49.44° N · 1.09° E
Rouen
By planeCar-free
48.65° N · 2.03° W
Saint-Malo
By carCar-freeBy campervanCampingOn foot
44.89° N · 0.15° W
Saint-Émilion
By car
49.21° N · 2.59° E
Senlis
By planeCar-freeBy car
48.57° N · 2.71° E
Vaux-le-Vicomte
By carBy plane
48.80° N · 2.13° E
Versailles
By planeCar-free
44.86° N · 6.26° E
Écrins National Park
By car
49.04° N · 3.96° E
Épernay
By planeCar-freeBy car
49.71° N · 0.21° E
Étretat
By car
Itineraries
Itineraries that pass through
Days and weekends already planned out, with how to get between each stop and who to book with.
Plan the trip
France, step by step
Each choice narrows the next: the season shapes how best to travel, and how you travel decides where you stay and where you eat.
When to go
When to go to France
May, June and September: long days, everything open and fewer people than in summer. In July and August half of France is on the road and the coast fills up. From November to March much of the coast shuts down, but Paris, Alsace and the Alps have their season.
How you travel
France your way
The ways of travelling that suit France. We are writing a guide to each one: where to stay, how to get around and which services you will need.
By carBy planeBy campervanCampingBackpackingCar-freeLuxuryOn footBy bikeBy motorbike
Tips
Worth knowing first
- 1Eat at their hours
Outside the cities, many restaurants serve lunch from 12:00 to 14:00 and dinner from 19:00. At 15:00 it is hard to find an open kitchen.
- 2Book dinner in summer
In July and August the good places on the coast fill up every night. A day ahead is usually enough; in the most visited villages, several.
- 3Pick a base and make a star
Sleeping three nights in the same place and heading out each day to a different area is less tiring than changing hotel every morning.
- 4Check the tolls before you set off
A motorway journey from Irún to Paris adds up several tolls. Compare it with the train if you are travelling alone or as a couple.
They are three different trips separated by hundreds of kilometres. You will spend more hours on the motorway than at the places. Choose one region, or two neighbouring ones such as Normandy and Brittany.
Which part of France should you choose?
France is big and very different from one end to the other. Don't try to see all of it in one trip: choose one region, or two that are next to each other, and move around little. As a rule, allow four or five nights per region.
- If it's your first time, Paris, with three or four days on foot and by metro. It is the only part of the country where a car gets in the way.
- If you want the sea and seafood, the Atlantic. Brittany has a granite coastline, enormous tides and oysters on the quay at Cancale. Nouvelle-Aquitaine is closer to the border: the Arcachon Bay with the Pilat dune and the French Basque coast.
- If you're after history, Normandy: the D-Day beaches and Mont Saint-Michel. The Renaissance châteaux are in the Loire Valley.
- If you're heading for the mountains, the Alps of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, with Chamonix under Mont Blanc, or the French Pyrenees: Gavarnie and Cauterets are a few hours from Huesca.
- If you travel for wine and food, Burgundy with Beaune, Alsace and Saint-Émilion, next to Bordeaux.
- If you want sun and stone villages, the south. Occitanie begins at the Catalan border and has Carcassonne and the Tarn Gorges. Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur adds lavender, the Verdon and Nice.
- If you have a week or more and want an island, Corsica, mountains a few kilometres from the sea.
How do you get there from Spain?
By car, via Irún for the Atlantic and the north, via La Jonquera for the Mediterranean and the Rhône, or via the central Pyrenean passes (Somport, Bielsa, Portalet) if you are heading for the valleys. French motorways are almost all toll roads and expensive on long journeys. There are some useful exceptions: the expressways in Brittany have no tolls.
By train, from Barcelona there are two direct options. Renfe runs an AVE to Lyon, calling at Girona, Figueres, Perpignan, Narbonne, Montpellier, Nîmes and Valence, and another from Madrid to Marseille via Zaragoza, Tarragona, Avignon and Aix-en-Provence. SNCF runs a direct TGV INOUI from Barcelona Sants to Paris Gare de Lyon, about two departures a day and around 6 h 50 of travel. From the Basque Country you cross to Hendaye and continue by train towards Bordeaux and Paris.
By plane, Madrid and Barcelona have daily flights to Paris. To provincial cities (Bordeaux, Toulouse, Nantes, Lyon, Marseille, Nice) it is mostly low-cost airlines that fly, with routes that change from one season to the next and are reduced in winter. Check before planning the trip around a particular flight.
How do you get around?
Between big cities, the train: the TGV network fans out from Paris and reaches Lyon, Bordeaux, Rennes or Strasbourg in two or three hours. Outside the cities, the car. Villages, vineyards, the coast and the mountains have little public transport, and even less on Sundays.
At the wheel, the limits differ from Spain. On motorways, 130 km/h and 110 in the rain. On dual carriageways with a central reservation, 110, and 100 in the rain. On two-way roads without a separator, 80 km/h in general, rain or shine, although some départements have raised stretches to 90: look at the signs.
If you are taking your own car into Paris or other big cities, apply beforehand for the Crit'Air vignette: it is compulsory in low-emission zones and when the prefecture restricts traffic because of pollution. For a Spanish-registered car it can only be ordered online, at certificat-air.gouv.fr, the only official site, and it arrives by post.
When to go and what it costs
May, June and September are the best months for almost the whole country. July and August are the French holidays: everything is open, but the coast and the picture-postcard villages fill up and prices rise. The south holds up well in October. In winter many coastal hotels and restaurants close, while Paris, the Alsace Christmas markets and the Alpine ski resorts have their season.
France is more expensive than Spain, especially in Paris, the Côte d'Azur and the Alps. The midday menu, the formule, is the way to eat well without blowing the budget. In inland regions and in Brittany, sleeping and eating cost less than on the Mediterranean coast. Add tolls and petrol if you go by car: on a long trip they weigh as much as a hotel night.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
What documents do I need?
A valid national ID card is enough: France is in the Schengen area and the European Union. Also carry your European health insurance card.
Do I need a car to travel around France?
For Paris, no; for the big cities linked by TGV, no either. For the coast, vineyards, villages and mountains, almost always yes.
Can I get there by train from Spain?
Yes. There is a direct TGV from Barcelona to Paris and Renfe AVE trains from Barcelona to Lyon and from Madrid to Marseille, calling at Perpignan, Montpellier, Nîmes, Avignon and other southern cities.
What is Crit'Air and do I need it?
It is a sticker that classifies your car by how much it pollutes. You need it to drive in the low-emission zones of big cities and on days of pollution restrictions. You order it at certificat-air.gouv.fr; avoid the websites that resell it for more.
How many days do I need?
Four or five nights for a region, three for Paris. With two weeks you can combine two neighbouring regions without rushing.
Is it very expensive to travel around France?
More than Spain. You save with the midday menu, by sleeping inland rather than on the coast and by travelling outside July and August.