Top Places to Visit in France

France is an enticing country for both romance seeker and cultural enthusiasts. After 10 years living in France, I have found France so diverse and wealthy. From north to south, it boasts a wide range of contrasts. You`ll easily tempted by regional dishes, distinctive ” paysage” that can features your lifetime experience.
Each person coming to France has their own favorite travel list, this is my recommendation for best places to visit in France:

Marseille

Marseille is a wonderful summer getaway. If you have a chance to plunge into its waters in June, you`ll may not want to leave. The city itself has another story. It is the rendezvous of new and old, of ancient quarter with coped streets and a busy port. The highlights of Marseille includes: Notre Dame De La Garde, Basilique Saint Victor, Chateau D`If and some fascinating museum.
My best experience of Marseilles starts from the stadium when the home team won. It was such an extraordinary atmosphere.
For bloggers, I would recommend to make one of the most beautiful photos at the locals instagrammable lavender farms.

Paris

Undoubtedly, Paris is full of charm. The city seduces you from the very first touch with iconic Eiffel towers, endless intimate sites. There is nothing more ” couple” than walking along the Sein River, beholding the symbolic monuments like Arc De Triumph, Louvre Museum, Grand Palace or Petite palace.
Paris is also a wonderful place to taste both regional and national dishes. The food scene of Paris is just amazing. While the street foods are rich and tasty, you can surprise your girlfriend`s tongue by inviting her to a Michelin Restaurant.

 

Loire Valley

Avignon

Avignon is one of the most photogenic places in France. Withing 2,5 hours from Paris, Avignon offers a very unique ambience along the Rhone river.
According to Avignon travel guide, the most famous attraction is Pont Du Gard, also the most well known archaeological site in the area. Other remarkable spots to make your days occupied in Avignon include Palace of the Popes, Pont Saint Benezet.
Do not forget to plan a trip to Camargue Natural Park, it is very worth !

Normandy

Amongst the top places to visit in France, I will not hesitate to name Normandy. Although, you may not be able to swim but beaches here are just sublime. From the little town like Bayeux to Rouen or Honfleur, each town has its own signature.
Millions of visitors flocks into Givery to admire the heritage of Monet. However, Normandy has more than that to offer.
Head to Trouville for a horse ride, walk along the open sandy beaches. Prepare your camera to capture the seals in Somme Bay or at least treat yourself a big plate of fresh seafoods.

Aveyron

The very first reason that you should visit Aveyron is to learn how the national pride cheese Roquefort is produced. If you fancy exotic French cuisine, there are so many things to try in this beautiful region.
If food does not appeal you enough, think about the cascading waterfalls, awe-inspiring caves and misty mountains where you can see the eagles flying over your head. The adventures like kayaking the Tarn river, hiking through the untouched forest with breathtaking views are surely something you should put on your travel bucket list.
There are 19 castles in Aveyron. It means the region has something to attract your kids too.

Bordeaux

Stroll the most graceful streets in France, eat well, drink better and then have the liveliest possible time in a city lately in touch with its Latin side. The centre of Bordeaux has a grandiose 18th-century harmony unmatched in Europe – so much so it seems quite possible that the French Revolution never made it this far. And the city has had the renovators in with a vengeance too, restoring noble façades, installing trams and reclaiming from dereliction the vast swathe of riverbank.
bordeaux, france
There are few more graceful urban sights in France than Bordeaux’s miroir-d’eau reflecting the splendid Palais-de-la-Bourse.
This also remains the world HQ of wine and château-owning folk. Many do their business in the Chartrons district, where there’s a lingering air of aristocratic commerce. But there’s also a cracking museum of modern art next door, tapas bars up the road and fusion food in the restaurants. Welcome, in short, to the Bordeaux nouveau. It offers the ancient dignity but with added zest and fruitiness. For immediate drinking.

Burgundy

Burgundy may well be renowned for its wine – with villages such as Chablis and Nuits-St-Georges known throughout the world – but its rural reaches have a great deal more to offer. Renaissance chateaux, medieval abbeys and fortified villages all stand testimony to the colourful history of this lesser-known region of France. Burgundy’s history stretches further into the past. Hilltop villages and market towns are adorned with some of the most magnificent Romanesque structures in Europe.
>Burgundy is known for its wine, but there are plenty other reasons to visit this historic region CREDIT: JOHN HARPER
At Burgundy’s rural heart lies the Morvan National Park, dotted with lakes and picturesque villages, many of which have family-run brasseries in their tree-shaded squares. And even if there were no historical wonders in Burgundy, the gastronomic cuisine would be reason enough to holiday here. Boeuf bourguignon is the region’s signature dish but there are scores of other local specialities. One of France’s most celebrated cheeses, Epoisses, comes from a lovely little village of the same name (complete with rambling medieval castle).

Carcassonne

From a distance, the cité of Carcassonne looks as if it recently landed on its hilltop fresh from a starring role in a medieval myth. The arrangement of ramparts, pointy-roofed towers and bulky buildings is almost Disney-perfect. The mind’s eye can’t help filling in the knights, damsels-in-distress and a dragon or two. Up close, though, the prospect is real enough. The 52 towers and monumental walls battled their way through the Middle Ages, guarding the frontier against the Spanish.

Nice

Nice, the capital of the Côte d’Azur, is beautifully curved round the Bay of Angels, desirable and as lively as you like. Awaiting you is the clearest-possible light, which spangles the Mediterranean to create a setting for sybarites, and shadows for well-dressed decadence. This is France’s WAG, a fine-looking courtesan at once cultured and racy; a glorious, and playful, slice of urban greensward. And it’s bewitching at pretty much any time of year.
Nice is the sun-kissed capital of the Côte d’Azur – a vibrant playground curving round the glorious sweep of the Bay of Angels
The key sight – it’s unmissable as you wing into Nice airport – is the glorious curve of the Bay of Angels, miles of the loveliest urban sea-front in Europe, fringed by the celebrated Promenade des Anglais. You could spend an entire trip just wandering along here, but you’ll also need to see Nice old town. Here, the Niçois jostle to sell Provençal frocks, dodgy art, olive oil – and simmered lambs’ trotters on restaurant terraces.’Touristy’, cry the purists. Purists know nothing. Nice has always done commotion and boisterous commerce.

Pays de La Loire

Cooler, greener, more refined than the heaving south, the Loire in France is an enchanted land of elaborate chateaux, verdant landscapes and world-class vineyards. Steeped in nobility, the Loire is easily France’s valley of the kings. An impressive cast of renaissance men and royal megalomaniacs – from the culturally minded Francis I to the bombastic Louis XIV – made the region their playground, with the result that its medieval past is still its backbone today in the shape of the hundreds of fairytale castles strewn along its banks.

Lyon

It may not have the mythical might or romantic heritage of Paris, but France’s second-largest city is French-charming to the core. Lyon is a discreet seductress, quietly surprising with its elegant architecture, vibrant museums, twinset of rivers and magnificent Unesco World Heritage-protected old town set between the hills of Fourvière and Croix-Rousse, its narrow streets punctuated with characteristic passageways that were used by the silk merchants to transport their products when the city echoed with the clacking of hundreds of thousands of looms.