Ooh la la, la douce France… With the beautiful buildings in the cities, the picturesque streets in the villages, the long stretches of beach in the West and South, and the mountains in the East, France has a lot to bring. Approximately 30 million tourists visit Paris each year, one of the most visited cities in the world.
Paris
The touristy highlights: Eiffel tower, Sacre Coeur and the area of Montmartre, especially Place de Tertre with its artists, Arc de Triomphe Notre Dame, Versailles and its gardens.
When you do a boat trip over the Seine, check out the original Statue of Liberty.
To get around: Use a public transportation card like the Paris Visite, lots of the sightings are quite a trip apart.
South (Provence, Cote d’Azur) lovely little ancient towns to get lost in. Eze
Go to Monaco, and add another country to your list. Do a helicopter flight, only €60 for 10 minutes, and a fun way to see a whole country in 10 min. You’ll feel like living the ‘rich and famous lifestyle’ for a bit when you fly over the yachts and expensive houses.
Brittany
great architecture, very interesting picturesque houses everywhere, drive around there. Saintes ruins of a Roman Amphitheater from the 1st century. Carnac has fields of menhirs, (huge stones in upright position) and dolmen (tomb-like placed huge stones). No one knows who put them all there, or how, or why… Also go find the largest menhir, one of 6 meters high, and make some funny Obelix-photos!
Normandy
D-Day beaches, beginning of the end of the war, freedom of the world. Lots of old bunkers and scrap metal of the floating pontoons of the harbor used during D-Day. Walk around craters of grenades and bombs.
Arromanches
Juno beach, Canadian museum
360 museum, round, loud, panorama movie, be in the middle of the action.
American cemetery and museum,
Pont-du-Hoc between Utah and Omaha beach, considered a key defensive point, has to be taken. The allies climbed these cliffs and took over, many casualties happened.
Mont St Michel, a magical little tidal island (only an island when the tide is high) A beautiful place, that everybody must see. It has a bit of a feeling of Minas Tirith from Lord of the Rings, with its narrow winding streets, going up and up. The huge cathedral was built on the island in 709 AD. The tides have a vertical difference of an incredible 12 to 15 meters! Be careful when walking out on the sand when it is low tide, the tide can come in very quickly. Parking at the mainland, onlyn accessible by walkway or shuttle bus.
West coast
Bordeaux: drink the wine, check out all the funny gargoyles on the cathedral, nearby is Dune du Pyla, highest sand dune of Europe, 110 meter above sea level, and an art village on a peninsula.
Surfing at Biarritz very popular, Biarritz also is called ‘La reine des plages et la plage des rois’ (the queen of the beaches and beach of the kings). A chateau here, a palace there, yes this was the place where the royals loved to ‘summer’.
Strasbourg and Colmar against the east, border with Germany, castle nearby
Eat and drink
if you feel adventurous: try the escargots (snails, we can’t tell you about this experience: we haven’t felt that adventurous yet). Have a croissant and café au lait (milk coffee) to start your day. Good wine and champagne (the only stuff that’s actually allowed to called champagne, since it’s from the wine region of Champagne), the French cuisine is quite refined, so plenty to try.
