Paris Digest
Paris city guide since 1997
Visit France, the world most visited country. Among the famous places in France, visit Normandy and D-Day beaches, the wine countries in Bordeaux, Champagne, Burgundy, the Loire Valley and its royal castles, the French Riviera, its coastline and seaside resorts, Lourdes and its pilgrimage. Most places in France can be visited in a day from Paris. Map of France.
Visit one of France six most famous places, all of them must do, on a day tour by coach from Paris.
Normandy along the sea has famous places: Giverny, Mont Saint-Michel, D-Day beaches.
Champagne, Burgundy, Bordeaux are world famous wines. Visit these beautiful vineyards of France.
The Loire valley combines lovely landscapes, the most famous castles in France and wines.
The French Riviera has a beautiful coastline, famous sights and the best weather in France.
Lourdes, in southern France, is known for the apparitions of the Virgin to Bernadette in 1858.
France was visited by close to 90 million tourists in 2019, making it the most popular tourist destination in the world. France ranks fifth in tourist spending behind the United Kingdom, United States, China and Spain. Today, Europeans and Asians account for the growing number of foreign visits in France. Germans make up the greatest number of foreign tourists in France, ahead of the British. The Chinese account for the highest proportion of Asians choosing to visit France. Tourism makes an essential contribution to France’s foreign trade. France has indeed a great deal to offer visiting tourists, ranging from its rich geography with seaside resorts, towns, countryside and mountains, to its attractions and facilities: accommodation, activities, French food and restaurants. With 55 million skier days annually, France is the world’s top skiing destination with resorts such as Tignes, Val d'Isère and Courchevel. Business tourism is also a crucial sector for France, with around 6000 events organized yearly, many of them in Paris and in the French Riviera, such as the Cannes Film Festival. France is positioning itself too as a cultural destination, with many international festivals and museum openings: Pompidou Metz, Louvre Lens, Fondation Maeght, the MuCEM in Marseille, Fondation Vuitton in Paris. Wine tourism is one of the most dynamic industries. 24 million people visit the wine regions: Bordeaux, Champagne, Burgundy, the Loire Valley and Alsace. Destinations such as Paris, the French Riviera and Mont Saint-Michel are some of the best France has to offer to visitors.France has 37 sites inscribed in UNESCO's World Heritage List and features cities of high cultural interest, such as Paris, Toulouse, Strasbourg, Bordeaux, Lyon. Picturesque French villages such as Collonges-la-Rouge, Saint Cirq Lapopie or Gorges, are promoted through "The Most Beautiful Villages of France".
Locate the top places in France on France map.
France is the largest country of Western Europe with 550 000 km2 and the second country in population behind Germany with 67 millions inhabitants. Since 508 A.D, Paris is the capital of France. It is its most populous city.
France has the world's seventh largest economy. It has the second largest economy in Europe (behind its main economic partner Germany), based on the dynamic industrial structure of the French economy.
Chartes Cathedral is one of the most spectacular and famous places in France. Mostly constructed between 1193 and 1250, this Gothic cathedral is in an exceptional state of preservation. The majority of the original stained glass windows survive intact, while the architecture has seen only minor changes since the early 13th century.
In the heart of a lovely old city 90 kilometers south west from the capital city, Chartres Cathedral is devoted to the Virgin Mary. It could be the mystical experience of your life.
As the largest royal hunting forest, Fontainebleau has had the favor of the Kings of France since the 16th century. They had there one of their greatest castles alongside Versailles. François I, the King who bought Mona Lisa from Leonardo Da Vinci, built most of the magnificent Renaissance Castle in the early 16th century. The castle was also a favorite of Emperor Napoléon who resigned there in 1814. Napoléon's throne room is one of the most visited rooms of the castle.
Bordeaux City is a city in the south west of France near the Atlantic Ocean. It has about 230,000 inhabitants. About 750,000 people live in the Bordeaux Metropolitan area around the city. The city has a famous university and has a diversified economy with strong points in defense and aeronautics. Bordeaux has a temperate oceanic climate.
The city is most of all known for its vineyards. Indeed, Bordeaux inherited its wealth from wine and from trade with the overseas in the 18th century, including wine trade and the so-called triangular trade. Its historic center, a magnificent Unesco World Heritage Site, is the largest 18th century historic center in France. With an insolent dynamism, the city metamorphoses since the 1990s through new projects: the tramway, the restoration of houses, the rehabilitation of the quays providing pedestrian access to the Garonne river and new pedestrian areas.
Today, Bordeaux seduces as much its inhabitants as the visitors, by its beauty, chic and festive atmosphere and animation as a big city of the south.
An excellent way to visit France is a cycling tour. France now offers many well-laid-out cycling trails on top of the thousands of small country roads that it’s also a pleasure to cycle along. The network of bicycles, greenways and other cycle routes in France allows you to follow an existing route or combine several of them to create a route that reflects your image. Whether along a canal for a smooth journey, or across the mountain by mountain bike for a more adventurous journey. The possibilities are almost endless. All the official cycle routes presented by France Vélo Tourisme are made for safe, relatively easy cycling. You’ll often be travelling on asphalt surfaces but there are quite frequent sections that are not tarmacked. You therefore need a bike that’s both strong and light. Accomodation is not a problem. There is choice between a cozy bed or a mattress in a tent.
Discover the endless possibilities of visiting France on a bicycle through France Vélo Tourisme web site.
