Travel Destinations in France — City Guides | Trevio

France is the most visited country on earth, and it has been for decades, which raises an obvious question: are all those visitors wrong, or is France actually that good? The answer is mostly the latter. The concentration of excellent food and wine is unmatched — not just in Paris but in Lyon (the undisputed gastronomic capital), Bordeaux, Burgundy, the Basque coast, and the south. The infrastructure for independent travel is excellent: a fast rail network that puts most major cities within two hours of Paris, a coastline on two seas, and a national culture that still values the long lunch.

Paris remains an extraordinary city — not despite its clichés but partly because of them. The monuments are famous because they're genuinely magnificent. Beyond Paris, the Loire châteaux, the Dordogne valleys, the Alpine resorts, and the medieval towns of the Languedoc each offer a completely different France from the one depicted on postcards.