I was 20 when I first moved to France. Long before Emily Cooper waltzed in, I had grand Parisian dreams, although mine were shaped by a mix of Amélie Poulain’s artsy Montmartre and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen zooming around the city on mopeds and falling in love in Passport to Paris.

I’m a yoga-sceptic: here’s what happened when I worked on my downward dog during a ski festival in the French Alps.

Two novices, a large van and a lively Irish setter make for an eventful road trip through the French mountains.

Recreate gargoyles and chimeras worthy of Notre-Dame with sculptor Cécilia da Mota.

More chimney pot views than a Mary Poppins film, cocktails that would make Hemingway swoon and a whole lot of Hausmann — these are the best hotels in Paris for 2024 stays.

On the Italian prison island of Gorgona, one of Tuscany’s most famous winemakers is teaching inmates a surprisingly delicious new trade.

Skip the glitz of the Riviera for a terracotta town in French Catalonia with a spectacular beach and laid-back vibes.

Far less frequented than the Glacier Express, with spectacular views, this railway journey is equally bucket list worthy.

Cheaper than Paris and encircled by spectacular nature, Grenoble is being called the ‘most liveable city in the world’.

Once upon a time, Lyon was the city that kitted out the royal wardrobe, thanks to the silk trade. Now, its offerings are much more varied. This is a city of creators, where the sewing machines still clack on the slopes leading up to Croix-Rousse, the former silk-weaving district, and where artists set up easels by the side of the river to capture the Vieux Lyon’s hotchpotch of tightly-packed buildings. It’s a city renowned for gourmet produce: wine from Beaujolais and the Rhône Valley, cheese from Auvergne and Savoie, poultry from Bresse.

From Lyonnaise specialities in cosy bistros to Franco-Middle Eastern fusion food, these are the best places to eat in France’s food capital.

Oddly, it wasn’t the food that drew me to Lyon. Stringy innards served in traditional bistros called bouchons never did it for me, but when you get past this and discover Lyon’s fusion food, vegetarian fare, street food and haute cuisine, it’s difficult to find a city to match it.

You could argue that France is the home of the original road trip - or at least, the original road trip guide. In 1900, the Michelin brothers, operating out of Clermont-Ferrand in Auvergne, central France, concocted a novel way to sell their tyres.

Lyon passes remarkably under-the-radar, but once you’ve been, it’s near impossible not to go back. Vast parks, two rivers and a vibrant (and often al fresco) dining scene all feature prominently in a city that’s small enough to get around on foot.

Marketplace discos and former Roman strongholds are just the beginning of what these French cities have to offer.

France's capital of the north, Lille has taken the best of Flemish and French culture and married them in handsome red brick buildings with gilded Baroque frames, the humble French (read: Belgian) fry, dipped in a bubbling casserole of moules marinières and stroopwafels soaked in coffee.

The French love to holiday domestically, and with good reason. The sheer variety: coast and mountains, verdant countryside and handsome cities, is enough to keep you busy for a lifetime.

More than 110,000 people carpool in Europe each day, making it one of the most economical ways to travel.

Staying in a chateau makes you feel like the king or queen of the castle — but it doesn’t have to empty the royal treasury, writes Anna Richards.

Has hostel culture survived the pandemic, or has this type of affordable accommodation morphed into co-working space for digital nomads? A decade after first backpacking in the city, Anna Richards checks in to investigate.

It felt right when the EU proposed post-Brexit freedom of movement for 18- to 30-year-olds, but the idea was rejected by our Government.

Whether you want a Basque farmhouse, a medieval manor or a contemporary urban boutique hotel, these options won’t break your bank balance.

Are the French actually rude, or are you just doing everything wrong? There’s a trick to getting them to winnng them over – expat Anna Richards reports from la belle France.

All-you-can-eat-and-drink crêpes and cider, a hotel with vinyls available on room service, and a brand new wine museum - here’s why you should visit Paris this year, outside of the Olympics.

Turquoise seas, tranquil canals and glacial lakes … France offers some of the world’s most scenic paddling routes.

Heading to Paris or the northern hem’s summer? Take time to explore some of the fantastic châteaux, smaller cities and countryside just a stone’s throw from the French capital.

The appeal of a sun-drenched summer on the French Riviera is undeniable but for fewer crowds, vibrant festivals and tapestries of wildflowers, visit in spring.

Until 5 March, Interrail global passes (covering 33 European countries) and one country passes are available with a 15% discount.

Life for locals in Emily’s Paris means inflated prices, queues of tourists waving iPhones and a surfeit of berets.

A study reveals a quarter of French adults aged 18-69 had no sex last year. What’s happened? Co-written with Agnès Poirier (scroll to the second section).

I didn’t move to France for love. Not everyone does, but as I sought familiarity and friendship at expat meet-ups during my first few weeks in Lyons, the vast majority of foreigners I met had moved there to find a partner. Those who’d moved for a job were the minority.

I idolized my dad, but the older I got, the more I became aware of his mortality. When you have an older parent, and by default, older grandparents, aunts, uncles, and family friends, you begin going to funerals at a very young age. Growing up in a rural part of the UK, I went to my first funeral long before I'd ever been to a theme park.

It is unlikely to have escaped you that this summer France is playing host to the largest sporting event on the planet. Many of the events are taking place in Paris, but there is a good smattering across the country, from Versailles to Marseille and Lille, with the surfing happening as far away as Teahupo’o in Tahiti, a French overseas territory.

Beyond the Games, here’s a flavour of what else is new to tempt a hop over the Channel this summer…

There are thousands of Interrail routes to take you through Europe: get hooked on French fishing villages, explore horrible history in Romania — even island-hop in Greece.

Eurostar fares to Paris start from as little as £39 one way. Book now and add on a easy train journey to a quieter French city or town.

France was suffering from overtourism long before Instagram tourism was a thing. Although it has roughly the same population as the UK spread over a surface area almost twice the size, it’s the most popular country in the world among foreign visitors, and the French love a domestic trip too. Busloads of tourists descend on Mont-Saint-Michel daily, the Eiffel Tower has a queue which could rival the Seine in length and in St Tropez there’s barely a true Tropezienne left – so is it still possible to find the quiet corners?

This eastern French city was modelled on Versailles, and comes alive with Christmas markets but don't expect the crowds of the capital.

A butcher, a man with a whip, and a jolly bishop walk into a bar. This is not, in fact, the opening line of a twisted joke—it’s preparation for the biggest day of the year in Nancy, an elegant city in France’s Lorraine region.

Despite rising costs across the Alps, this is how to hit the slopes on a budget this winter.

This city break has lower holiday costs than the country's capital, and is less than five hours by train from London.

The price of pain au chocolat? Painful administrative procedures, according to Anna Richards. She charts the emigration journey in all its gory detail, from the vicious cycle of getting a housing contract without a visa to passing an integration test, now the UK’s freedom of movement in the EU has come to an end

Beaujolais Nouveau started like a Pink music video (at least, that's how I imagine it). Instead of a Mercedes Benz, a plane hit the runway in New York.

Artisan champagne for £5 (€6)? With a side of pinot noir, malbec and pouilly-fumé at no extra cost? France’s Salon des Vins et Vignerons Indépendants (Independent Wine and Winemakers’ Showrooms) have just begun – a series of wine tastings on an epic scale which tours the country, starting in Clermont-Ferrand last weekend and running until 28 April, where the final showroom takes place in Nogent-sur-Marne.

The Catalan port town of Collioure in the South of France is a looker. The higgledy-piggledy castle looks as though it’s made from terra-cotta-topped Legos, the watchtower wouldn’t look out of place in a “Game of Thrones” set, and against the cerulean sea, cozily moored motorboats and yachts gleam as white as bleached teeth.

Bouchons, boulangeries, and fine-dining—these are the top 24 spots in France’s queen of cuisine.

Until Gabrielle Chanel became Coco, she left barely a footprint. However, by tracing her history through rural France, Justine Picardie has been able to piece together her childhood.

Using cut-price trains, you can access this fiercely proud and beautiful corner of France with ease.

From kaleidoscopic markets, to Art Deco architecture, lively wine bars to wading birds, there’s something for everyone in Hauts-de-France.

Perpignan has hogged the limelight for centuries. First as the mainland capital of the kings of Mallorca until 1349, then as Catalonia’s second city (after Barcelona) until the region was annexed to France in 1659. By the early 20th century, it was attracting the most notable artists of the time, including Picasso, Lurçat and Dalí. After a fall from grace in the concrete, post-war years, the old town has been re-pedestrianised and is reclaiming its artistic heritage.

France attracts more foreign visitors than any other country, so it’s little wonder that visiting the most popular sites can feel like the M25 in rush hour (granted, we’d rather be playing sardines looking at Mont-Saint-Michel than a roadside Little Chef).

You don’t have to fly to the other side of the world to see incredible landscapes and landmarks – France is home to some stunning substitutes for bucket list wonders.

Embarking on the quest of scaling the volcanic peaks known as puys in the Auvergne region, I challenged myself to conquer as many of them as I could. This pursuit, often referred to as puy-bagging, shares similarities with the beloved Scottish tradition of munro-bagging, where hikers strive to conquer numerous peaks. With a total of 80 puys scattered across the Auvergne region, how many of these summits could I conquer in a single endeavor while savoring the experience at a gentle pace?

France is a holiday favourite for a reason. As off-the-beaten-track destinations enjoy their moment in the limelight, it has classic, timeless appeal. It’s not hard to see why: mountains that rise to almost 5000 metres, lush vineyards, a coastline both wild and rugged and soft with glassy seas. Let’s not forget Paris which regularly tops lists as the most visited city in the world.

(Reworked from the original piece in The Telegraph).

At Versailles, everything glitters – and it’s probably gold.

Built by Louis XIV on the site of his father Louis XIII’s hunting lodge in the 17th century, the Château de Versailles is surely the best example of the astonishing wealth of the French royal family.

There are so many merits to traveling by train in France. First, it’s greener—traveling by train emits only a fraction of the CO2 of a plane trip. Plus, France has a wonderful system of trains à grande vitesse (high-speed trains) known as TGVs. This means that traveling by train is often quicker than flying, when you factor in check-in. And since the French government recently banned any domestic flights where an alternative of under 2.5 hours was available by bus or rail, you may not even have a choice.

Cabaret dancer Lola Kashmir doesn’t divulge her “real” name to me.

When dancers perform their debut show at the Crazy Horse in Paris, they’re given a “Crazy Girls” name. Chosen for them based on their preferences, origins and dance style, this identity becomes so entrenched that even during a night out with her fellow dancers, Kashmir’s stage name never slips.

France was made for road tripping. The Michelin guide, now synonymous with haute cuisine, was originally a motorist’s handbook, and as early as 1900, drivers were using it to plan their travels around the country. Whether speeding along the Côte d’Azur in a convertible or climbing the mountains in a campervan, France’s variety never fails to amaze.

Read more about 7 of the Most Scenic French Road Trips – France Trip Ideas | Viator.com - https://www.viator.com/blog/The-Most-Scenic-French-Road-Trips/l98610?mcid=56757

Our slow travel series explores how you can take more mindful journeys by train, boat, bus or bike – with tips on how to reach your no-fly destination, and what to see and do along the way. We asked Anna Richards to report on her recent train trip across the rugged mountains of Corsica.

Waking up in the mountains is always magical; drawing the curtains feels like looking at a green screen of supersized, digitally enhanced peaks. Living just over an hour from the French Alps means I’m fortunate enough to go regularly, but most of my recent trips have been to hone my (shaky) skiing skills, hoping that I don’t take anyone out, Gwyneth-style.

From tranquil houseboats, to ninth-century châteaus, here’s everything you need to know for a fabulous French break this summer

Drinking sulphurous water that tastes like rotten eggs, being pummelled under the jets of seven-headed showers, salt scrubs and even cryotherapy (a treatment which exposes the body to extreme cold for a short period of time): a spa experience at Vichy in the Auvergne region of central France is nothing if not varied.

France isn’t known for being a particularly vegetarian-friendly country. In an office of 60, I’m the only person who doesn’t eat meat (quite the opposite of my old London office where the vegans, vegetarians and pescatarians probably outnumbered the meat eaters). It would seem that my French workplace is in keeping with national statistics too. Just over 5% of the French population is vegetarian, compared with 10% in the UK, or up to 40% in India.

Just a hop across the Channel, this summer favourite still guarantees to tick all your holiday boxes.

I knew very little about Armenia before deciding to hike the Transcaucasian Trail (TCT), which winds hundreds of miles through this under-explored country. When I told friends of my plans, most knew little more than the scraps I did – a turbulent, tragic recent history; some vague connection to the Kardashians.

Uneducated, a single mother and the first person ever to receive six Michelin stars, Eugénie Brazier was a tour de force. So why doesn't the world know about her?

Is it possible to talk about Paris without using superlatives? Home to more museums and more galleries than any other city in the world and more than 100 Michelin-starred restaurants, Paris’s reputation precedes it.

How do you make a marathon fun? Add wine. Lyon-based writer, wine aficionado and runner (in that order) Anna Richards argues that the best wine marathon in France takes place in Beaujolais.

There’s a certain romantic charm to the idea of working from French cafés. It makes us feel like the latest rising literary sensation of the Belle Époque. But even when working in a café matches the idyll (we’re talking café allongé on a sun-soaked terrasse, the scent of warm, flakey pastry tickling your nostrils), nomadic work life can be detrimental to our bank balances and waistlines in equal measure. On the flipside there’s screaming children, sticky tablecloths and coffee spilt all over our notebooks to contend with.

The bell tower of Notre Dame de Paris was the home of one of the most famous fictional characters of all time. The deaf hunchback, Quasimodo, who is “adopted” by the evil Archdeacon Frollo and employed (or rather imprisoned) in the bell tower as a bellringer. Whether we’ve read Victor Hugo’s epic or simply seen the animated Disney version (guilty), we’re familiar with the story. Quasimodo falls in love with a girl called Esmeralda, but unfortunately, both Frollo and the handsome Captain Phoebus are into her, too. There are no happy endings in Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and of the four main characters, Phoebus is the only survivor at the end (Disney paints a rosier picture).

One legend, three interpretations and a very thirsty bear: here’s how to experience traditional Catalan culture at the Fêtes de l’Ours (Bear Festivals) in the French Pyrenees, the latest addition to Unesco’s Intangible Cultural Heritage List.

The windows of the houses in the little town of Troyes, Champagne, sparkle with light like open doors on an Advent calendar. The snow has disappeared since I set off, and although the air has a distinct nip to it, I am cosy and warm, enjoying a lavish café gourmand at Le Jardin with a glass of champagne in my hand. “When in Champagne,”I think.

You may be as strong as an ox, but if you’re out of breath going to the grocery store, maybe it’s time to intersperse those deadlifts with some cardio. Cardio, short for cardiovascular training, is aerobic activity which elevates your heart rate for a prolonged period of time. Think running, cycling or swimming, but if every tier of that triathlon trio fills you with dread, fear not! The types of cardio are limitless.

Should you be taking a leisurely stroll along the Rue Saint-Jacques in Paris’s Latin Quarter, you might be alerted to what time it is – and that maybe you shouldn’t be being quite so leisurely if you want to make that dinner reservation – by a famous sundial in the shape of a scallop shell.

t’s a wrap on Season Three, and Emily Cooper (Lily Collins) shows no signs of leaving Paris. And ogling the sepia-toned shots of bougainvillaea spilling from the wrought-iron balconies of Paris’s Haussmann buildings in the Netflix smash series Emily in Paris, I can’t blame her.

Each winter, swathes of moneyed Brits take over entire alpine towns in neon one-pieces. They greet old chums from public school in voices that sound amplified by megaphones; they’re perfectly polished, from their blow-dries to their shiny new moon boots; and they stay at chalets that cost thousands of euros a night, drinking the wine stores dry. Val d’Isere becomes Magaluf for the rich. Peeling sunburn traces the shape of ski goggles rather than the straps of a too-small Shein bikini.

Emily in Paris, the show we all love to hate and hate to love, is finally back for season 3. And naturally, we have some questions: Will Emily finally learn French? Unlikely. Will she stay in Paris and follow her former colleagues from Savoir as they start their new marketing company? Almost definitely (I mean, Emily in Chicago doesn’t have the same ring). Most importantly, will Emily and Gabriel get together? He’s currently with Emily’s best friend but also love rival, Camille, so drama is pretty much guaranteed.

On my first holiday to France, I was so small that I had to be bathed in the washing-up bowl. In the photos, a speckly, eczema-ridden baby peeks over the plastic rim of the bowl, looking bemused. Mum’s dungarees and the battered grey tent in the background easily date the photo to the early 90s.

Annecy is a city for people who hate cities ‒ one wrapped in countryside, where days in the office can be punctuated with stand-up paddleboarding, paragliding and mountain hiking. The cobbled streets, tight-packed medieval houses and traditional festivals like Le Retour des Alpages (celebrating the cows returning from the mountains) may make Savoie’s former capital look quaint, but don’t be fooled.

While France is renowned for its pains au chocolat and croissants, Lyon has a long-standing tradition of tucking into wine and offal at breakfast.

My host pours freshly brewed coffee and, with the charisma of an actor, regales me with tales of his travels, celebrity encounters (Liz Taylor, Salvador Dalí, Marcel Marceau), and high-fashion photo shoots in Paris. Light from the open fire bounces off the gold leaf wall frescos and polished wooden table. It feels like a film set, but it’s an 11th-century monastery in the Cévennes, Southern France, and my host is an orthodox monk.

Lyon’s reputation as France’s foodie capital may be founded on a gout-inducing tradition of bouchons serving hearty plates of offal, but these days its dining scene is as varied as its patchwork quilt of quarters (neighborhoods).

Best of all for anyone who’s experienced dry, overpriced poulet frites from tourist traps by the Eiffel Tower, eating well in Lyon is surprisingly affordable.

For four days each December, Lyon in south-east France is spotlit. The Old Town’s cathedral morphs into a canvas for giant light projections, and the Parc de la Tête d’Or, usually home to a zoo containing giraffes and gibbons, instead becomes a Winter Wonderland. Roughly two million people—a third of Lyon’s annual visitor total—descend upon the city during the festival. In 2022, the Fête des Lumières is celebrating its 170th birthday.

The twin rivers, the Rhône and Saône, aren’t the only things watering the residents of Lyon and Beaujolais, in South East France. For four days each November, Beaujolais Nouveau, one of the largest wine festivals in the world, sees the streets awash with winemakers uncorking bottles which, just two months before, were grapes still attached to the vine. The popularity of Beaujolais Nouveau wine is now global, with an estimated 40 million bottles flying off the shelves worldwide and people in the UK, the US, and even Japan, turning out to celebrate and toast the red stuff. But what’s all the fuss about?

The unconventionally striking port city of Le Havre, Normandy, is a survivor, rebuilt virtually from scratch after the Second World War. It bears little resemblance to the Monet paintings you’ve seen (the artist moved to Le Havre aged five), but instead looks like a contemporary art gallery, with rainbow-coloured shipping containers, geometric sculptures and a concert hall inside a building shaped like a volcano.

If we needed further proof that coffee and books are a match made in heaven, just look to Voltaire, who reportedly drank 50 cups of coffee a day. Even in the 18th century, this caused doctors to throw up their hands in horror, but Voltaire defied all odds and lived to the ripe old age of 83, writing over 20,000 letters and more than 2,000 books and pamphlets in his lifetime.

After all that caffeine, we’d be shaking too badly to hold a pen, let alone write some of the most famous philosophical and satirical works of all time, but our point stands that coffee and books pair very well indeed. France is full of bookstore-cafés hybrids, so follow in the footsteps of Voltaire, Hemingway, and Balzac, and flâne between 10 of the best across the country.

On a damp March evening in eastern France, carnival floats buckle under the weight of gyrating, dancing, bouncing bodies. Jeeps, Land Rovers, and battered old Peugeots honk their horns.

The wealthy Lyonnais suburb of St-Romain-au-Mont-d’Or seems an unlikely spot for a giant collection of anarchist art. Sandwiched between the golden-stoned, blue shuttered houses that the residents themselves admit are ‘un peu bobo’ (somewhat bourgeois), is a large, black building that looks like a heavily graffitied scrapyard, crowned with an enormous metal skull. Painted on every available wall space are the names of places most commonly referenced in relation to disasters or atrocities in newspaper headlines. Conflicts, nuclear disasters, terror attacks. Angry capital letters spelling Gaza, Chernobyl, Bataclan.

Long a nation of Sancerre, Chablis and Côtes du Rhône, France is hopping into the world of beer with gusto and now has the highest number of breweries of any country in Europe. The growth has been explosive. In the 1980s there were fewer than 20 breweries in the country; now there are around 2,300.

February 18, 1959, was just an ordinary day for road workers in Lyon, France, tasked with building a tunnel under Croix-Rousse Hill in a bid to reduce traffic congestion. While drilling, they stumbled upon an old well. That wasn’t unusual. Though Lyon lay across two major rivers, access to drinking water was poor, and the city was peppered with wells. On closer inspection, however, the road workers discovered that this well didn’t simply descend vertically. Branching off from the shaft was a network of 32 identical tunnels, each about 100 feet long and each terminating mysteriously in a dead end. The curious structure resembled a fish skeleton, so they were named the arêtes de poisson, or “fishbones.”

For most of the 20th century, Lyon, France, was known as “la belle endormie,” “the beautiful, sleeping woman.” The potential was there: the city sits at the confluence of two rivers with two opposing hills, one topped with a basilica, the other home to a thriving silk-weaving industry. But Lyon’s beauty was hidden in thick layers of smog and an intricate web of ring roads and tunnels. France’s Sleeping Beauty was known for having some of the worst pollution and congestion in the country, rather than for its aesthetic appeal.

From Vol. 36: Discovery.

Encircled by three regional parks (Vercors, Chartreuse, and Belledonne), Grenoble has won the geographical lottery. Ironically, that means that the city often passes under the radar, as visitors headed for the mountains dash through with eyes skyward.

Two rivers, a vast Baroque cathedral and no fewer than 20 Michelin-starred restaurants – Lyon does nothing by halves. Long overlooked by tourists heading for Paris or Bordeaux, and more famous in the 20th century for its industrial crush than its holiday-friendly charms, the city’s former factories now hum with life, hosting galleries, museums and nightclubs.

A kayaking holiday down the Dordogne in western France sounds idyllic. The Seine, which flows from northwest of Dijon through Paris to meet the English Channel in Normandy, has inspired many a song and formed the backdrop for some of the most famous romantic films in the world. And it’s difficult to think of a holiday more perfect than sipping a chilled glass of Sancerre alongside the Loire with the crystal clear reflection of châteaux mirrored in the river. But what if we told you that the scariest sights in France weren’t to be found among the grinning skulls of Paris’s catacombs, but in the country’s waterways? You won’t believe what has been fished out of the rivers.

Where there is a crumbling old château, there must also be a pilfering poltergeist, sinister specter, or perhaps even the ghost of a decapitated Marie Antoinette roaming the hallowed hallways. There are over 40,000 châteaux in France, many of which have endured a colorful history of revolution, religious conflicts, and wars that lasted up to a hundred years, so is it any wonder that there are more than a couple of ghosts lurking in these turreted towers?

Frilly petticoats and lace knickers that would make even the most risqué of Montmartre shop windows look beige in comparison, a leg workout to rival a HIIT class, and a cacophony of animalistic shrieks akin to mating season in a wildlife documentary: the French Cancan isn’t about blending in. Since the early 19th century, Cancan dancers have been challenging the status quo.

Tree-lined boulevards, cobbled alleyways, skinny buildings with wrought-iron balconies: the streets of France are recognizable the world over. To promenade in a French city is to take a walk through history, the blue plaques on street corners delivering the names of former generals, politicians, scientists, and revolutionaries. But it’s also almost exclusively through the white male gaze.