Country guide
France
Paris, Provence, Alpine ski fields and two coastlines of very different character, with food and wine at the centre of everything.
Currency
EUR
Language
French
English
Widely spoken
Payment
Cards everywhere
Power
Type C / E
230 V, 50 Hz
Dialing
+33
Destinations
Bordeaux
The wine capital of France also happens to be one of its handsomest cities - a Unesco-listed crescent of eighteenth-century stone with classified vineyards on the doorstep.
✓ best Mar-OctChamonix
The birthplace of alpinism and still its capital: a working valley town under the highest summit in the Alps, with a cable car off the high street to 3,842 m.
✓ best May-SepCorsica (Ajaccio)
A mountain range with a coastline attached: twenty-odd peaks over two thousand metres, Europe's hardest waymarked trek down its spine, and a language and a table not quite France's.
✓ best Dec-OctLyon
France's kitchen: a two-thousand-year-old river city where the tavern cooking, not the monuments, is the reason to book.
✓ best Mar-OctMarseille
France's oldest and roughest-edged city, a Mediterranean port that faces the sea rather than Paris, with a national park of white limestone inlets inside its own boundaries.
✓ best Mar-NovMont St Michel
A thousand-year-old abbey on a rock in the middle of Europe's biggest tides, and on the right day the sea still closes around it and makes it an island.
✓ best Apr-OctNice
The Riviera's one real city - Savoyard until 1860, Italian in its old town and its cooking, with a principality twenty minutes along the rails.
✓ best Mar-Jul, Sep-OctNormandy (Bayeux)
Two invasions crossed this coast in opposite directions nine centuries apart, and Normandy still tells both of them from the ground where they happened.
✓ best Apr-OctParis
A compact, walkable capital where world-class art, cafe life and village-like quartiers sit a stroll apart.
✓ best Mar-OctProvence (Aix-en-Provence)
Two thousand years of Roman stone, a hundred hill villages and three weeks of purple, all under the clearest light in France.
✓ best Mar-NovStrasbourg
The city where France and Germany stopped fighting and started building Europe: a medieval island under the tallest spire of the Middle Ages, with a German imperial quarter beside it.
✓ best Apr-OctThe sweet-spot windows
Good weather, thinner crowds, better prices: the windows worth aiming for.
| Where | When | Why it works | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paris | May-Jun, Sep | Long mild days, gardens blooming, before/after summer crowds | Aug = many closures |
| Provence | Jun, Sep | Jun: lavender + warm. Sep: harvest, warm sea, thinner crowds | Jul-Aug lavender peak = tour buses |
Climate zones, month by month
France has 11 distinct climate zones. The right month depends on where in the country you're going.
Bordeaux →
✓ Best Mar-Oct
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
Chamonix French Alps →
✓ Best May-Sep · ✗ Avoid Dec-Feb
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
Corsica (Ajaccio) →
✓ Best Dec-Oct
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
Lyon →
✓ Best Mar-Oct
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
Marseille Provence →
✓ Best Mar-Nov
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
Mont St Michel Normandy →
✓ Best Apr-Oct
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
Nice French Riviera →
✓ Best Mar-Jul, Sep-Oct
Conditions Jan-Feb Mild · Mar Mild spring · Apr Pleasant · May Warm · Jun Warm & sunny · Jul Lavender, hot · Aug Hot · Sep Warm · Oct Mild autumn · Nov Cool & wet · Dec Mild
Cards tinted by verified verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
Normandy (Bayeux) →
✓ Best Apr-Oct
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
Paris →
✓ Best Mar-Oct
Conditions Jan Cold & grey · Feb Cold · Mar Mild spring · Apr Pleasant · May-Aug Warm · Sep Mild · Oct Cool autumn · Nov Cold & wet · Dec Cold & grey
Cards tinted by verified verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
Provence (Aix-en-Provence) →
✓ Best Mar-Nov
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
Strasbourg Alsace →
✓ Best Apr-Oct · ✗ Avoid Dec-Jan
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions