The capital
Paris is where most trips begin and where many first-timers wish they had stayed longer. It has the Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay, the Eiffel Tower and Notre-Dame, but also twenty neighbourhoods that each feel like a small town, with their own markets, bakeries and cafés. Versailles, Giverny and even Mont-Saint-Michel are reachable as day trips.
The south
The French Riviera runs along the Mediterranean from Cannes to the Italian border, with Nice as its lively, affordable base. Turquoise water, pastel old towns, perched villages like Èze and art museums left by Matisse, Chagall and Picasso make it the classic summer escape. Inland and to the west, Provence is the France of lavender fields, morning markets, Roman monuments and golden hill villages, best explored from Avignon, Aix-en-Provence or Arles.
Food capital and châteaux
Lyon is France's gastronomic capital, a handsome city where two rivers meet, with a Renaissance old town, traboule passageways and the cosy bouchon restaurants that define Lyonnais cooking. It sits two hours from Paris by TGV and makes a natural stop on the way south. Southwest of Paris, the Loire Valley is a garden landscape of royal châteaux, vineyards and quiet cycle paths, easy to reach from Paris in about an hour by train to Tours.
Putting it together
A first trip of ten days might pair four nights in Paris with Provence and the Riviera, or Paris with Lyon and the Loire. With two weeks you can see most of these at a relaxed pace. Our places to visit list has restaurants, markets and stays in each region, and the free trip planner helps you build a route that suits your dates.