FRANCE

INTRODUCTION

The French wrote the book on la vie en rose and gave the world champagne and camembert, de Beauvoir and Debussy, the Tour de France and the Tour Eiffel. There’s a term for their seductive lifestyle – Douce France (Sweet France) and you’ll find yourself using it often.

Although the ubiquity of Levis and Le Big Mac flusters the country’s cultural purists, anything from a year in Provence to a weekend in Paris will explain why half the world grows dreamy over stalking Cyrano’s streets or picnicking Manet-style sur l’herbe.

This country has been synonymous with romance for longer than your grandmother cares to remember, so whether you visit Paris or the Pyrenees, the Cote d’Azur or the auberge de jeunesse , be sure to keep your fantasies in check, your expectations in line and your joie in your vivre.

Language: Breton, Catalan, Basque, French, Corsican

Religion: 90% Roman Catholic, 2% Protestant, 1% Muslim, 1% Jewish, 6% unaffiliated

Single European currency (Euro): The Euro is now the official currency of 12 EU member states (including France ). The first Euro coins and notes were introduced in January 2002; the French Franc was still in circulation until 17 February 2002, when it was completely replaced by the Euro. Euro (┬) = 100 cents. Notes are in denominations of ┬500, 200, 100, 50, 20, 10 and 5. Coins are in denominations of ┬2 and 1, and 50, 20, 10, 5, 2 and 1 cents.

CLIMATE

France has a predominantly temperate climate, with mild winters, except in mountain areas and the northeast. The Atlantic has a profound impact on the northwest, where the weather is characterised by high humidity, often violent westerly winds and lots of rain. France ‘s northeast has a classic continental climate, with fairly hot summers and cold winters. Midway between the two, the Paris basin boasts the nation’s lowest annual precipitation, but rainfall patterns are erratic. Paris’ average annual temperature is 12�C (52�F), but the mercury sometimes drops below zero in January and can climb to the mid-30s�C (95�F) or higher in August. The southern coastal plains are subject to a pleasant Mediterranean climate: frost is rare, spring and autumn downpours are sudden but brief and summer is virtually without rain. The south is also the region of the ‘mistral’, a cold, dry wind that blows down the Rhone Valley for about 100 days a year. Relentless and unforgiving in spring, it is blamed for sending people into fits of pique.

When to Go

Spring offers the best weather to visitors, with beach tourism picking up in May. Temperatures aren’t too bad in autumn, although the short days mean limited sunlight and the cold starts to make itself felt towards the end of the season, even along the Cote d’Azur . Winter means playing in the snow in France ‘s Alps and Pyrenees, though the Christmas school holidays send hordes of tadpoles in uniform scurrying for the slopes. Mid-July through the end of August is when most city dwellers take their annual five weeks’ vacation to the coasts and mountains, and the half-desolate cities tend to shut down a bit accordingly. Likewise during February and March

ATTRACTIONS

Paris

Paris assaults the senses, demanding to be seen, heard, touched, tasted and smelt. From romance along the Seine to landscapes on bus-sized canvases to the pick-an-ism types in cafes monologuing on the use of garlic or the finer points of Jerry Lewis, Paris is the essence of all things French.

Many of Paris’ significant sights are strung along its river, and its quartiers each have their own distinct personalities, so you can experience a lot without covering much ground. The museums, monuments and the two islands are a magnet for visitors but it can be just as rewarding to wander.

Arles

On summer days, watch the waves of heat rise from the plains, just as Van Gogh did a century ago; olive groves and vineyards still cover the surrounding limestone hills. Central Arles is a relaxed place of intimate squares, terraced brasseries perfect for sipping pastis and men with long moustaches playing petanque.

The charming city of Arles is renowned for its Roman remains, its houses with their striking red barrel-tiled roofs, and its shady, twisting alleys so narrow you’d be hard pressed to swing a cat there.

Biarritz

The high-toned coastal town of Biarritz, 8km (5mi) west of Bayonne, started as a resort in the mid-19th century when Napoleon III and his Spanish-born wife, Eugenie, began coming here.

These days Biarritz is best known for its fine beaches and world-class surfing. Its sights are compactly arranged; if you’re in Bayonne, it’s easy to come over for a day-trip and see everything of interest.

Cannes

During the Film Festival in May, Cannes is crammed with more money, more champagne, more mobile phones and more cleavage than anywhere else in the world. Apart from posturing boutiques, hotels and restaurants, it also has beaches (studiously avoided by the sallow) with the equivalent of room service.

Cannes has just one museum and, since its speciality is ethnography, the only art you are likely to come across is in the many pretty galleries scattered around town. Still, the harbour, the bay, the hill west of the port called Le Suquet, the beachside promenade, the beaches and the people sunning themselves provide more than enough natural beauty.

Chamonix

The town of Chamonix lies in one of the most spectacular valleys of the French Alps. Reminiscent of the Himalayas, the area is dominated by deeply crevassed glaciers and the cloud-diademed peak of Mont Blanc. In late spring and summer, the glaciers and high-altitude snow and ice serve as a backdrop for meadows and hillsides carpeted with wildflowers, shrubbery and trees. This is the best time for hiking; in winter, travellers can take advantage of over 200km (125 mi) of downhill and cross-country skiing trails.

Not to be missed is the Aigulle du Midi, a solitary spire of rock several kilometres from the summit of Mont Blanc that stretches across glaciers and snow fields. Easily accessible, the views from the top are postcard-perfect. A further treat is a trans-glacial ride on the world’s highest telepherique (cable car), which stops en route at skiing and hiking destinations. The Mer de Glace is the second-largest glacier in the Alps. It measures 14km (9 mi) long, 1800m (5900ft) wide and is up to 400m (1315ft) deep. For a better look at the glacier from the inside, you can tour an ice cave that is carved anew each spring. There is also a train that ascends to an altitude of 1915m (6275ft) and a number of uphill trails, but traversing the glacier is dangerous and should not be done without proper equipment and a guide.

Other activities in and around Chamonix include mountain biking, parasailing, ice-skating and screaming down a spit-shined summer luge track. The Swiss town of Martigny is only 40km (25mi) north of Chamonix, should you wish to border hop for watch repairs or chocolate.

Chateau de Chambord

The Loire Valley was the playground of French nobility, who used the nation’s wealth to transform the area with many earnestly extravagant chateaux. The largest and most lavish is the Chateau de Chambord (1519). It was built by King Francois I, a rapacious lunatic who was fanatically dishonest with his subjects’ money.

Begun in 1519, its Renaissance flourishes may have been inspired by Leonardo da Vinci, who lived nearby from 1516 until his death three years later. Construction of the chateau, during which Francois unsuccessfully suggested the rerouting of the Loire River so it would be nearer to his new abode, took 15 years and several thousand workers, although the king died wizened and drooly before the building’s completion.

Inside is a famed double-helix staircase that buxom mistresses and priapic princes chased each other up and down, when not assembled on the rooftop terrace to watch military exercises, tournaments and hounds and hunters returning from a day’s deerstalking. From the terrace you can see the towers, cupolas, chimneys, mosaic slate roofs and lightning rods that comprise the chateau’s imposing skyline.

Saint Malo and the North Coast

The Cote d’Emeraude ( Emerald Coast) stretches west from the oyster beds of Cancale to the broad beaches of Pleneuf-Val-Andre, a tempting coastline of rocky reefs and islets fringed with golden sand, vividly green shallows and aquamarine deeps.

The port of St-Malo is one of the most popular tourist destinations on the Emerald Coast. It is famed for its walled city, acessible beaches and one of the highest tidal ranges in the world. However, it is not the region’s only gem; the Coast is studded with small towns that tempt their own share of eager visitors.

Sarlat-La-Caneda

Known simply as Sarlat, this lovely Renaissance town in Perigord (better known in English-speaking countries as the Dordogne) grew up around a Benedictine abbey founded in the 9th century. Caught between French and English territory, it was almost left in ruins during the Hundred Years’ War and again during the Wars of Religion. Despite this, Sarlat retains a distinctive medieval flavour with its ochre-coloured sandstone buildings and enticing streets. If you want to avoid the crowds, plan a visit outside high summer, when the town is overrun by tourists.

Among Sarlat’s architectural treasures is the Cathedrale Saint Sacerdos, originally part of the Benedictine abbey. Higgledy-piggledy in style, most of the present structure dates from the 17th century. Behind the cathedral is the town’s first cemetery, containing the Lantern of the Dead, a 12th-century tower built to commemorate St Bernard, who visited in 1147 and whose relics were given to the abbey. The town’s other main focus is the Saturday market. Depending on the season, foie gras, mushrooms, truffles, trussed-up geese and sheep’s heads with rheumy eyes are traded among a racket of vendors and spectators.

Sarlat also makes an excellent base for trips to the nearby Vezere Valley, which is peppered with nearly 200 prehistoric sites, including the Lascaux cave, thought to have been the site of a hunting cult where magical rites were performed. Discovered in 1940, this capacious labyrinth holds a number of 15,000-year-old doodles and paintings of bulls, horses and reindeer. There are other painted caves in the area, but Lascaux is sans pareil . Unfortunately, the exhalations of enthusiastic rock-watchers caused a carbon-dioxide fungus to cover the paintings; visitors today are restricted to a precise cement replica of the painted original, sealed off just a few hundred metres away.

Toulouse

Located between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic coast, a city of students and a centre of cutting-edge European technology, Toulouse is also the capital of the good life whose taste for celebrations and fine food is attracting a growing number of new inhabitants.

Toulouse rewards the wanderer. Its small, 18-century Old Quarter is a maze of narrow lanes and plazas in which to get happily lost. Its River Garonne is peaceful by day and romantic by night, when the Pont Neuf is floodlit. Stumble across grand churches, fine art and handsome 16th-century mansions.

ACTIVITIES

France ‘s varied geography and climate allow for a wide ride range of outdoor pursuits. The French have taken to hiking with gusto, and there are walking paths through every imaginable kind of terrain. Probably the best known trails are the sentiers de grande randonnee , long-distance footpaths designated by the letters GR. The GR 5 winds through the Alps, the GR 4 is in the Massif Central and the popular GR 10 runs along the Pyrenees from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. Cycling is another mania in France . La Margeride in Languedoc is a particularly inviting area for mountain biking, as are the Alps, Brittany and the Pyrenees. Skiing is also popular with some of Europe’s finest – and most expensive – facilities in the Alps (at Chamonix, for example), though prices tend to be much cheaper in the Pyrenees around Cauterets and the Massif Central, which is good for cross-country skiing.

The best swimming spots are found along the Atlantic coast (near La Rochelle), the Channel coast of Normandy, southern Brittany, the Mediterranean (including the coast of Corsica) as well as on lakes such as Lac d’Annecy and Lake Geneva. The French are at ease with their bodies, and this is reflected in a number of venues for naturism, mostly in Langedoc-Rousillon and the Cote d’Azur. Other activities include: rock climbing in the Alps and the Pyrenees; horse riding in Burgundy and the French Basque Country; surfing in Biarritz; rafting down the Gorge du Verdon in Provence; and hang-gliding in Languedoc. If your interests are more cerebral, you can take French language courses or learn the ins and outs of the souffle at regional cooking classes .

French obsessions with spectator sports such as soccer , rugby , basketball and cycling , especially the Tour de France, should not be overlooked. Traditional games such as petanque (similar to lawn bowling but played on a hard surface) are also popular.

FOOD

A typical day’s eating begins with a bowl of cafe au lait , a croissant and a thin loaf of bread smeared with butter and jam. Lunch and dinner are virtually indistinguishable and can include a first course of fromage de tete pate (pig’s head set in jelly) or bouillabaisse (fish soup), followed by a main course of blanquette de veau (veal stew with white sauce) and rounded off with a plateau de fromage (cheese platter) or tarte aux pommes (apple tart). An appetite-stirring aperitif such as kir (white wine sweetened with syrup) is often served before a meal, while a digestif (cognac or Armagnac brandy) may be served at the end. Other beverages designed to aid digestion and stimulate conversation include espresso, beer, liqueurs such as pastis (a 90-proof, anise-flavoured cousin of absinthe) and some of the best wine in the world.

NIGHTLIFE

In major cities such as Paris, Lyon or Marseille, there are lively nightclubs that sometimes charge no entry fee, although drinks are likely to be more expensive. Alternatively, the entrance price sometimes includes a consommation of one drink. As an alternative to a nightclub, there are many late-night bars and cafes. Tourist offices publish an annual and monthly diary of events available free of charge. Several guides are also available which give information about entertainments and sightseeing in the capital. In the provinces, the French generally spend the night eating and drinking, although in the more popular tourist areas there will be discos and dances. All weekend festivals in summer in the rural areas are a good form of evening entertainment. There are over 130 public casinos in the country.

SHOPPING

Special purchases include lace, crystal glass, cheeses, coffee and, of course, wines, spirits and liqueurs. Arques, the home of Crystal D’Arques, is situated between St Omer and Calais, en route to most southern destinations. Lille, the main town of French Flanders, is known for its textiles, particularly fine lace. Most towns have fruit and vegetable markets on Saturday. Hypermarkets, enormous supermarkets which sell everything from foodstuffs and clothes to hi-fi equipment and furniture, are widespread in France . They tend to be situated just outside of town and all have parking facilities. Shopping hours : Department stores are open Mon-Sat 0900-1830. Some shops are closed between 1200-1430. Food shops are open 0700-1830/1930. Some food shops (particularly bakers) are open Sunday mornings, in which case they will probably close Monday. Many shops close all day or Monday afternoon. Hypermarkets are normally open until 2100 or 2200.

TRAVEL TIPS

Do bid good-day to shop owners and clerks ( bonjour madame/monsieur ) when you enter and to tell them goodbye ( au revoir ) when you leave. This is considered a common and important courtesy in France.

Don’t wear shorts if you want to avoid looking like a tourist. The French have a more elevated sense of style, and shorts are generally reserved for exercise, sunbathing and occasional very hot days.