#2 best destination in the world

Sacré-Cœur, Paris

Best time to travel: June-Oct
Walk difficulty: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Roman Catholic church and minor basilica in Paris, dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
  • Sacré-Cœur Basilica is located at the summit of the butte of Montmartre
  • The basilica overlooks the entire city of Paris and its suburbs

Place des Vosges

Best time to travel: June-Oct
Walk difficulty: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Originally named Place Royale, it is the oldest planned square in Paris
  • It was a fashionable and expensive square to live in during the 17th and 18th centuries, and one of the main reasons for the chic nature of Le Marais among the Parisian nobility

Centre Pompidou, Paris

Best time to travel: June-Oct
Walk difficulty: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Complex building in the style of high-tech architecture
  • Houses the public library, and the Musée National d’Art Moderne, the largest museum for modern art in Europe, as well as a centre for music and acoustic research
  • Opened in 1977

Notre-Dame de Paris

Best time to travel: June-Oct
Walk difficulty: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Medieval Catholic cathedral widely considered to be one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture
  • Contains relics such as the purported Crown of Thorns, a fragment of the True Cross, and one of the Holy Nails
  • A 2019 fire damaged the cathedral and the landmark is currently closed, but is to be reopened in 2024

Louvre, Paris

Best time to travel: June-Oct
Walk difficulty: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Most visited art museum in the world
  • World’s largest art museum with approximately 38,000 objects from prehistory to the 21st century
  • Originally a museum housed in the Louvre Palace

Musée d’Orsay, Paris

Best time to travel: June-Oct
Walk difficulty: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Museum on the bank of the Seine housed in a railway station built between 1898 and 1914
  • Includes paintings, sculptures, furniture, and photography
  • Houses the largest collection of impressionist and post-impressionist masterpieces in the world by painters like Monet and Van Gogh

Champs-Élysées, Paris

Best time to travel: June-Oct
Walk difficulty: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Avenue in the 8th arrondissement of Paris
  • It is known for its theatres, cafés and luxury shops, as the finish of the Tour de France cycling race, as well as for its annual Bastille Day military parade
  • The name is French for the Elysian Fields, the place for dead heroes in Greek mythology

Eiffel Tower, Paris

Best time to travel: June-Oct
Walk difficulty: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Iron lattice tower constructed from 1887-1889, as the entrance to the World’s Fair
  • Initially it was criticized by some of France’s leading artists and intellectuals for its design
  • Now it is one of the most recognizable structures in the world
  • 81 stories, it’s the tallest structure in Paris

Arc de Triomphe, Paris

Best time to travel: June-Oct
Walk difficulty: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Honors those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, with the names of all French victories and generals inscribed on its surfaces
  • Beneath its vault lies the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I

Catacombs of Paris

Best time to travel: June-Oct
Walk difficulty: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Underground ossuaries in Paris, which hold the remains of more than six million people, in a small part of a tunnel network built to consolidate Paris’s ancient stone quarries
  • Extending south from the Barrière d’Enfer (“Gate of Hell”) former city gate, this ossuary was created as part of the effort to eliminate the city’s overflowing cemeteries
  • Preparation work began shortly after a 1774 series of basement wall collapses around the Holy Innocents’ Cemetery added a sense of urgency to the cemetery-eliminating measure, and from 1786, nightly processions of covered wagons transferred remains from most of Paris’s cemeteries to a mine shaft opened near the Rue de la Tombe-Issoire

Disneyland Paris, Chessy

Best time to travel: June-Oct
Walk difficulty: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $$

  • Most visited theme park in Europe
  • 4,800 acres compasses two theme parks, resort hotels, shopping, dining, an entertainment complex, and a golf course
  • Opened in 1992

Walt Disney Studios Park, Marne-la-Vallée

Best time to travel: June-Oct
Walk difficulty: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $$

  • The second of two theme parks built at Disneyland Paris in Marne-la-Vallée, opened in 2002
  • It is dedicated to show business, movie themes, production, and behind-the-scenes
  • The park is represented by the Earffel Tower, a water tower similar to one that was installed at the Walt Disney Studios lot in Burbank, California

Palace of Versailles

Best time to travel: June-Oct
Walk difficulty: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Royal château in Versailles that is now a museum
  • Village dating back to the 11th century, now a wealthy suburb of Paris
  • Building the château and maintaining the court there was phenomenally expensive, but did a good deal to establish the dominance of French style and taste in the whole of Europe, giving French luxury manufacturing advantages

Parc Astérix, Plailly

Best time to travel: June-Oct
Walk difficulty: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Theme park in France based on the comic book series Asterix, opened in 1989
  • Renowned in France for its large variety of roller coasters; it has begun incorporating rides and themes from historic cultures like the Gauls, the Romans, Ancient Greece and recently Ancient Egypt

Pont du Gard

Best time to travel: June-Oct
Walk difficulty: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Ancient Roman aqueduct bridge built in the first century AD to carry water over 50 km (31 mi) to the Roman colony of Nemausus (Nîmes)
  • The Pont du Gard is the tallest of all Roman aqueduct bridges, as well as one of the best preserved

Petite Venise de Colmar

Best time to travel: June-Oct
Walk difficulty: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Little Venice of Colmar is a picturesque old tourist area, in the Krutenau district, in the southern suburb of the historic center of Colmar, in Alsace
  • It is baptized with the name of Venice, in Italy, in relation to the historical picturesque organization, of its canals

Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière, Lyon

Best time to travel: Sept-Oct
Walk difficulty: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Minor basilica in Lyon, that was built with private funds between 1872 and 1896 in a dominant position overlooking the city
  • The site it occupies was once the Roman forum of Trajan, the forum vetus (old forum), thus its name

Pont des Amours, Annecy

Best time to travel: July-Aug
Walk difficulty: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Footbridge located on the shores of Lake Annecy at the entrance to the Canal du Vassé
  • The urban legend relating to this bridge says that two lovers giving each other a kiss in the middle of it will be united for life
  • The bridge remains today a very busy passage in a romantic setting with views of the city, the canals and the lake

Calanque de Sugiton, Calanques National Park

Best time to travel: Sept-Nov
Walk difficulty: Moderate
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • One of the numerous Calanques located between Marseille and Cassis
  • While quite small, Sugiton is perhaps the most known of all Marseille Calanques, simply because it can be easily accessed by hikers, and because it is open to tourists even during hot season, unlike most Calanques
  • During summer most of the Calanques are closed because of high fire risk
  • A small beach can be found at the extremity of the calanque

Promenade des Anglais – Castle Hill, Nice

Best time to travel: mid March-April, Sept-Oct
Walk difficulty: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Urban walk in the heart of Nice following Promenade des Anglais, an avenue bordered by prestigious hotels by the sea
  • The route takes you on the hill of the castle Lou Casteu, which was once the citadel of Nice

Calanques de Piana, Corsica

Best time to travel: April-June
Walk difficulty: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Corsican calanques located in Piana
  • It is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site that includes other sites in the Gulf of Porto, due to its beauty, rich marine biodiversity, and unique maquis shrubland
  • The jagged cliffs are made of red ochre

Château de Chenonceau

Best time to travel: Sept-Nov
Walk difficulty: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • French château spanning the river Cher, near the small village of Chenonceaux
  • It is one of the best-known châteaux of the Loire Valley
  • The estate of Chenonceau is first mentioned in writing in the 11th century
  • The current château was built in 1514–1522 on the foundations of an old mill and was later extended to span the river

Puy du Fou, Les Epesses

Best time to travel: Sept-Nov
Walk difficulty: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Historical theme park in Les Epesses, and the second most popular theme park in France after Disneyland Paris
  • Started in 1977

Jerzual Gate

Best time to travel: Sept-Nov
Walk difficulty: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • The area alongside the river is known as the “port of Dinan”, and is connected to the town by steep streets: Rue Jerzual and its continuation outside the city walls, the Rue Petit Fort

Mont-Saint-Michel, Normandy

Best time to travel: June-Aug
Walk difficulty: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $$

  • Tidal island and mainland commune in Normandy that lies approximately 0.6 miles off the country’s north-western coast
  • The commune’s position on the island made it accessible at low tide to the many pilgrims to its abbey, but defensible as an incoming tide stranded, drove off, or drowned would-be assailants
  • The island remained unconquered during the Hundred Years’ War; a small garrison fended off a full attack by the English in 1433
  • Louis XI recognized the reverse benefits of its natural defense and turned it into a prison