Shannon O'Brien Travel Itineraries

The best destinations

Photo of France
Photo of France

The Best of France

#3 best destination in the world

Map view

Eiffel Tower, Paris

Photo of Paris

Best time to visit: June-Oct

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

Louvre, Paris

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Best time to visit: June-Oct

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

Champs-Élysées, Paris

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Best time to visit: June-Oct

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

Disneyland Paris, Chessy

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Best time to visit: June-Oct

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

Place des Vosges, 4th Arrondissement Paris

Photo of 4th Arrondissement Paris

Best time to visit: June-Oct

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

Notre-Dame de Paris

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Best time to visit: June-Oct

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

Palace of Versailles

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Best time to visit: June-Oct

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

Musee d'Orsay, Paris

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Best time to visit: June-Oct

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

Mont-Saint-Michel, Normandy

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Best time to visit: June-Aug

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

Calanque de Sugiton, Calanques National Park

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Walk difficulty: Moderate

Best time to visit: Sept-Nov

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

Puy du Fou, Les Epesses

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Best time to visit: Sept-Nov

Cost: $

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

Sacré-Cœur, Paris

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Best time to visit: June-Oct

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

Arc de Triomphe, Paris

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Best time to visit: June-Oct

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

La Petite Venise, Colmar

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Best time to visit: June-Oct

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

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Best time to visit: Sept-Oct

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

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Best time to visit: July-Aug

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

Parc Astérix, Plailly

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Best time to visit: June-Oct

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 de Pierre, Bordeaux

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Best time to visit: May-July, Sept

Cost: $

  • The Pont de pierre, or "Stone Bridge" in English, is a bridge in Bordeaux
  • The bridge is built mainly of brick and not stone
  • It constitutes the legal frontier between the maritime domain and the river domain in the port of Bordeaux

Calanques de Piana, Corsica

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Best time to visit: April-June

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

Jerzual Gate, Dinan

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Best time to visit: Sept-Nov

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

Château de Chenonceau, Loire Valley

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Best time to visit: Sept-Nov

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

Promenade des Anglais – Castle Hill, Nice

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Best time to visit: March-April, Sept-Oct

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

Catacombs of Paris

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Best time to visit: June-Oct

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

Walt Disney Studios Park, Marne-la-Vallée

Photo of Marne-la-Vallée

Best time to visit: June-Oct

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

Centre Pompidou, Paris

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Best time to visit: June-Oct

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