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Château de Caen
Looming above the centre of the city, Caen’s castle – surrounded by massive battlements and a dry moat – was established by William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, in 1060. Visitors can walk around the ramparts and visit the 12th-century Église St-Georges , transformed into an inf
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Musée Nissim de Camondo
The Nissim de Camondo Museum, housed in a sumptuous mansion modelled on the Petit Trianon at Versailles, displays 18th-century furniture, wood panelling, tapestries, porcelain and other objets d’art collected by Count Moïse de Camondo, a Sephardic Jewish banker who moved from Const
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59 Rivoli
In such a classical part of Paris crammed with elegant historic architecture, 59 Rivoli is quite the bohemian breath of fresh air. Take time out to watch artists at work in the 30 ateliers (studios) strung on six floors of the long-abandoned bank building, now a legalised squat whe
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MuséoParc Alésia
Opened in 2012, the sensational MuséoParc Alésia, near the village of Alise-Ste-Reine in the Pays dAuxois, is well worth the drive from Dijon (67km) or Semur-en-Auxois (16km). This was the site of what was once Alésia, the camp where Vercingétorix, the chief of the Gaulish coalitio
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Sainte
Try to save Sainte-Chapelle for a sunny day, when Paris’ oldest, finest stained glass is at its dazzling best. Enshrined within the Palais de Justice (Law Courts), this gemlike Holy Chapel is Paris’ most exquisite Gothic monument. Ste-Chapelle was built in just six years (compared
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Château de Sully
Nine kilometres southeast of St-Benoît, the Château de Sully-sur-Loire is a grand example of a fairy-tale castle, built from 1395 with machicolated ramparts and turrets to defend one of the Loires crucial crossings. From the outside this is one of the regions most picturesque châte
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Hôtel de Vauluisant
This haunted-looking, Renaissance-style mansion shelters a twinset of unique museums. The Musée de l’Art Troyen is a repository for the evocative paintings, stained glass and statuary (stone and wood) of the Troyes School, which flourished here during the economic prosperity and ar
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Cathédrale de Coutances
The lovely old Norman town of Coutances makes for a nice detour on the way to Mont St-Michel from the D-Day beaches or Cherbourg. At the town’s heart is the Gothic Cathédrale de Coutances, whose interior highlights include several 13th-century windows, a 14th-century fresco of St M
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Falaise aux Vautours
The griffon vulture (Gyps folvus) was once a familiar sight over the Pyrenees, but habitat loss and hunting have taken their toll on these strange, majestic birds. Now legally protected, over 120 nesting pairs roost around the limestone cliffs of this 82-hectare reserve. It’s a thr
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Pianu di Livia
About 7km north of Levie, Pianu di Livia comprises two archaeological sites, the castelli (fortified places made up of menhirs and boulders) of Cucuruzzu and Capula . Archaeologists believe they were erected during the Bronze Age, around 1200 BC. The castelli are located in a beaut
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Château de Serrant
Built from cream-and-fawn tufa and topped by bell-shaped, slate-topped towers, the grand Château de Serrant is a small slice of Renaissance style. Begun by aristocrat Charles de Brie in the 16th century, the château (seen only by guided tour) is notable for its 12,000-tome library
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Musée d’Art et d’Histoire
To the southwest of the Basilica de St-Denis is the Museum of Art and History, housed in a restored Carmelite convent founded in 1625 and later presided over by Louise de France, the youngest daughter of Louis XV. Displays include reconstructions of the Carmelites’ cells, an 18th-c
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Cimetière de Montmartre
Established in 1798, this 11-hectare cemetery is perhaps the most celebrated necropolis in Paris after Père Lachaise. It contains the graves of writers Émile Zola (whose ashes are now in the Panthéon), Alexandre Dumas (fils) and Stendhal, composers Jacques Offenbach and Hector Berl
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Thiepval Memorial
The largest British war memorial in the world, this arch-shaped, 45m-high construction is visible for many kilometres in all directions. Designed by Edwin Lutyens, it was built on the site of a German stronghold that was stormed on 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the So
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Place Vendôme
Octagonal place Vendôme and the arcaded and colonnaded buildings around it were constructed between 1687 and 1721. In March 1796 Napoléon married Josephine, Viscountess Beauharnais, in the building at No 3. Today the buildings surrounding the square house the posh Hôtel Ritz Paris
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Place des Vosges
Inaugurated in 1612 as place Royale and thus Paris oldest square, place des Vosges is a strikingly elegant ensemble of 36 symmetrical houses with ground-floor arcades, steep slate roofs and large dormer windows arranged around a leafy square with four symmetrical fountains and an 1
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Fort Ste
The drawbridged entrance to this huge subterranean sits at the top of Ste-Agnès village. The 2500-sq-metre defence was built between 1932 and 1938 as part of the 240km-long Maginot line, a series of fortifications intended to give France time to mobilise its army if attacked. The f
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Château de Montségur
For the full Monty Python medieval vibe, tackle the steep 1207m climb to the ruins of this hilltop fortress, 32km east of Foix. It’s the westernmost of the string of Cathar castles stretching across into Languedoc; the original castle was razed to rubble after the siege, and the pr
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Château de Chantilly Gardens
The Château de Chantilly’s wondrous gardens encompass the formal Jardin Français (French Garden), with flowerbeds, lakes and a Grand Canal all laid out by Le Nôtre in the mid-17th century, northeast of the main building; and the ‘wilder’ Jardin Anglais (English Garden), begun in 18
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Fort du Hackenberg
The largest single Maginot Line bastion in the Metz area was the 1000-man Fort du Hackenberg , 30km northeast of Metz, whose 10km of galleries were designed to be self-sufficient for three months and, in battle, to fire four tonnes of shells a minute. An electric trolley takes visi
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