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Basilique Notre Dame de la Garde
This opulent 19th-century Romano-Byzantine basilica occupies Marseilles highest point, La Garde (162m). Built between 1853 and 1864, it is ornamented with coloured marble, murals depicting the safe passage of sailing vessels and superb mosaics. The hilltop gives 360-degree panorama
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Musée Granet
Housed in a 17th-century priory of the Knights of Malta, this exceptional museum is named after the Provençal painter François Marius Granet (1775–1849), who donated a large number of works. Its collection includes 16th- to 20th-century Italian, Flemish and French works. Modern art
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16th
Half-timbered houses – some with lurching walls and floors that aren’t quite on-the-level line many streets in the old city, rebuilt after a devastating fire in 1524. The best place for aimless ambling is the area bounded by (clockwise from the north) rue Général de Gaulle, the Hôt
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Château dIf
Immortalised in Alexandre Dumas’ classic 1844 novel Le Comte de Monte Cristo (The Count of Monte Cristo), the 16th-century fortress-turned-prison Château d’If sits on the tiny Île d’If, 3.5km west of the Vieux Port. Political prisoners were incarcerated here, along with hundreds of
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Cours Julien
No address is more telling of the city’s extravagant cultural diversity than cours Julien, an elongated square with a fountain that has long dried up and palm trees, beneath which neighbourhood kids play football. Morning markets fill the pedestrian-only space with life – fresh flo
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Les Jardins du MIP
These gardens – part of Grasses Musée International de la Parfumerie – showcase plants used in perfumery. Half the garden is displayed as fields to show how local flowers such as rose, jasmine and lavender are grown commercially. The other half is organised by olfactive families (w
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La Capelière
This information centre for the Réserve Nationale de Camargue sells permits for the observatories and 4.5km of nature trails at wild Salin de Badon , former royal salt pans 7km south. True birders must not miss a night in its gîte , a cottage with 20 beds over seven rooms, kitchen,
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Église & Cloître St
Arles was an archbishopric from the 4th century until 1790, and this Romanesque-style church was once a cathedral. Built in the late 11th and 12th centuries, it’s named after St Trophime, an Arles bishop from the 2nd or 3rd century AD. On the western portal, the intricately sculpte
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Mémorial de la Shoah
Established in 1956, the Memorial to the Unknown Jewish Martyr has metamorphosed into the Memorial of the Shoah – a Hebrew word meaning ‘catastrophe’ and synonymous with the Holocaust. Exhibitions relate to the Holocaust and German occupation of parts of France and Paris during WWI
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Place du Palais
A golden statue of the Virgin Mary (weighing 4.5 tonnes) stands on the dome of Romanesque Cathédrale Notre Dame des Doms (built 1671–72), outstretched arms protecting the city. Next to the cathedral, the hilltop Rocher des Doms gardens provide knockout views of the Rhône, Mont Vent
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Gouffre de Padirac
Discovered in 1889, the spectacular Gouffre de Padirac features some of France’s spangliest underground caverns. The cave’s navigable river, 103m below ground level, is reached through a 75m-deep, 33m-wide chasm. Boat pilots ferry visitors along 1km of subterranean waterways, visit
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Le Rocher
Monaco Ville, also called Le Rocher, is the only part of Monaco to have retained small, windy medieval lanes. The old town thrusts skywards on a pistol-shaped rock, its strategic location overlooking the sea that became the stronghold of the Grimaldi dynasty. To access Le Rocher, f
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Musée Masséna
This marvellous Italianate neoclassical villa (1898) retraces Riviera history from the late 18th century to WWII. It’s a fascinating journey, with a roll call of monarchs, a succession of nationalities (British, Russians, Americans), the advent of tourism, the prominence of the car
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Musée d’Art Classique de Mougins
The brainchild of compulsive art collector and British entrepreneur Christian Levett, this outstanding museum contains 600 works spanning 5000 years. The collection aims to show how ancient civilisations inspired neoclassical, modern and contemporary art, thus the collection is org
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Musée Malraux
This luminous modern space houses a truly fabulous collection of impressionist works – the finest in France outside Paris – by masters such as Monet (who grew up in Le Havre), Degas, Pissarro, Renoir and Sisley. An entire section, on the ground floor, is devoted to the Fauvist pain
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Place Stanislas
Nancy’s crowning glory is this grand neoclassical square and Unesco World Heritage Site. Designed by Emmanuel Héré in the 1750s, it was named after the enlightened, Polish-born Duke of Lorraine, whose statue stands in the middle. Your gaze will be drawn to an opulent ensemble of pa
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Grande Île
History seeps through the twisting lanes and cafe-rimmed plazas of Grande Île, Strasbourgs Unesco World Heritage-listed island bordered by the River Ill. These streets – with their photogenic line-up of wonky, timber-framed houses in sherbet colours – are made for aimless ambling.
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Petite Venise
If you see just one thing in Colmar, make it the Little Venice quarter. Canal connection aside, it doesn’t resemble the Italian city in the slightest, but it is truly lovely in its own right, whether explored by foot or by rowboat. The winding backstreets are punctuated by impeccab
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Musée National de Préhistoire
Inside a marvellous modern building alongside the cliffs, this museum provides a fine prehistory primer (providing your French is good) with the most comprehensive collection of prehistoric finds in France. Highlights include a huge gallery of Stone Age tools, weapons and jewellery
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Centre Pompidou
Designed by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, with a curved roof resembling a space-age Chinese hat, the architecturally innovative Centre Pompidou-Metz is the star of the city’s art scene. The satellite branch of Paris’ Centre Pompidou draws on Europe’s largest collection of modern
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