Things to do in France: 36 experiences worth the trip

1 to 2 hoursFree

Watch the Seine turn gold from the willow-shaded tip of the Île de la Cité, with bread and cheese on the grass.

1 to 3 daysNo booking needed

Pedal along the Loire between Blois and Amboise, the stretch that packs the most châteaux into the fewest kilometres.

About 2 hoursBook ahead

Real bouillabaisse is a whole meal built on rockfish; eat it in Marseille at a house that follows the charter, not on the cheap quays.

Half a dayBook ahead

Leave the car behind and cross the bay to the Mont by shuttle or on foot, then climb through the village to its abbey.

Free

Purple rows across the Valensole plateau, if your timing is right: arrive after the harvest and you get stubble.

About 3 hoursTimed entry

The Louvre stays open late on Wednesdays and Fridays, long enough to give one wing a whole evening.

About 1 hourNo booking needed

Oysters from the beds in front of you, opened at the stall and eaten on the sea wall facing the Rocher de Cancale.

About 40 minutes from Saint-GervaisNo booking needed

Finish the journey to Chamonix on the narrow-gauge Mont-Blanc Express, free along the valley with your guest card.

1 to 2 hoursFree

Climb Europe's tallest sand dune and look over the Banc d'Arguin to Cap Ferret as the sun goes down.

An eveningBook ahead

Slip through Lyon's covered passages from street to street before they close, then stay in the old town for dinner.

2 to 3 hoursTimed entry

See Paris by daylight from the top of the Eiffel Tower, then watch the lights come on as you make your way down.

1 to 2 hours with the Denon wingTimed entry

Stand before Leonardo's portrait, then turn round to Veronese and walk on into the Italian Renaissance with far fewer people.

A full day with the gardens and TrianonTimed entry

Walk the Hall of Mirrors halfway along the State Apartments on a timed ticket, then head out into the gardens.

Half a dayBook ahead

Go below Saint-Émilion to a church carved out of the rock, then taste the wine of the vineyards around it.

Half a dayFree

Stand among the graves on the bluff above Omaha Beach, then go down to the sand and the steel sculpture the tide half covers.

Half a dayBook ahead

In about 20 minutes the cable car lifts you from Chamonix to a terrace facing Mont Blanc, with a glass box over the drop.

1 to 2 hoursNo booking needed

Ride the flat seafront of the Baie des Anges on a shared bike, then look back over it from the Colline du Château.

1 hour to 2 hours 20 on the waterNo booking needed

Sail out of Cassis into the calanques, picking a loop from three calanques to nine, the longer ones under the tall Devenson cliffs.

An evening, or a day with the old townFree

Eight Christmas markets across Strasbourg's old town island, with vin chaud in a deposit cup and calmer weekday evenings.

About 2 hours for the castle and rampartsNo booking needed

Walk into the walled Cité for free at any hour, then pay for the full circuit of the ramparts and its 360-degree view.

2 to 3 hoursBook ahead

Chenonceau is built across the River Cher, and its long gallery over the water is the room you come for.

About 2 hoursBook ahead

Checked tablecloths, set menus and big plates of Lyon's working food, from cervelle de canut to a pink praline tart.

1 hour 30 to 3 hours on the waterNo booking needed

Paddle about 2 km of flat water up between the cliffs of the Verdon, from the bridge where the gorge meets the lake.

About 1 hour 40 for the showBook ahead

About 80 performers and the French cancan as the set piece, in the Moulin Rouge's one revue at the foot of Montmartre.

About 1 hourFree

Put together a picnic of fruit, cheese, olives and tapenade at Cannes' covered market, for far less than lunch on the seafront.

About 2 hoursFree

Walk downhill through Paris's largest cemetery, from Oscar Wilde's winged tomb and Édith Piaf to Chopin and Jim Morrison.

4 to 5 days with acclimatisationTimed entry

A serious mountaineering climb to the summit of Mont Blanc, for which the hut bookings and paperwork start months ahead.

About 2 hoursNo booking needed

Canada's D-Day museum stands right on the sand where Canadian troops came ashore, with a German bunker in the dunes in front.

A full dayNo booking needed

Follow the wine road to walled Riquewihr and taste in a winegrower's own cellar, under the grand cru slopes above the village.

An afternoon per paradeBook ahead

Stand by the Nice flower parade as riders on the floats throw mimosa and tens of thousands of flowers into the crowd.

A weekend to a weekBook ahead

Skipper a hired cabin cruiser along the Canal du Midi without a licence, at the slow pace the canal was made for.

2 to 3 hoursBook ahead

Monet, Renoir and Degas in a former railway station, on the quieter, cheaper Thursday evening.

About 1 hour with securityTimed entry

Climb the narrow spiral stair from the low chapel into the upper chapel and its 1,113 stained-glass scenes.

1.5 to 2 hours, plus the trip from ParisBook ahead

Walk Monet's flower garden by the pink house, then cross the road to the lily pond and the Japanese footbridge.

About 1 hour 30 per houseBook ahead

Go down into the chalk cellars under Épernay's Avenue de Champagne, where the houses age their wine beneath the street.

About 2 hours with the gardensBook ahead

Walk the popes' palace with a tablet that shows its bare rooms as they were, then step out onto the half bridge of the song.