Plan a Trip to France: Regions, Costs and Travel Tips

A France trip works better as one region plus Paris rather than a national tour: 3 or 4 days in Paris, then 4 to 7 days in Provence, the Loire, Normandy, Brittany or the Alps, because a TGV crosses the country in 3 hours but a region takes a week to see. May, June and September give warm weather without the August shutdown, when French families take their own holidays and rural restaurants close. France uses the euro, sits inside the Schengen Area, and asks visa-exempt visitors only for a passport valid 3 months beyond the day they leave.

France is the most visited country in the world, with 102 million international visitors in 2025 according to the French tourism ministry, up from 100 million in 2024. It is also bigger and more varied than most first-time visitors expect: 13 mainland regions running from the Channel beaches to the Pyrenees and from the Atlantic to the Alps, plus 5 overseas departments in the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean and South America.

This guide is written by the Wonderful Wanderings editorial team for independent travellers, and it routes you to our own Paris, Versailles, Lille, Narbonne and south-of-France posts wherever they go deeper. Founder Sofie Couwenbergh’s booking habits, from Booking.com and Vrbo to her portable hotspot and SafetyWing policy, are the ones linked below.

France quick facts

The France quick facts below cover what a trip needs, from currency and plugs to driving, holidays and the emergency number.

The table stops at the practical facts. Trivia such as why the Eiffel Tower was meant to be temporary sits in our 111 interesting facts about France post.

France guides on Wonderful Wanderings

The France guides on Wonderful Wanderings go deeper than this hub on Paris, Versailles, Lille and the south. The 8 guides are listed below, most useful first.

1. A weekend in Paris: a 2-day itinerary that fits the sights, the food and a bit of shopping.
2. The Palace of Versailles: the château, the gardens and the Trianons in one day out from Paris.
3. The south of France itinerary: a road trip through the smaller towns, skipping Nice and Marseille.
4. 11 things to do in Lille: the Flemish north on a day trip from Brussels, London or Paris.
5. Fontfroide Abbey near Narbonne: a Cistercian abbey in the Corbières hills, reviewed.
6. Windsurfing at Leucate Plage: the windiest stretch of the Mediterranean coast and how to try it.
7. Rock en Seine: the Paris festival in the Domaine national de Saint-Cloud, and what a day there is like.
8. 111 interesting facts about France: history, food and language facts worth knowing before you go.

Older posts sit in the archive. Browse all France posts for the full list.

Where to go in France: the 13 mainland regions

Pick one region beyond Paris and give it most of your trip, because France’s regions are the size of small countries and each has its own food, wine and landscape. The 13 metropolitan regions are grouped below by the kind of trip they suit.

Paris and the north

1. Île-de-France: Paris, the most visited region in the world, plus Versailles, Fontainebleau, the Chantilly château and Disneyland Paris, all within an hour by train. Notre-Dame reopened on 8 December 2024 after the 2019 fire and is free to enter, with timed slots bookable on the cathedral’s own site. Our weekend in Paris post covers the city itself.
2. Hauts-de-France: the northernmost region, bordering Belgium, with Lille’s Flemish squares and its Braderie flea market, Amiens cathedral, the Somme battlefields, Dunkerque and the chalk cliffs of the Côte d’Opale. See our 11 things to do in Lille guide.
3. Normandie: Mont-Saint-Michel on its causeway, the D-Day landing beaches and their cemeteries, Monet’s garden at Giverny, Rouen’s cathedral and the cheeses of Camembert, Livarot and Pont-l’Évêque.
4. Grand Est: the German-influenced north-east, with Strasbourg’s cathedral and Petite France quarter, the Alsace wine route, the Champagne cellars of Reims and Épernay, and the Verdun battlefields.

The Atlantic west

1. Bretagne: the Celtic peninsula, with the walled port of Saint-Malo, the megaliths at Carnac, the pink granite coast, Quimper’s old town and a coastal footpath, the GR34, running most of the way round it.
2. Pays de la Loire: where the Loire meets the Atlantic, with Nantes and its mechanical elephant, the beaches of the Vendée, the salt marshes of Guérande and the 24 Hours of Le Mans, first run in 1923.
3. Nouvelle-Aquitaine: the largest region, running from La Rochelle and the Île de Ré down through Bordeaux and its vineyards, the Dune du Pilat, the prehistoric caves of the Dordogne and the surf at Biarritz to the French Basque country on the Spanish border.
4. Centre-Val de Loire: the château country, with Chambord, Chenonceau, Amboise and Villandry strung along the Loire, flat cycle routes on the Loire à Vélo path, and Tours and Orléans as bases.

The south

1. Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur: lavender fields, Roman Arles and the Pont du Gard, the Verdon gorge, hill villages such as Gordes and Roussillon, and the Riviera coast at Nice, Cannes and Saint-Tropez, with the Southern Alps for skiing behind them.
2. Occitanie: the walled city of Carcassonne, Toulouse in pink brick, the Canal du Midi, the Millau viaduct, the Pyrenees, the Cathar castles and the coast at Collioure and Leucate, plus the Fontfroide Abbey near Narbonne. Our south of France itinerary links the smaller towns.
3. Corse: Corsica, an island roughly 180 km (111.8 mi) off the Riviera coast, with the GR20 mountain trail, the calanques of Piana, Bonifacio’s cliff-top old town and Napoleon’s birthplace in Ajaccio; ferries run from Nice, Marseille and Toulon and from Italy.

The east and the mountains

1. Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes: Lyon, the country’s food capital and a UNESCO-listed old town, the Alps at Chamonix, Annecy and the big ski resorts, and the extinct volcanoes of the Auvergne.
2. Bourgogne-Franche-Comté: eastern France’s wine and abbey country, with Dijon, Beaune’s Hospices, the Burgundy vineyards, the abbeys of Vézelay and Fontenay, and the Jura mountains for cross-country skiing and Comté cheese.

The 5 overseas departments are a separate trip. Guadeloupe and Martinique are in the Caribbean, La Réunion and Mayotte in the Indian Ocean and Guyane on the northern coast of South America, all of them part of France and the EU, all of them 8 hours or more from Paris by air.

How many days do you need in France

Plan 7 days for Paris plus one region, and 10 to 14 days if you want two regions or a proper road trip. The 3 routes below cover the trips most people take.

1. Days 1 to 7, Paris and the Loire: 4 days in Paris with a day at Versailles, then the train to Tours and 3 days of châteaux by car or bicycle.
2. Days 1 to 10, Paris and Provence: 3 days in Paris, the TGV to Avignon in about 2 hours 40 minutes, then a week between Avignon, the Luberon villages, Arles and the Camargue, with a car for the last part.
3. Days 1 to 14, the Atlantic and the south-west: 3 days in Paris, the TGV to Bordeaux in about 2 hours, then Saint-Émilion, the Dordogne caves, the Basque coast and Toulouse, flying home from Toulouse or Bordeaux.

Two habits save a French itinerary. Book TGV tickets as soon as they open, usually about 4 months ahead, because the cheapest fares sell out first, and avoid the first weekend of August, when the whole country changes holiday at once and the motorways jam. Rooms in Provence, the Riviera and the Alps go early, so check hotel availability in France on Booking.com as soon as your dates are fixed.

Best time to visit France

May, June and September are the months to visit France, with warm weather, open attractions and none of the August rush. France has 4 broad climates, oceanic in the west, continental inland, Mediterranean in the south and alpine in the mountains, and the 4 seasons are described below.

• Spring (April to June): mild and green, with blossom in the Loire, lavender starting in late June, long daylight and moderate prices; Paris is at its most pleasant.
• Summer (July and August): hot in the south, with the Mediterranean coast full and expensive, and a national holiday migration in the first week of August; many city restaurants and small shops close for 2 or 3 weeks, while the countryside is at its liveliest.
• Autumn (September and October): warm into early October, with the wine harvest in Burgundy, Bordeaux, Alsace and Champagne, thinner crowds and cheaper rooms.
• Winter (November to March): grey and wet in the north and west, cold and bright in the Alps and Pyrenees, where the ski season runs from December to March or April; Christmas markets fill Strasbourg, Colmar and Lille from late November.

French school holidays move the crowds more than the weather does. The country is split into 3 zones with staggered February and spring breaks, which is why a ski resort can be packed one week and quiet the next.

How to get to France

You get to France by plane to Paris or a regional airport, by high-speed train from London, Brussels, Amsterdam, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Spain, by coach, or by ferry across the Channel. The 4 routes in and the entry rules are described below.

Flights to France

Flights to France land mainly at Paris Charles de Gaulle, the country’s largest airport and Air France’s hub, with Paris Orly taking domestic and short-haul flights and regional airports at Nice, Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Nantes and Basel-Mulhouse taking European and North African routes. Check here for a good overview of flight options and prices, and read our guide to what to do when a flight is cancelled before you fly in high season.

Trains to France

Trains to France arrive from almost every neighbouring country: Eurostar runs from London St Pancras to Paris in about 2 hours 20 minutes and from Brussels and Amsterdam, TGV and ICE services link Germany and Switzerland, Trenitalia and TGV run Paris to Milan and Turin, and Paris to Barcelona takes about 6 hours 30 minutes. Eurotunnel Le Shuttle carries cars, bicycles and motorbikes through the Channel Tunnel from Folkestone to Calais in 35 minutes. Compare international train tickets, routes and prices before you book.

Coaches and ferries to France

Coaches to France are the cheapest way in from Belgium, Germany, Spain, Italy and the UK, with Flixbus running most of the network and UK services crossing by ferry or through the tunnel. Ferries cross the Channel daily to Calais, Dunkerque, Dieppe, Le Havre, Caen, Cherbourg, Saint-Malo and Roscoff from Dover, Newhaven, Portsmouth, Poole and Plymouth, and more sail to Corsica from Italy and to France from Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria. Look here for an overview of all possible ferry routes to France as well as prices before you book a crossing with a car.

Entry requirements for France

Check the current entry rules for your passport before you book, because they change. France is in the EU and the Schengen Area, so EU and EEA citizens enter with a national ID card, and visa-exempt visitors such as US, UK, Canadian and Australian passport holders get 90 days in any 180-day period across the whole Schengen Area. The US State Department’s France page says American tourists need no visa for stays under 90 days, that a passport must be valid for 3 months beyond the date you leave the Schengen area with one blank page for stamps, and that the 12-page US emergency passport is not accepted for entry. Two EU systems matter at the border: the Entry/Exit System (EES) began its phased rollout on 12 October 2025 and has been fully operational since 10 April 2026, replacing passport stamps with a record of your fingerprints and photo, and the ETIAS travel authorisation is not yet in operation, with the European Commission saying it will announce the start date several months in advance and confirming a €20 (about $23, £17) fee when it does. The official sources are travel-europe.europa.eu for EES and ETIAS and travel.state.gov for the US advisory.

Getting around France

You get around France by TGV between the cities, by TER regional train and coach for the smaller places, and by hire car for the countryside. The 5 options are listed below.

1. High-speed trains: SNCF’s TGV inOui and the low-cost Ouigo reach Lyon in about 2 hours from Paris, Bordeaux in about 2 hours, Marseille in about 3 hours 10 minutes and Strasbourg in about 1 hour 50 minutes, and fares are cheapest 3 to 4 months out. Compare train routes and prices within France before you commit to dates.
2. Regional trains and Intercités: TER services fan out from each regional capital to the smaller towns, cost far less than the TGV and rarely need booking; they are how you reach the Loire châteaux, Normandy’s coast and the Alsace wine villages without a car.
3. Coaches: Flixbus and BlaBlaCar Bus cover the same routes for a fraction of the rail fare and take about twice as long, which suits overnight hops. Check Flixbus routes and prices in France if the train fare has climbed.
4. Domestic flights: Air France and low-cost carriers link Paris with Nice, Toulouse, Marseille and Corsica, and a flight only wins over the TGV beyond about 4 hours of rail time. Compare domestic flight prices in France against the train before you book.
5. Hire car: the way to see Provence, the Dordogne, Brittany’s coast and the Alsace wine route, and the wrong choice in Paris, Lyon and Bordeaux, where parking is expensive and low-emission zones apply. Motorway tolls are paid at barriers that do not always take foreign cards, so carry a card with a chip and some cash, and remember priorité à droite, the rule that gives way to traffic joining from your right at unmarked junctions. Get an overview of your rental car options here and check the toll and fuel policy before you accept the keys.

Paris has its own system. A Metro-Train-RER ticket costs €2.55 (about $3, £2) at full fare from 1 January 2026 and covers any distance in Île-de-France except the airports, a Bus-Tram ticket costs €2.05 (about $2, £2), and the Navigo passes work out cheaper from about the fourth day.

What a France trip costs

A mid-range traveller spends roughly €120-180 (about $139-209, £103-155) a day in France, with Paris and the Riviera at the top of that range and rural regions well below it. France’s prices below are approximate and move with the season.

The table covers a typical tourist day. The café, beer and restaurant figures come from Numbeo’s Paris data for September 2026, the Metro fares from Île-de-France Mobilités and RATP, and the museum prices from the Louvre’s and the Eiffel Tower’s own booking pages.

Money in France: cards, cash and tipping

France runs almost entirely on cards, including contactless for small amounts, and cash matters only at markets, in rural cafés, at some motorway tolls and for tips. ATMs are everywhere, and the 3 money habits that save you money are listed below.

1. Pay in euro, not in your own currency, whenever a card terminal offers the choice, because its conversion rate is worse than your bank’s.
2. Withdraw from a bank’s own ATM rather than the standalone machines in tourist streets, which charge a fee on top.
3. Carry €30-50 (about $35-58, £26-43) in cash for markets, bakeries in small villages and toll barriers that reject foreign cards.

Tipping in France is optional, because service is included by law and the bill says “service compris”. Round up a café or restaurant bill or leave a euro or two for good service, leave €1-2 (about $1-2, £1-2) per bag for hotel porters, and read our tipping in France section inside the wider tipping in Europe guide.

Where to stay in France

Stay in the 1st to 4th arrondissements or the Marais in Paris to walk to everything, in Avignon or Aix-en-Provence as a base for Provence, in Tours or Amboise for the Loire châteaux, and in Annecy or Chamonix for the Alps. Rural France also runs on gîtes and chambres d’hôtes, self-catering cottages and family-run B&Bs that are often better value than a hotel and usually need booking by email.

Booking sites do the filtering. Sofie books hotels, guesthouses and B&Bs through Booking.com, because its filters turn hundreds of listings into a short list that meets her criteria, so look there first; she uses Vrbo when an apartment or a village house suits the trip better. If you book on Airbnb as well, our how to use Airbnb guide covers its filters and fees.

What to eat and drink in France

French cooking is regional before it is national, so what you should order depends on where you are standing. The 10 dishes and drinks to try are listed below.

1. Anything from a patisserie or boulangerie: croissants, pain au chocolat, baguettes, macarons, éclairs and tarte tatin, freshest from a bakery that has a queue in the morning.
2. Quiche lorraine: eggs, cream and bacon in a butter pastry, from the Lorraine part of Grand Est.
3. Bœuf bourguignon and coq au vin: beef and chicken braised slowly in Burgundy red with mushrooms, onions and lardons.
4. Cassoulet: the white bean, sausage and duck confit stew of Toulouse, Castelnaudary and Carcassonne, eaten in winter.
5. Bouillabaisse: the Marseille fish stew, served as a broth first and the fish second, with rouille and croutons.
6. Ratatouille: aubergine, courgette, pepper, tomato and herbs from Provence, cooked slowly in olive oil.
7. Galettes and crêpes: Brittany’s savoury buckwheat pancakes with ham, egg and cheese, then the sweet wheat ones, washed down with cider in a bolée.
8. Choucroute garnie: Alsace’s sauerkraut with sausages and salted pork, a direct German inheritance.
9. Cheese: Camembert, Comté, Roquefort, Reblochon and hundreds more, served as a course before dessert rather than after it.
10. Wine and spirits: Bordeaux and Burgundy reds, Loire and Alsace whites, Champagne from Reims and Épernay, Provence rosé, and pastis on the southern coast.

The list stops at 10. Foie gras is on most menus in the south-west and is banned or contested in several countries over how the ducks and geese are fed, which is worth knowing before you order it.

Festivals and public holidays in France

France’s festival calendar runs from the winter carnivals of the south to the Christmas markets of Alsace, with the summer crowded by music, film and sport. Dates shift each year, so check the programme before you book around an event.

The table shows the events visitors plan around. Metropolitan France has 11 public holidays: 1 January, Easter Monday, 1 May, 8 May, Ascension Thursday, Whit Monday, 14 July, 15 August, 1 November, 11 November and 25 December. Good Friday and 26 December are public holidays only in Alsace and the Moselle department, so guides that list them for the whole country are wrong, and only 1 May is a compulsory day off for every employee. When a holiday falls on a Tuesday or a Thursday, many French people “faire le pont” and take the Monday or Friday as well, which empties offices and fills the roads.

Is France safe?

France is safe for travellers, including solo women, with pickpocketing rather than violence the realistic risk. The US State Department has France at Level 2, “exercise increased caution”, in an advisory issued on 28 May 2025 and last reviewed on 11 August 2025, citing terrorism and civil unrest, and France ranked 99th of 163 countries in the 2026 Global Peace Index published by the Institute for Economics and Peace, a rank that reflects arms exports, protests and terrorism risk rather than everyday danger to a visitor. France’s 4 practical risks are listed below, most common first.

1. Pickpocketing and phone snatching in crowds: on the Paris metro and RER, at Gare du Nord and Châtelet, around the Eiffel Tower and Sacré-Cœur, and at Nice and Marseille stations. Keep your phone out of your back pocket and your bag closed and in front of you.
2. Strikes and demonstrations, which are frequent and usually announced in advance: they can stop trains, close metro lines and cancel flights, so check the news the evening before you travel and stay away from the marches themselves.
3. Scams around the big monuments: the friendship bracelet at Sacré-Cœur, the “gold ring” find, the petition clipboard and the shell game are all worked by teams who separate you from your bag while you are distracted.
4. Car break-ins at motorway service areas, coastal car parks and trailheads in the south: never leave a bag visible, and take your passport with you.

Dial 112 for police, fire or ambulance anywhere in France, or 17 for the police and 15 for an ambulance.

What to pack for France

Pack for the region and the season rather than for “France”, because Nice in July and Chamonix in January have nothing in common. The 3 seasonal lists follow.

• Summer (June to September): light clothing, sunglasses, sun cream, swimwear, good walking sandals and a reusable water bottle, because tap water is safe and public fountains are common; add one smarter outfit for a restaurant dinner.
• Winter (November to March), especially in the Alps and Pyrenees: a merino woollen baselayer, merino woollen leggings, merino woollen socks, a warm, wind and waterproof coat, waterproof snow boots, a hat, gloves and a warm scarf.
• Spring and autumn (April, May and October): layers, a rain jacket, comfortable shoes for cobbles and gravel garden paths, and the same reusable water bottle; mornings and evenings stay cold long after the afternoons turn warm.

One extra finishes the list. A universal adapter covers the type C and E plugs, which take a round earthing pin that flat-pin adapters do not always fit.

Staying connected in France

You stay connected in France with your EU SIM, which works at home rates under the EU’s roam-like-at-home rules, or with an eSIM or a portable hotspot if you come from outside the EU. The 3 options are listed below.

1. An EU SIM: no roaming charges for calls, texts or data in France; UK plans have varied by operator since Brexit, so check yours before you fly.
2. An eSIM bought before you land: data from the moment you switch your phone on, with no shop visit; our eSIM for travel guide explains how they work.
3. A portable hotspot: Sofie carries a portable hotspot and buys day passes outside the EU, as a backup when her phone plan runs low on data, which suits several people sharing one connection. For a single phone, an Airalo eSIM installs on the handset you already have and saves carrying a second device.

The code HARRY5578 takes €3 off a first order.

Travel insurance for France

Travel insurance for France covers what a health card does not: a cancelled trip, a missed connection, a stolen phone, a ski accident and repatriation. EU citizens should carry their European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) and UK visitors their Global Health Insurance Card (GHIC), but French healthcare is not free at the point of use even for residents, who pay and claim back, so a policy still matters. The insurer Wonderful Wanderings uses is SafetyWing, whose plans can be bought before you leave or while you are already travelling, so check out SafetyWing and compare it against the options in our best medical travel insurance guide. Check the wording on winter sports and mountain rescue if you are going to the Alps, because both are often excluded.

French customs and basic phrases

Say “bonjour” before you say anything else, because in France a greeting is the price of entry to a conversation and skipping it reads as rude. The 4 customs and phrases that matter are listed below.

1. Greet the room when you enter a shop, a bakery or a small restaurant with “bonjour” (bohn-jur), switch to “bonsoir” (bohn-swar) in the evening, and say “au revoir” (oh rev-war) on the way out.
2. Add “s’il vous plaît” (sil voo pleh) and “merci” (mer-see) to every request, and open with “excusez-moi de vous déranger” or simply “pardon” (par-don) before asking a stranger anything.
3. Ask “parlez-vous anglais?” (par-leh-voo on-gleh) rather than opening in English, and use “je ne parle pas français” (zhuh nuh pahrl pah frahn-say) and “je ne comprends pas” (zhuh nuh kom-prahn pah) when you get stuck.
4. Ask for the bill rather than waiting for it, with “l’addition, s’il vous plaît” (lah-dee-syon sil voo pleh); leaving a table without asking is why service can feel slow.

The bise is for people you know. Friends greet with a cheek-to-cheek kiss on each side, without the lips touching, and the number varies by region; a handshake is right for anyone you have just met.

A short history of France

France’s history runs from Roman Gaul through the Frankish kingdoms, a long line of kings, the Revolution, two empires and two world wars to the EU. The 7 periods that explain what you see are listed below.

1. Gaul and Rome (about 600 BC to 486 AD): Greek settlers found Marseille around 600 BC, Julius Caesar completes the conquest of Gaul in 51 BC, and Rome leaves the arenas of Nîmes and Arles, the Pont du Gard and the street plan of Lyon.
2. The Franks and the Middle Ages (486 to 1328): Clovis unites the Frankish kingdoms, Charlemagne is crowned emperor in 800, and William, Duke of Normandy, conquers England in 1066, which starts three centuries of cross-Channel dynastic quarrels rather than making England French.
3. The Hundred Years’ War (1337 to 1453): England and France fight over the French crown and over Aquitaine, Joan of Arc lifts the siege of Orléans in 1429 and is burned at the stake in Rouen in 1431 at about 19, and the Black Death kills a large share of the population in between.
4. Renaissance and Wars of Religion (16th century): the Loire châteaux go up, François I brings Leonardo da Vinci to Amboise, and Catholics and Protestants fight the wars that end with the Edict of Nantes in 1598.
5. The Bourbon kings (17th and 18th centuries): Louis XIV moves the court to Versailles in 1682 and rules for 72 years, and France funds the American Revolution into near-bankruptcy.
6. Revolution and empires (1789 to 1870): the Bastille falls on 14 July 1789, Louis XVI is guillotined in January 1793 and Marie Antoinette in October of the same year, the Terror executes thousands, Napoleon crowns himself emperor in 1804 and loses at Waterloo in 1815, and his nephew’s Second Empire rebuilds Paris under Haussmann.
7. The republics (1870 onwards): the Third Republic builds the Eiffel Tower for the 1889 world’s fair, France loses about 1.4 million dead in the First World War, is occupied from 1940 and liberated in 1944, helps found the European Economic Community in 1957 and the EU in 1993, and elects Emmanuel Macron, its youngest president, in 2017.

The Revolution is still visible in the street names, the “liberté, égalité, fraternité” carved over every town hall and the habit of protest that closes French roads several times a year.

France travel FAQ

How many days do you need in France?

Plan 7 days in France for Paris and one region, and 10 to 14 days for two regions or a road trip; France is too big to see in a single circuit.

What is the best month to visit France?

May, June or September is the month to visit France, for warm weather, open attractions and prices below the July and August peak; go from December to March for the Alps.

Is France expensive?

France costs about as much as Germany or the Netherlands and less than Switzerland or the Nordics, and a mid-range traveller spends roughly €120-180 (about $139-209, £103-155) a day; Paris and the Riviera sit at the top of that range and the countryside well below it.

Do you need a visa for France?

Visa-exempt visitors, including US, UK, Canadian and Australian passport holders, need no visa for stays of up to 90 days in any 180-day period across the Schengen Area, with a passport valid for at least 3 months beyond departure; ETIAS is not yet in operation, and travel-europe.europa.eu is the source to check before you book.

Is Paris worth more than a weekend?

Paris rewards 3 or 4 days rather than 2, because the Louvre alone takes half a day, Versailles takes another and the city’s neighbourhoods are the part most weekend visitors miss.

Do you need to speak French in France?

No, but you need “bonjour”: staff in Paris, the Riviera and the ski resorts usually speak English, service in rural France often does not, and opening with a French greeting changes the reception you get either way.

WonderfulWanderings Pro Tips

The 4 tips below come from checking France’s prices, entry rules and driving requirements against official sources in September 2026, and each one has changed recently enough that older guides have it wrong.

1. Budget €32 for the Louvre if you are not an EEA resident. The two-tier price took effect on 14 January 2026: €22 (about $26, £19) for EEA residents and citizens, €32 (about $37, £28) for everyone else, with free entry for under-18s and for EEA residents under 26. A guide quoting one price for all visitors predates the change.
2. Reserve a free slot for Notre-Dame instead of joining the queue. The cathedral reopened on 8 December 2024 and entry costs nothing, but timed slots are bookable in advance on the cathedral’s own site, and booking one is the difference between walking in and standing on the parvis.
3. Order a Crit’Air sticker before you collect a hire car. Paris, Lyon, Grenoble and other cities run low-emission zones that require the sticker on the windscreen, and it has to be ordered rather than bought at the barrier. While you are at it, note priorité à droite, which gives way to traffic joining from your right at unmarked junctions, and carry a chip card plus cash for motorway tolls, because the barriers do not always take foreign cards.
4. Work from 11 public holidays, not 14. Metropolitan France has 11 legal public holidays. Good Friday and 26 December are holidays only in Alsace and Moselle, and Ascension moves each year rather than sitting on a fixed date, so a list that gives all of them nationally with fixed dates will close the wrong shops on the wrong days in your plan.

About the author. This guide is written and maintained by the Wonderful Wanderings editorial team. Wonderful Wanderings was founded in 2012 by Sofie Couwenbergh, and the first-hand notes in this post come from her trips to Paris and Versailles, to Lille in the north, and to Narbonne, Fontfroide Abbey and Leucate in the south. The team covers France for independent travellers, including the trains and hire cars, the hotels, gîtes and apartments, the restaurants, the packing gear and the travel insurance worth booking, and updates this page when prices, dates and rules change.