Off the Beaten Path Vacation Destinations in France
The first time the bascule bridge rose in front of me, I was halfway across with a baguette under one arm. Horn near the lock. A few people stopped without much fuss. Then the roadway tilted up so a workboat could slip through the basin. In Saint-Nazaire this is not a show. It is Tuesday. … Read more
I arrived on a Tuesday morning, the RER pulling into Versailles-Chantiers station with the usual mix of day-trippers clutching their timed tickets. Most streamed straight toward the château gates, a tide of selfie sticks and audio guides. I turned the other way, down a side street lined with plane trees and shuttered windows, the kind … Read more
Along the Jerzual to the Rance in Dinan The steep cobbled lane called Rue du Jerzual drops from Dinan’s upper town straight down to the little port on the Rance. Most visitors photograph the half-timbered houses and move on, but if you linger you notice how the slope changes with the light. Morning brings cool … Read more
Saturdays at Marché des Lices in Rennes The alarm on my phone never quite matches the real rhythm of a Saturday in Rennes. By the time I step out of my hotel near the old town, the sky is still that pale Breton gray, but Place des Lices is already humming. Stalls are unfolding … Read more
Perpignan sits where French street signs and Catalan flags share the same lamp posts. Most travelers only stop long enough to change trains for Collioure or Spain. That skips a working Roussillon capital with brick towers, a short urban river, markets that still sell anchovy paste by the jar, and evenings when Place de la … Read more
Carcassonne has two towns, and most visitors only really meet one of them. The Cité sits on the hill like a film set that forgot to strike: towers, double walls, day-trippers after breakfast. Below, across the Aude and the Pont Vieux, the Bastide Saint-Louis keeps ordinary hours. Grid streets. Plane trees. A marble Neptune on … Read more