So read on, even if you know your Mont d’Or from your roquefort.

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1. Art and beer in Lille

Most of us have passed through on the way to Paris, but those who alight at Lille Europe remark what a pretty and manageable city it is. Manageable in the sense that it won’t break your spirit trying to tick off every recognisable sight, nor will it break the bank as the capital can. In February the modern art gallery LaM will reopen with a Wassily Kandinsky retrospective as its first big exhibition (£9; musee-lam.fr). Enjoy a drink afterwards at one of Lille’s microbreweries — the city is renowned for its beer — or book an organised tour (£35; echappee-biere.com). Visit in the first week of September for the Braderie de Lille, Europe’s largest flea market, where the bargains are greater than at the Marchés aux Puces in Paris. The new art deco-style Hotel Oceania Les Augustins has a spa and a great location in the centre of town.
Details Room-only doubles from £100 (oceaniahotels.com). Take the train to Lille

2. Theme park fun near Paris

You can search a long time for the “real France” only to find the perfect example somewhere entirely artificial. Parc Astérix, about 20 miles north of Paris, stands testament to the French obsession with the comic-book Gaul and his pals. The rides are terrific but the real fun is in watching the locals in their (un)natural habitat, interacting with the characters. The park has been lovingly created, especially its flagship hotel, Les Quais de Lutèce. Next year it will be joined by another four-star hotel, L’Odyssée, but the big news for the 2026 season, which starts on April 4, is a revamp of the park’s Egyptian zone and some of its rides.
Details Les Quais de Lutèce has two nights’ B&B for four from £860, including park tickets (parcasterix.fr). Fly to Charles de Gaulle then take the £10 park shuttle

3. Return of a Côte d’Azur classic

A grande dame on the Côte d’Azur, Le Beauvallon counts among its former guests dozens of luminaries, from Audrey Hepburn to Winston Churchill. Built as a hotel in 1914 but converted to a private estate in 2015, it switches back to its roots in April as part of the luxury Como group, which manages the Halkin in London. With ten acres of grounds, it will of course have all the standard luxury touches, with the added benefit of yacht moorage in front of the property. If you haven’t brought your own boat you can use theirs: two motor launches are available to whisk guests to dinner or more secluded beaches.
Details B&B doubles from £700. Fly to Nice

4. The artists’ Riviera

For a more cerebral take on the Côte d’Azur, try a tour that links London with the Riviera. The Royal Academy on Piccadilly will host a retrospective of French modernism from October 2026 until January 2027. Get to the source material on a group tour of the coastal towns and villages that inspired Miró, Chagall, Matisse, Picasso and their contemporaries. Martin Randall’s Modern Art on the Côte d’Azur trip is led by two fine-art experts and will be based at the four-star Hotel La Pérouse, overlooking the Promenade des Anglais.
Details Seven nights’ B&B from £3,160pp, including flights, transfers, some extra meals and entrance fees (martinrandall.com)

5. Monet in Normandy

Impressionism takes its name from Claude Monet’s 1872 landmark work Impression, Sunrise. Born in Paris in 1840, Monet reached the ripe old age of 86 — making this year the centenary of his passing. To mark the occasion a number of events will be held throughout 2026 in Normandy and Paris, notably the Normandy Impressionist Festival, which will focus on the artist’s garden at Giverny, where he settled for the latter half of his life (normandie-tourisme.fr). The simple, cosy Musardière hotel is nearby.
Details B&B doubles from £171 (lamusardiere.fr)

6. Cycle up Everest (in the Alps)

Madcap antics are par for the course on the Tour de France. Who could forget Chris Froome running up Mont Ventoux in 2016 having been knocked off his bike? You won’t be required to perform such feats on the new Epic 21 event from the tour operator Peak Retreats. It’s much harder. Taking place on June 6-11 on Alpe d’Huez, one of the most visited climbs of Le Tour, the challenge is to complete up to eight ascents of the mountain — equivalent in altitude to scaling Mount Everest (8,848m). In reality, one ride up the 21 famed hairpins is enough for most weekend warriors, but the event is open to allcomers and Strava records are likely to be broken. Accommodation is in shared apartments at the swish Le Cristal de l’Alpe, so you can book with friends or make new ones.
Details Five nights’ half-board from £734pp, including transfers and event entry (epic21.co.uk). Fly to Lyon

7. Family cruising in Burgundy and Provence

A river cruise is like a greatest hits package, and it is fair to say France has had some chart-toppers over the years. So why not showcase them to a younger generation? Uniworld reserves certain summer dates for family-friendly trips. Its Burgundy and Provence cruise on the Rhône and Saône has activities for children, including a Van Gogh-themed painting class (break out the yellow), wildlife watching by kayak, cooking classes and a tour of a chocolate workshop. Parents or grandparents may enjoy a vineyard hike and wine tasting, or a bike tour for the whole family.
Details Seven nights’ all-inclusive from £2,699pp, including flights and activities, on the Burgundy and Provence itinerary, departing on June 14 (uniworld.com)

8. A walking wine tour in Alsace

If a sparkling wine tour seems a little indulgent, balance things out by adding a walking element. It’s 50 years this year since crémant d’Alsace gained an official AOC rating, although the local vintners had been enjoying their prized fizz for many years before that. UK-based Macs Adventure has a seven-night tour along France’s oldest official wine route, passing through the vineyards around Kaysersberg, Turckheim and Eguisheim, with their half-timbered houses and distinctive German flavour. Walking distances average about seven miles a day.
Details Seven nights’ B&B from £1,159pp, including train transfers in France and guided walks (macsadventure.com)

9. Ski like a king in Courchevel

Courchevel in the Three Valleys courts royalty as well as tech tycoons and hedge fund managers with its ever more luxurious digs. William and Kate have skied here on several occasions, staying in very private chalets. They may well like the seven-bedroom Lord of Snow, which opened this season with prices of up to £220,000 a week. If that makes the new Rosewood Hotel seem modest by comparison, it isn’t, and for maximum bragging rights a short stay here is hard to beat. Located on Le Jardin Alpin piste with just 51 rooms, naturally it is ski-in, ski-out. Along with the standard luxury features is a cigar room, curiously styled as the interior of a pine cone.
Details Room-only doubles from £2,010 (rosewoodhotels.com). Fly to Geneva or take the train to Moûtiers

10. Sip cognac at the source

Beloved of hip-hop moguls, cognac — or “yak”, as it’s known in the hood — is the lifeblood of the eponymous region in the southwest of France. The area tends to get second billing to nearby Bordeaux, though it is a favourite of holidaying Parisians who enjoy a tipple at any of its 270 distilleries. The rapper Jay-Z is one of the local producers — his D’ussé VSOP is known for its full-bodied, slightly spiced aroma — no doubt he would be comfortable at the Hôtel Chais Monnet & Spa. Once a cognac trading house, it is now a five-star retreat part-owned by the Soho Farmhouse investor Javad Marandi. While the pool and spa may be hard to leave, the property has two vintage 2CVs that guests can use to tour the region. Be sure to agree on a designated driver first.
Details B&B doubles from £255 (chaismonnethotel.com). Fly to Bordeaux

11. Happy camping in Brittany

Remember those family camping breaks that made us fall in love with France in the first place? The good news is France en plein air is still there — and the campsites are far better equipped. Eurocamp’s Domaine des Ormes, about 20 miles from the St Malo ferry port, has an indoor waterpark with slides and a wave pool. There are outdoor pools too, and activities from horse riding and archery to a treetop adventure with zip lines. There’s even an 18-hole golf course on site. If you can tear the kids away, the beach is 20 minutes’ drive away at Cherrueix, and the pretty city of Rennes is 45 minutes away.
Details Seven nights’ self-catering for four in a hut from £263. Take the ferry to St Malo

12. Paris for the Six Nations

All eyes will be on Les Bleus as the Six Nations rugby union championship kicks off on February 5 at the Stade de France in Paris, where the 2025 champions square off against Ireland. Matches are held across the UK, Ireland, France and Italy, and of the home nations only England will face France on French soil — in the final match of the championship on March 14. It’s fair to say the atmosphere will be something to remember. Accommodation is at the Ibis Paris Eiffel Tower, which is comfortable but not fancy, though there are options to upgrade.
Details Three nights’ B&B from £825pp, including match tickets (englandrugbytravel.com). Fly to Paris

13. Sweet stay near Chambéry

Château de Candie is an unexpected find ten minutes’ drive from Chambéry, so it’s a smart add-on to a ski trip or a summer mountain getaway. With 25 rooms it’s just the right size to feel convivial, and the decor ranges from the simple and cosy to the rather lavish Duchess Tower. It has the feel of a boutique hotel in a lovely old building. A summer visit brings the added pleasure of its outdoor pool, and wine tasting in the adjacent vineyard.
Details B&B doubles from £184 (chateaudecandie.com). Fly to Chambéry

14. Sustainable Corsica

Were you to distil the Mediterranean into a single island, it would come out looking a lot like Corsica: rocky, green and a little wild, with high peaks overlooking spectacular sandy beaches. It is an island determined to embrace sustainability, with hotels such as U Capu Biancu in Bonifacio at the forefront. The luxurious, rustic-chic beachside property was the first on the island to install a hydro-thermal power plant to reduce its carbon footprint. Good to know when you are showering off after a day at one of the three beaches on its doorstep.
Details Seven nights’ B&B from £2,719, including flights and car hire (corsica.co.uk)

15. Lyon on a plate

The scourge of weight watchers, Lyonnaise food is rich, hearty and best in small doses, such as on a long, indulgent weekend. Time your trip to coincide with the Lyon Street Food Festival, which celebrates its tenth anniversary this year, on June 11-14. In the former SNCF train shed Les Grandes Locos, it will host 130 chefs from around the world with hands-on cooking demonstrations and live music. Up the culinary ante with a stay at the five-star Villa Florentine Hotel, a Relais & Châteaux property with 29 rooms and panoramic views over the city from the rooftop pool. Naturally it has its own Michelin-starred restaurant, Les Terrasses de Lyon.
Details B&B doubles from £407 (villaflorentine.com). Fly to Lyon

16. Horseriding displays in Normandy

It would take a heart of stone not to be moved by the horsemanship on display at the Haras du Pin, a stud farm 110 miles west of Paris that traces its lineage back to Louis XIV. The Sun King wanted to create a “Versailles for horses” — and it is fair to say he succeeded. It is a working stud farm to this day, so the regal backdrop contrasts with the earthy scent of the stables. Guided or solo tours are available, and you can learn about the powerful, refined Percheron draft horse, which is particular to Normandy and a sight to behold. It is open from April to September, with riding displays take place from June, and there is accommodation on site at the Cité Pontavice, a newly refurbished collection of cottages.
Details B&B doubles from £70 (harasdupin.com). Take the ferry to Caen

17. Spanish flavour in the Pyrenees

Prettier during summer than the Alps, at lower altitudes the Pyrenees can feel like Devon or Cornwall. Since they straddle the border with Spain, you may unwittingly find yourself on a twin-centre break. Even on the French side Spanish food proliferates, so expect good tapas, paella and jamon in St Lary, a resort popular with hikers and bikers. Several ski lifts run year-round, ferrying passengers up the mountain for activities including summer sledging and karting, or a pleasant walk down (from £5; altiservice.com) Keep an eye out for the local mascot, the Pyrenean mountain dog — they’re lovely friendly giants. Stay at the Logis Hôtel Aurélia, officially a two-star but really deserving more. It has cosy decor, a pool and an excellent restaurant.
Details B&B doubles from £85 (logishotels.com). Fly to Toulouse

18. Surf the Atlantic coast

Forget Waikiki, Biarritz has the big swells that surfers are after — there is even a museum of surfing and the ocean (£13; citedelocean.com). The belle époque setting may seem an odd base for the gnarly surf crowd, but everyone fits in Biarritz. There’s a wealth of sandy beachfront divided by two rocky promontories jutting out into the Bay of Biscay, one of which is crowned with a statue of the Virgin Mary, the other with a lighthouse. Le Garage hotel is a cool spot with views of the lighthouse. In previous lives it was an aircraft hangar and a petrol station. Fear not, the whiff of diesel has long since vanished.
Details Room-only doubles from £145 (hotel-garage-biarritz.fr). Fly to Biarritz-Pays Basque

19. Languedoc for families

Châteaux and children don’t always mix, so if yours aren’t immediately transfixed by the promise of authentic 17th-century cornicing and parquet floors, maybe a petting zoo will capture their imaginations. Château Les Carrasses in the Languedoc wine country has both, and is just on the edge of a wood with a lovely playground. It’s likely the animals will be a big hit with everyone: there are goats and sheep quite used to being petted. For parents, the winery is a fairly compelling attraction. The beach is a 40-minute drive but the sunloungers by the outdoor pool may be more enticing.
Details B&B doubles from £250 (lescarrasses.com). Fly to Montpellier or Toulouse