Tour Routes in France

Map of France

Virtually all multi-country Europe tours pass through or originate in Paris, but few see much more of France. It is possible to do a pretty extensive tour of France but even so some fairly important areas will be missing or only covered briefly. Regional tours are popular and give you more of an insight. Here’s a pretty complete route that would take at least 24 days (plus Paris):

Note: links to the towns go to photo albums on the Travel Signposts website

PARIS – Versailles – Rouen – Caen – Normandy Beaches – Bayeux – Mont St Michel – St Malo – Nantes – Chateaubriant – Angers – Saumur – Usse – Tours – Amboise – (Chateaux country: Villandry, Azey-le-Rideau, Amboise, Clos Luce, Chaumont, Blois, Chambord, Cheverny, Chenonceau) – Cognac – Limoges – Brive La Gaillarde (Lascaux) – St Emilion – Bordeaux – Biarritz – Lourdes – Carcassonne – Montpellier – Stes Maries-de-la-Mer (Camargue) – Arles – Avignon (Chateauneuf du Pape) – Luberon – Aix-en-Provence – St Paul de Vence – Nice – Cannes – Monaco – Grenoble – Annecy – Chamonix – Beaune (Vezelay) – Nuits-St Georges – Gevrey-Chambertin – Dijon – Colmar – Riquewihr – Strasbourg – Metz – Verdun – Reims – Epernay – PARIS (Chartres, Giverny)

You’ll note that there are some “detours” which could be chopped off if you wanted to travel straight through, eg the Lascaux Caves section. On the other hand, I have not named all the interesting villages etc in some regions, eg around Arles and Bordeaux. And some major towns, like Nimes, could be used as an alternative to those listed. But it gives you an idea and constitutes a good cross-section of what France has to offer. Regional coach tours can be judged according to what they miss out!

Don’t know where a place is? Try our google satellite map (just zoom in and use the map interface): Map of France