For many, France goes hand in hand with fashion and fragrances, with wine and cheese, and with fine gourmet dinners or the cabaret of late-night entertainment. Paris, the City of Lights, is the European symbol of culture and civilization. It was the cultural hub in the late 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. Painters and writers congregated in Montmartre, and writers and philosophers clogged its cafes. 

Southern France was once part of the Pays Occitane. Languedoc and Roussillon share its tradition: Montpellier, Beziers, and Narbonne with their great cathedrals, Sette with its picturesque canals, Carcassonne, the best-preserved medieval town of Europe and the Cathar castles. Collioure is still a testimony to the famous fauvist painters, including Matisse and Derain.

Roussillon is French Catalonia. Its monasteries of Serabonne, St. Michel de Cuxa, and St. Martin du Canigou are witnesses of its shared past. Lourdes is the most important pilgrimage place for the Catholics of Europe. Biarritz was the resort of the aristocracy at the end of the 19th century, while Grande Motte, a futuristic resort built in the 70s. Nimes and Aigues Morte reminding of Romans and the cruciate.

Cote d’Azur has the world-renown cities of Nice, Cannes, Antibes, Cap Ferrat, Menton, and St Tropez.

Provence has Grasse, St Paul de Vence, Avignon, Arles, Aix-en Provence, Marseille, Van Gogh’s St Remy de Provence, Les Baux de Provence, the Roman ruins of Orange and Pont du Gard. (Eza, Glanum, Carpentras, Ardeche, St Gilles, Annecy, Chamonix, Mont Blanc, Versailles)