France 🇫🇷

There’s no way this could be comprehensive, including for these specific regions/cities! Just some places I’ve liked and other tips. I don’t have any tips here yet from Toulouse, Bordeaux, or Nice, but I also really loved visiting each of those cities and can’t wait to go back!

Paris

You don’t really need my help to know that the Musée d’Orsay, Louvre, and Rodin Museum are impressive, or that the Eiffel Tower and Palais de Versailles exist… so here’s just a few places I like! For restaurants, if they take reservations it is a good idea to make one, but you could get lucky.

• Stohrer 🥐 (site; map) is my favorite pastry shop. On my last trip, I had 30 minutes to spend in Paris before catching my TGV train, and this is how I spent it. I suggest not missing the large chocolate macaron. (Or your train.)
• La Panifacture 🥐 (map) has one of my favorite croissant/pain au chocolat in Paris. (Another favorite is Aux 2 Anges near Place de la Bastille here).
• Au P’tit Curieux 🍽️ (site; map) was a slight splurge of a dinner, and was incredibly delicious. Both vegetarians and carnivores were very happy with our meals. Cocktails and wine were also delicious. We will be forever haunted by the unbelievably delicious asparagus soup.
• Aux Bons Crus 🍽️ (site ;map) has a wonderful old-time atmosphere, with very delicious and relatively traditional French food. This was our first meal on my most recent trip, and it did not disappoint.
• Le 404 🍽️ (site; map) is an amazing Moroccan restaurant. Delicious food, beautiful ambiance. Reservations recommended.
• Waly Fay (map) is a very delicious Senegalese restaurant! I loved my mafé, and would highly recommend this place.
• L’Orillon 🍷 (map) is a great neighborhood bar for wine or a cocktail and a bite to eat.

Aside from food and drink, Les Mots à la Bouche 📚 (site; map) is a great LGBTQ book store.

Provence (Aix-en-Provence, Marseille, etc.)

Provence is a wonderful place to stay a while and explore! Most recently I stayed in Aix-en-Provence, and that was a wonderful home base for exploring; I’ve also stayed in Avignon a long time ago. Both are well connected by trains and buses to the rest of Provence, and easy to explore by car as well, with Aix-en-Provence being a bit more central.

Google Transit directions were not helpful for me in 2021 because they didn’t include the public bus system (and there was a significant regional train service change). I highly suggest downloading the La Métropole Mobilité app (Apple Store link) to figure out bus routes, for example for getting between cities, from the TGV stations to their town centers, or between Aix/Marseille/the airport for example; they will be much more economical and available than taxis, and the buses I rode took credit card payment on board!

Aix-en-Provence

Aix-en-Provence is a beautiful city and a great home base! Some of the highlights were:

Stuffed tomato from Les Vieilles Canailles

• Les Vieilles Canailles 🍽️ (site; map) was definitely my best sit-down restaurant meal; truly incredible. The photo at right is the stuffed tomato appetizer we had. We were turned away on a weekend evening without a reservation, but were easily able to make a reservation a few hours before for Tuesday evening.
• Marchés (markets) 🛍️🥖🧀🫒 – here’s a link to a different blog post about the main markets in Aix-en-Provence, which are on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays (including the food market on Place des Prêcheurs).
• Les Macarons de Caroline Eurl 🍰 (site; map) wow. These macarons are very delicate, and they have a variety that actually have fresh fruit (!) in the middle of them.
• Madeleines de Christophe 🍰 (map) were delicious madeleines in a variety of flavors (and cannelés, too).
• La Victoire 🪡 (map) if you like sewing, check out this wonderful fabric store! :) They were super helpful and friendly, and had a beautiful selection of fabrics.

We ate at a bunch of other restaurants, and they were all great! Google Maps reviews did not lead us astray.

Vaucluse (Luberon)

Île-sur-la-Sorgue

The département of Vaucluse is in the western part of the region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur. We spent a day exploring by car. We enjoyed the Lavender Museum in Cabrières-d’Avignon (site; map), which was informative and also had a nice gift shop. :) We had lunch in nearby Île-sur-la-Sorgue (<map), a beautiful town –see the picture at right– with picturesque waterways that is also known for its antique markets. From there, we drove through the beautiful small towns of Ménerbes and Bonnieux on our way back to Aix.

There’s a lot more that we weren’t able to see, like the ochre Mines de Bruoux (map), or visit other villages like Gordes, Roussillon, and Apt.

Alpes-de-Haute-Provence (Verdon)

What a stunning day this was. I went to the town of Forcalquier on a Monday, which just so happened to be its market day. The market was enormous, and I ended up getting some delicious olives, cheese, and marinated artichoke hearts to enjoy along with the bread that was actually my reason for coming to Forcalquier: I visited Boulangerie CumPanis (map), which for some reason I had saved on my map months ago… it was very good! Their bread is also sold down the street at L’Abondance (map), an excellent shop for cheese, wines, and other fine foods.

Les Gorges du Verdon

Then I drove through the already-harvested lavender fields past the incredibly picturesque town of Moustiers-Sainte-Marie (map, which is set into the mountainside. I wish I had time to hike up to the church and waterfalls in this town, or check out the museum for their signature ceramics (faïence), but Forcalquier had been too much fun and set me off schedule. From there, I drove (clockwise!) around the absolutely breathtaking Route des Crêtes (“route of the mountain crests,” map, google images – including, see the picture at right) over the Gorges du Verdon. The drive to get to the beginning of the route des crêtes was more nerve-wracking than the route itself, since a good portion of the route is one-way only, clockwise, so the road does not feel as narrow. There are frequent, marked vistas (belvédères), and yes, you should stop at all of them. You can eat a picnic lunch at one of them, but just note that if the goats are around, they will stick their heads into your open car window and scare the crap out of you.

I didn’t have time to do it when I went, but on the way back, my friend went kayaking on the lake at Verdon Canoe (map) and enjoyed it thoroughly.

Marseille & Coast (including Calanques)

It was super easy to get to Marseille from Aix-en-Provence on the bus! We had two incredible meals in Marseille:

• Chez Yassine 🍽️ (site; map) Tunisian food was so delicious, and also very inexpensive. One of the best meals of my trip, with a relatively long line outside waiting for a table to prove it. We basically got one of each of the main menu items, and I’m still thinking about that méchouia salad.
• La Mercerie 🍽️ (site; map) is right around the corner from Chez Yassine, and serves a very upscale menu with a casual vibe (literally, our server was wearing shorts). You should call ahead for a reservation.

I didn’t get to go, but my friend also went to Restaurant Fémina (map) around the corner from those two, an Algerian restaurant focusing on couscous.

A highlight of the area is the Parc National des Calanques 🏞️🏖️ (map). The Calanques are a rocky coastline with stunning inlets and beaches. We hiked the Calanque de Morgiou (map), which was absolutely stunning, and so lovely to float in the Mediterranean after we got to the beach! Some tips for the Calanques:

Calanque de Morgiou

• The hikes to get to them can be strenuous. Definitely have good footwear (either hiking shoes or at least well-gripping Teva’s, etc.; you do not want to do these hikes in flip flops), and bring water. There was a restaurant at the Calanque de Morgiou where you could buy food or water/drinks, but that is not the case at most of the calanques. I wish I would have brought a small backpack instead of a tote bag that was swinging around.
• Definitely download the Mes Calanques app (links). I am not sure how we would have navigated the trails without its Map tab to help us choose our way at forks on the trail.
• I don’t regret it (I think? 🤣), but the way that we got to Morgiou included traversing a red triangle (“passage délicat”) on the map. That means it’s an intense spot, which in our case was a 25 foot rock face with a chain to hold onto so you could lean back and climb down it. It took me almost a half hour to be able to take the first step at that particular spot (but also, most people were less fearful of it than me). Alternatively, we easily could have chosen a different trail to get to the beach, avoiding the red triangle on the map. So, that’s what red triangles can mean!

Down the coast from Marseille are a bunch of beautiful towns, including Cassis (map). We walked around Cassis after spending the morning and afternoon hiking in the Calanques.

Alsace

When I was staying in Basel, we spent a day in Alsace, which I enjoyed and would love to spend much more time. Some tips:

Colmar

• We went to Colmar in the morning, which is a really nice smaller town to walk around, and has its famous La Petite Venise (“Little Venice”), which was very beautiful (see picture at right). We then took the regional train up to Strasbourg to have lunch and walk around for a few hours. Strasbourg is a bigger city, with plenty to see and eat :)
• You can purchase an Alsa+ Groupe Journée ticket for a group of 2-5 people to travel on all regional trains, buses, and trams for a day. We got the one that covers the entire Alsace region, and for a single €45 ticket all three of us were able to hop on any transit and regional trains all day long (the more people in your group, the better the deal it is). Here’s a page in French about all the available group tickets, including that one in particular; a weekend group pass also exists. In my experience, you could buy this ticket from the ticket machines at the train station, and it’s not necessary to buy in advance, but you can also buy it online.

Bretagne (Brittany)

More recently, I did a road trip through Bretagne (Brittany), which is the northwestern corner of France. Brittany is culturally a bit distinct from the rest of France, being one of the six Celtic nations. It’s a little off the beaten path, and we had a wonderful time exploring the food and sights. In general, we took a TGV train to Rennes and rented a car to do a loop through Bretagne back to Rennes. It’s also possible to take some trains further, to Brest, Quimper, or Lorient (or Nantes, which is not technically in Bretagne administratively any more, but historically was part of Bretagne). If I’m honest about the inspiration for exploring Brittany, it’s (1) the beautiful rock arch featured at the beginning of Portrait of a Lady on Fire (a film that I loved), (2) the region’s famous kouign amann, and (3) the Celtic-influenced music.

The first place we stayed was Quimper, which was a really beautiful small city. Some things we enjoyed:

• Crêperie de la Place au Beurre 🧈 (map, site) is one of many crêperies in “Butter Square,” and ended up being one of our favorite meals of the trip. Shockingly delicious crêpes (much better than the ones we got a few days later), and also a nice opportunity to try chouchenn, the local mead.
• There were multiple beautiful gardens we chanced upon, including the Jardin du Prieuré Locmaria.

We used Quimper as a home base for a daytrip southward (which ended up being very long to get back!), visiting…

Algae-covered rocks on the Côte Sauvage

• The salt marshes of Guérande, one of the most famous places in France for harvesting sea salt. We did a great tour (only in French during off season, but available in English in the summer) where we learned about the salt production, tasted some local plants, and got to buy their sea salt afterward. This was a bit out of the way, but a lot of fun. After our salt tour, we wandered a bit around Le Croisic and had a delicious lunch at Le Bac à Sable.
• Our next stop was the walled city of Vannes, which is known for its gardens. This was a nice break to walk around a bit, stretch our legs, and have a drink before continuing on to…
• The Côte Sauvage, including especially the Arche de Port Blanc Roche Percée, which is the rock arch from the beginning of Portrait of a Lady on Fire. We thought this was going to be a quick hop out of the car, walk down along the rocky beach to see the archway, and continue back to Quimper, but we were transfixed by the beautiful scenery! Including rocks covered in a soft carpet of vivid green algae that made it look other worldly. We were lucky to be able to find a place afterward in Lorient that was willing to serve us a late dinner!

The next day, we stopped in Locronan on our way north, and it was also one of our favorite small towns we visited. There were beautiful wisteria growing along the buildings in the center. We stopped in Le Guillou Alain 974 🥐 (map) which ended up being the most delicious kouign amann of the trip, among many delicious sweet and savory baked goods. We also enjoyed the Lokorn’Mad produits locaux 🛍️ (map, site) fine foods shop, which had cheese, pastries, tinned foods, souvenirs, and more.

Further north, we enjoyed visiting the Miellerie de la Côte des Légendes 🍯 (map), which had a ton of different flavors of honey to sample and purchase (as well as rum and chouchenn). Just around the corner is the Menhir de Cam-Louis (map), one of the many menhirs throughout Bretagne, in a very beautiful setting along a coastal trail that was stunningly windy.

Oyster market in Cancale

Heading further east, we visited the famous walled city of Saint-Malo. Honestly, this is when it started to become apparent we were getting closer to Paris! The town was cute, but very crowded with tourists, and we were missing the serenity of Quimper and Locronan a bit, but we did pick up a butter sampler box from La Maison du Beurre Bordier 🧈 (map, site). Just east of Saint-Malo, we enjoyed walking around Cancale, which is known for its oysters. We enjoyed a platter of them from the Marché aux Huîtres de Cancale 🦪 where a variety of oyster vendors are set up along with a mobile wine truck.

The last day of the road trip was visiting Mont Saint-Michel. It is very beautiful, and interesting to approach the walled city from the causeway, but it was clear that we were solidly within day-trip distance from Paris, and even in spring it was unpleasantly crowded. However, we did enjoy the enormous range of caramels and other sweets for tasting and sale at Maison Pèlerin 🍭 (map, site), and we were pretty surprised to find delicious Afghan food at Restau soleil 🍽️ (map).

Saga, a very good girl

Our very last stop was over the border into Normandy, at Pacory-Ferme des Grimaux 🥃🍎 (map, site). I happened across their calvados a few years ago, and it’s always been my absolute favorite I’ve ever had (specifically the hors d’âge). After trying many calvados since, including ones that are much more expensive, I can confirm this is still my favorite. The Domfrontais style calvados they make includes both pears and apples. We enjoyed tasting a bunch of the different liquors they distill, and playing with Saga, their lovely dog who would not leave us alone! I’ll be going out of my way to return here whenever I’m remotely nearby with a car, and will be bringing bottles of their calvados home each time.