France trip planner

Planning a trip to France

Reid's guide to Paris - The top sights, top hotels, a variety of workable Parisian itineraries, and Reid's List of perfect sights and experiences for a trip to Paris.

Versailles - Europe's grandest palace is a sprawling, rambling, exhaustive display of the French monarchs' wealth and foppery in those last generations before the Revolution. Versailles, with its extravagant 17th-century palace and gardens, is Paris's best and easiest day trip...

Fontainebleau - Before they had Versailles to play with, French monarchs retreated to Fontainebleau, where they could hunt in the vast forest and escape the dirty, crowded streets of Paris into a sumptuous mansion built, renovated, and extended into a rambling palace over 700 years of construction...

Chartres - The French sculptor Rodin, after a dazed day sitting in the rain just staring at the sculptures on the facade of Chartres cathedral, dubbed the building "The Acropolis of France." Napoléon declared that "Chartres is no place for an atheist" upon laying eyes on this greatest of High Gothic cathedrals (still the fourth largest church in the world), filled on sunny days with ethereal world of colored light streaming through an awe-inspiring 3,000 square yards of 12th- and 13th-century stained glass...

Featured Article

Paris for Free - The Louvre is free. No, really—and I don't mean by sneaking in the back door. You just have to know when to go: the first Sunday of every month. In fact, more than a dozen top sights throw open their doors that Sunday...

Tips

• France planning FAQ - All the basics to help plan a trip to France.
• French lodging options - From farm stays to hotels, castles to campgrounds, and rental villas to rental rooms, find the perfect place to stay in France.