Places to visit in France

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Have decided France for 2025 holidays- please give me your favourite places. Not keen on Paris but happy to go anywhere else.
Provence?- although maybe a pain to get to?
Bordeuax? Brittany?
Some ideas please of nice places for a break.
No kids re the holiday, so don’t need to worry about family activities.
Thanks!

Depends what sort of things you like! mountains, beaches, hiking, what sort of weather, if you want to drive or fly or train, will you drive while you are there, city or rural... give us a bit more to work with!

France has everything tbh. Mountains, gorges, beaches, lakes, rivers, castles, culture.

What sort of things interest you? What sort of holiday do you like?

Wont be driving. Like mountains - have alps region trip planned.
Really fancy Provence.
Looking for suggestions of where folk have visited and enjoyed in France.
Bordeaux/ Brittany also?
Where did people enjoy?

We love Antibes on the Côte d'Azur. Fly to Nice and get the bus to Antibes. We like to rent an apartment in the Old Town. Public transport is really good, trains and buses.. You can go all along the coast to Cannes and Nice and everywhere in between. Also inland in Provence and the Var and towards towns like Grasse. Lots of museums, wonderful restaurants There are also beaches of you feel like chilling out.

Normandy/Brittany is brilliant with things for all weather's and interests. Museum of the Sea at Cherbourg, spent about 7 hours there and could have happily done another day; lots of cities within 1-2 hours drive or day trip to Paris on the train; Mont St Michel; great cycling routes through countryside; WW2 museums, memorials and sculptures along a huge stretch of sandy beaches.

Alps wouldn't be great without driving unless you want a hiking holiday. If you do head that way, Annecy is gorgeous.

For a couple I would book an apartment in Avignon as a base and tour about, the town is lovely then there's lots of day trip options including chateaux neuf (of wine fame), Luberon hills, Nimes, Orange, take the train to Marseille. You definitely need a car though, I took the overnight ferry from Portsmouth to Ouistreme and drove down, wasn't too bad

I’m not really well versed with France, but have been a few times. I do love Paris, but you don’t, so I would vote for Chamonix, Annecy and that whole area, even going into Northern Italy or Switzerland for a day trip. I’d love to go to Giverny to see Monet’s gardens but it gets so snided, for good reason! And that’s not near the alps…

Alps, especially around Annecy or the Vendée are my favourite places in France.

Oooh… I Like the sound of Cherbourg.
And that should be ok to get to.
Also, Avignon…..
Anyone been to Provence?

Cherbourg itself is a bit of a dump but there are lots of lovely places nearby in the Cotentin. I would look somewhere a bit down the coast towards Barneville.

I really loved the Alsace - beautiful towns, hills and mountains! Glorious.

A lot of places you'll struggle
Without a car. How are you getting there - train?

Annecy, around Bordeaux but in Bordeaux, cote sauvage, France is big. You need to pinpoint what you want.

Aix-en-Provence is very nice. You can get there by public transport from Nice or Marseille.

The train to Aix en Provence sounds good. Would fly to Nice…...

Looking for ideas and places people enjoy led rather than pinpointing exactly what I want- re pp. Thanks

Yes Avignon is a great base for a holiday, but no you don't need a car!

We went by train (very quick and you can change in Lille and avoid Paris) and visited the city itself (lots to see) and also Nimes (amazing Roman remains) and the Pont du Gard (astonishing) by train and bus respectively - both easy to do. And we also hired bikes and rode out along the river and around. You could also get the train out to Marseille and elewhere on the coast.

Nimes sounds interesting… and a bit different

Bear in mind it can get unpleasantly hot in the summer down south

I like Provence- Aix en Provence would be a nice place to base yourself for exploring (again, a car would be good but I'm sure you could also get about by train). Great huge markets. Be aware that it is hot as hell in the summer 😁 I've been twice in August and it has been stifling.

For other places... I really like Lyon and again it would be a good base - you can get trains into the mountains or further south. We were less keen on Avignon - but it was mega hot when there. For exploring the south I'd aim for June or September (although I think it would still be hot in Sept). The heat is really intense, especially in cities. We go to northern Spain in the summer (coastal) and the heat feels a bit easier. There is something about the heat in the South of France in the summer that I struggle with.

La Rochelle?

We took the Eurostar to Avignon a few years ago from Ashford. 6 hours direct. Was fantastic but alas they don't stop at Ashford any more. You can go from St Pancras direct in the summer. We've also flown to Nice so that could be a great base for some amazing places like Cannes, Antibes, Aix etc.

If you are in the area of Nimes, Arles is another really beautiful city (even nicer than Nimes in my opinion) and not too far away.
Nice and the area around is great - St Paul de Vence and Vence are beautiful as well as Cannes, Antibes and Menton. Loads to see and do around there.

I am going to Brittany. Quite rural with a house across the road from a beach. Eden of a hamlet I believe.

Fly to Clermont Ferrand and stay near the Sancy Massif? Lakes, mountains, cheese, more cheese!