Best french city to go to

[Lillianofthevalley]

Please can you recommend me a French city to go to and why!!!!. Must be able to get there by train..me dd (14) and dh. I don't know france, have never been and am keeping an open mind. Thanks

Paris.
Mostly because it's Paris.
It's amazing and so beautiful.

Lyon: beautiful centre in a beautiful landscape. Great food, lots to do, easy from Paris by train

What are you looking for? Paris is obviously the daddy of French cities but it is far from my favourite.

Lyon is beautiful. It is nestled in the shadow of the Alps and straddles two rivers. It ha s an amazing Roman amphitheatre and an unrivalled food culture. You can get there really easily by train from London (change at Lille or Paris).

I love the weather and food of the South And the Med coast so would recommend cities like Montpelier and Nimes (Nimes in particular is a trsasure trove for lovers of Roman history).

A recent disconvery for us is Perpignan, we holidayed there this summer. It is right down on the Spanish border. It is more Catalan than French so more laid back and plenty of Spanish as well as French influenced food and culture. It is a small city but a short train or bus ride away from the gorgeous beaches of tbe Cote Vermille and the foothills of the Pyranees.

Finally I love Marseille but know it can be very marmite. If you know and love big diverse trading port cities like New York or London you'll love Marseille. It is brash, full on and a total melting pot. It is also right on the Med and has an amazing history right back to Ancient Greek times. It can be a challenging place though (it was a bit lively during this riots this July) and has a fair few social issues.

Forgot to say Perpignan, Montpelier, Nimes and Marseille are all east to reach by TGV from Paris - the journey is a bit longer than Lyon but it flies by.

Sadly Eurostar have not reinstated their wonderful direct London to Marseille route yet.

Troyes
Beaune.
Annecy.

@lastminutewednesday ooh good shout, Annecy is beautiful. Go at a time when it is warm enough to swim in the lake. You can get a train to Annecy from Lyon Part Dieu station. The journey itself is quite something.

Avignon is easy by tgv, Bordeaux is fabulous, Montpellier is even better

Second vote for Marseille, had a great time there - you come off the train from Paris and there's palm trees white buildings and the sea, it's quite something, very beautiful old town, coast amazing and great boat trips but it also felt the most volatile of anywhere mainstream I've been in France.

Yeah. We are both seasoned South Londoners but the first time we visited Marseille we beat a hasty retreat from a poorly planned evening excursion to find a recommended pizza place in Le Panier district.

It was fine once we got our bearings by day!

aix en Provence. Small but lovely.

Nice is a great city to visit. It's very touristy, but you've got the beach and the old town to visit. There are plenty of restaurants. You can go to Monaco. The weather is generally good all year round. English is widely spoken and you can get there by train from Paris.

France is a huge country and is very diverse in terms of ambiance and scenery. The north is different to the south, and even the south west is quite different to the south east. Enjoy!

We've just returned from France. Loved our visits to both Lyon and Bordeaux

If you enjoy cultural trips why not try Tours?

It's a very nice city in itself ( and easy to get to from Paris - an hour or so on a TGV or a couple of hours on the slower TER trains) and has excellent public transport links to lots of fascinating towns and chateaux - Amboise, Blois, Loches, Langeais, Angers.......

No idea about trains, but La Rochelle gets my vote. Beautiful port and harbour, gorgeous old town, pleasant gardens, boat trips, sea food, cobbled streets, incredible buskers, amazing ambience.

Saving this thread for ideas!

La Rochelle I think is about 3h by train from Paris, I last went aged about 14 and loved it!

I love Montpellier. Nice has loads to do. Strasbourg is somewhere that is very pretty and is much underrated. We went to Lyon in January and really enjoyed it. Maybe better in the summer. You can avoid changing trains/stations in Paris in many cases by getting the Eurostar to Lille. There are direct trains to Marseille / Strasbourg / Lyon / Avignon etc.

Lyon. The food!

that is a genius idea to change at Lille to avoid the change across Paris!

Yeah changing trains in Paris sucks. Also due to extra post Brexit queues the change over is more rushed than in previous years.

Tolouse is beautiful

Bordeaux

Lyon, Strasbourg, Bordeaux. I see others have already suggested Beaune and Annecy which are gorgeous, but aren’t really cities, more like medium sized towns.

Paris is a dump, avoid. If you’ve never been to France you will get a very skewed, and likely entirely negative, view of what France is like if you spend any time there.

Had an overnight stay this year inboth Dijon and Lyon, both were absolutely beautiful

Although as a word of warning, food in Lyon is very meat and dairy heavy so not great for vegetarians/vegans.

Two lovely places are Troyes and Metz - but depends how long you want to go for.

How long for and how far are you happy to travel?

If it's a short trip then I'd stick with Normandy or Brittany. Can get ferries or train. So much to see and do with the Normandy beaches, Bayeux, Caen etc. some lovely beaches too. Brittany has a wonderful atmosphere to it I think, towns like St. Brieuc are gorgeous.

Further afield, others have suggested many different cities and all (except Paris) are great too.