First time visitors to France - where is best?

[cokezero26]

Hi all, never been to France before and not sure where is best to go as there’s so many options.
For info, we’d like to keep it as cheap as possible as on a budget. We love history, museums and sight seeing.

You might need to pin it down a bit more than that. It's a big country and all of it meets your criteria.

We did the self tour of the Somme. It's only an hour and a half, from Calais.
Loads of Museums, citadels, caves etc and cheap too.

Are you planning on taking your car on the train or ferry?

This is the issue, there’s too many options!
We are planning to fly from Edinburgh.

Well, what French airports can you fly into from there? That will help you narrow things down. Do you want to stay in one place or to travel around? If the latter, rent a car or take public transport?

I love the Loire Valley but you’d need to hire a car.

I think you can fly from Edinburgh to Carcassonne, which you’d enjoy if you like history, museums and sightseeing.

What sort of things are you interested in? France is a massive country - there is a huge variety of places to go. The weather can also vary a lot. The North has very similar weather to the South East of the UK whereas further into the South the summers are very warm and dry.

If you are interested in Roman history there are a number of cities like Nimes and Lyon that have a lot of Roman buildings and museums.

Alos what do you mena by cheap? France is not a cheap country (more expensive say than Spain or Greece) but there are some areas that are cheaper than others. Paris and the Cote D'Azure are fairly hefty in price terms. Some areas of the South - Languedoc - Rousillon for example are a lot more affordable.

Another thing is to consider is what sort of food you like- some areas like Lyon and Paris are quite meat and dairy heavy whereas places down by the Med you will see a lot more fish and veg and Spanish or Italian influenced food.

Can you fly into Toulouse? There's loads to do in the city, it's cheaper than Paris or Nice, and you can easily take trains and buses around the region (to see Carcassonne, Foix, other old historical and beautiful sites) so you don't need to hire a car.

Fly to Nantes, hire a car and meander south to La Rochelle and then onto the Ile de Re

We got the ferry and stayed in a campsite in a caravan (really nice one!) and went to Bayeux.

If you're flying will you be hiring a car? Where can you fly to?
Nice might be a good option as you will have a city and sea front with a train connection across the south coast. Not cheap though but now where will be where there are tourists.

We have just had a few days in France. Started off in Poitiers, a lovely, vibrant city with loads of historical sites linked with Eleanor of Aquitaine. Then up to Fontevraud-l'Abbaye. A small village centre round a 12th century abbey with a fascinating history. Another historical visit to Chinon, then a couple if dats in Saumur - vineyard visits and Chateau. Then drive to La Rochelle which we really enjoyed, and finally a couple if days in St Martin de Re. Another lovely, historical town, with good restaurants, oyster bars overlooking the oyster beds. Very peaceful, in September. We found out when there that it was the main port for exporting criminals to the penal volonies as in the film Papillon. There is also a large dry dock as seen at the start of the Les Mis film. We absolutely loved the trip, a cracking mix of history, food, beautiful scenery, and different experiences. Ile de Re is a fabulous place, bike tracks all round the island, beautiful villages, no Brits Abroad, and very friendly locals.

I love Brittany but it is best in the summer. I can also recommend Marseilles and the area around Montpellier.

I found Carcassonne really disappointing. It is beautiful but so, so busy that it takes all the joy out of it.

I know France pretty well and have liked almost all the cities and towns I’ve visited. The places I’m less keen on are Paris and the Côte d’Azur. I find them a bit snooty snd expensive (the accusations that Brit’s unjustly make about the French are possibly more valid here <<stand by flaming>>). Some great ideas here, but I’d base them on where you can fly from Edinburgh or Glasgow. Marseilles is an amazing city, near Aix en Provence (not cheap) but then you could go on the train up to the southern alps… Gap, Embrun, Briancon. None of those are pretentious or pricey and the countryside is awesome.

We started off with Northern France and worked our way down. We've always driven so I don't really know where you'd fly to. We haven't made it to the south yet.

Which campsite did you stay in out of interest? I love Normandy and Bayeaux.

I can't remember which trips were which so this may be a bit muddled but we have got the ferry to St Malo and stayed in a hotel (sea view) and had a look at the castle/fort there and the town, driven along the top of Brittany and visited Fort La Latte, got the ferry in to Caan and visited the Bayeux Tapestry (the town is lovely) and Mont St Michael, as well as lovely seaside towns with sandy beaches and creperies and Moules frits. We have stayed in Les Pins but my favourite camp site was Belle Plage in Ploemeur. Its smaller but so close to the sea and you can drive to Carnac (which you need to book for).

https://www.campings.luxury/en-gb/brittany/morbihan/ploemeur/belle-plage/l-3977525
https://www.yellohvillage.co.uk/camping/les_pins

We usually fly from Edinburgh, and have had a few wonderful holidays at a lovely campsite (St Avit Loisirs) reached by Bordeaux or Bergerac. Fab pools on site, and then plenty of day trips out to caves, museums, castles and gorgeous historic towns like Sarlat. You would need to hire a car.
We also flew to Nice a couple of years ago and enjoyed visiting the Riviera, but not as interesting tbh.