The Rough Guide to France

1066 Pages·2013·85.82 MB·English

by  David Abram

THE ROUGH GUIDE to
France
EXPERT ADVICE • FULL COVERAGE • EASY TO USE
INSIDE THIS BOOK
INTRODUCTION What to see, what not to miss, itineraries and more – all you need
to get started.
BASICS Pre-departure tips and practical information.
THE GUIDE Comprehensive, in-depth guide to the region, with area highlights and
full-colour maps throughout.
CONTEXTS History, art, architecture, cinema, recommended books and films, plus a
useful language section.
We’ve fl agged up our favourite places – a perfectly sited hotel, an atmospheric café, a special
restaurant – throughout the guide with the (cid:204) symbol.
France chapters
UNITED KINGDOM
BELGIUM
Lille GERMANY
ENGLISH CHANNEL
2
LUX.
Le Havre5 R.Seine PA1RIS R. MaRrnee imR3. Mseuse 4Strasbourg
6
Rennes Orléans
7
Tours R. Loire Dijon AUSTRIA
ATLANTIC Nantes Poitiers Bourges 8 R. Saône SWITZERLAND
OCEAN
La Rochelle
9 Limoges CFleerrmraonndt- Lyon 14
N
BiarritzBordeaux PérigueTuoxulouse10R. Dor1do2gRRn.e. LToatrMn on1tp3eRl.l Aiellirer 15 .RhRône GreR. Dunranceob1le6 NiceMONAITCAOLY
Marseille 17
11
Perpignan MEDITERRANEAN 18
ANDORRA SEA
0 100
kilometres SPAIN Ajaccio
1 Paris 7 The Loire J The Massif Central
2 The north 8 Burgundy K The Alps and Franche-Comté
3 Champagne and the Ardennes 9 Poitou-Charentes and the Atlantic coast L The Rhône valley
4 Alsace and Lorraine G The Limousin, Dordogne and the Lot M Provence
5 Normandy H The Pyrenees N The Côte d’Azur
6 Brittany I Languedoc O Corsica
Make the Most of Your Time on Earth at roughguides.com
This thirteenth edition published March 2013
THE ROUGH GUIDE TO
France
written and researched by
David Abram, Nikki Bayley, Ruth Blackmore, Brian
Catlos, Mary Anne Evans, Emma Gibbs, Norm Longley,
John Malathronas, Keith Munro, Natalia O’Hara, Neville
Walker and Greg Ward
roughguides.com

INTRODUCTION 3
Contents
INTRODUCTION 4
Where to go 8 Things not to miss 14
When to go 12 Itineraries 24
BASICS 26
Getting there 27 Festivals 44
Getting around 31 Sports and outdoor activities 45
Accommodation 37 Shopping 49
Food and drink 39 Travel essentials 49
The media 43
THE GUIDE 58
1 Paris 58 10 The Limousin, Dordogne and
the Lot 522
2 The north 152
11 The Pyrenees 580
3 Champagne and the Ardennes 198
12 Languedoc 634
4 Alsace and Lorraine 218
13 The Massif Central 678
5 Normandy 252
14 The Alps and Franche-Comté 720
6 Brittany 300
15 The Rhône valley 772
7 The Loire 356
16 Provence 802
8 Burgundy 424
17 The Côte d’Azur 860
9 Poitou-Charentes and the
Atlantic coast 468 18 Corsica 930
CONTEXTS 986
History 987 Cinema 1021
Art 1005 Books 1028
Architecture 1015 French 1031
SMALL PRINT & INDEX 1042
OPPOSITE PLAGE D’ARONE, PIANA, CORSICA PREVIOUS PAGE ABBAYE DE SÉNANQUE, PROVENCE
4 INTRODUCTION
Introduction to
France
The sheer physical diversity of France would be hard to exhaust in a lifetime
of visits. Landscapes range from the fretted coasts of Brittany and the
limestone hills of Provence to the canyons of the Pyrenees and the half-
moon bays of Corsica, and from the lushly wooded valleys of the Dordogne
and the gentle meadows of the Loire valley to the glaciated peaks of the
Alps. Each region looks and feels different, has its own style of architecture,
its own characteristic food and often its own dialect. Though the French
word pays is the term for a whole country, people frequently refer to their
own region as mon pays – my country – and this strong sense of regional
identity has persisted despite centuries of centralizing governments, from
Louis XIV to de Gaulle.
Industrialization came relatively late to France, and for all the millions of French people
that live in cities, the idea persists that theirs is a rural country. The importance of the
land reverberates throughout French culture, manifesting itself in areas as diverse as
regional pride in local cuisine and the state’s fierce defence of Europe’s agricultural
subsidies. Perhaps the most striking feature of the French countryside is the sense of
space. There are huge tracts of woodland and undeveloped land without a house in sight,
and, away from the main urban centres, hundreds of towns and villages have changed
only slowly and organically over the years, their old houses and streets intact, as much a
part of the natural landscape as the rivers, hills and fields.
Despite this image of pastoral tranquillity, France’s history is notable for its
extraordinary vigour. For more than a thousand years the country has been in the
vanguard of European development, and the accumulation of wealth and experience is
evident everywhere in the astonishing variety of things to see, from the Dordogne’s
prehistoric cave paintings and the Roman monuments of the south, to the Gothic
cathedrals of the north, the châteaux of the Loire, and the cutting-edge architecture of
RIGHT CHÂTEAU LAROSE TRINTAUDON, MÉDOC
INTRODUCTION 5
the grands projets in Paris. This legacy of history and culture – le patrimoine – is so
widely dispersed across the land that even the briefest of stays will leave you with a
powerful sense of France’s past.
The importance of these traditions is felt deeply by the French state, which fights to
preserve and develop its national culture perhaps harder than any other country in the
world, and by private companies, which also strive to maintain French traditions in
arenas as diverse as haute couture, pottery and, of course, food. The fruits of these efforts
are evident in the subsidized arts, notably the film industry, and in the lavishly endowed
and innovative museums and galleries. From colonial history to fishing techniques,
aeroplane design to textiles, and migrant shepherds to manicure, an array of impressive
collections can be found across the nation. Inevitably, however, first place must go to the
fabulous displays of fine art in Paris, a city which has nurtured more than its fair share of
the finest creative artists of the last century and a half, both French – Monet and Matisse
for example – and foreign, such as Picasso and Van Gogh.
There are all kinds of pegs on which to hang a holiday in France: a city, a region, a river,
a mountain range, gastronomy, cathedrals, châteaux. All that open space means there’s
endless scope for outdoor activities, from walking, canoeing and cycling to skiing and
sailing, but if you need more urban stimuli – clubs, shops, fashion, movies, music – then
the great cities provide them in abundance.
Metres UNITED KINGDOM Southampton Calais
Portsmouth Boulogne
3000
Plymouth Le Touquet
2000
A16
1500 ENGLISH CHANNEL
Abbeville
1000 Dieppe
A28
500
Cherbourg A29
200 Le Havre
100 A13 Rouen
0 Coutances Bayeux Caen A13 R. Seine
A84 A13
Roscoff
Morlaix St-Malo
N Brest Dinan Mont St-Michel
St-Brieuc Chartres
Fougères
A10
Quimper Rennes Laval A11
Concarneau
A81 Le Mans Orléans
Carnac Vannes Angers A11 BloisA10R. Loire
A85 Amboise
St-Nazaire Saumur Tours A85
Nantes
Chinon Loches
A83
Poitiers
ATLANTIC Chauvigny A20
Niort
OCEAN La Rochelle
A10
Limoges
170KM FROM THE CÔTE D’AZUR Saintes Angoulême
Bastia Brive-la- Tulle
Périgueux Gaillarde
Calvi A89
Bordeaux Bergerac Souillac
Corsica Arcachon A63 R. Garonne
Cahors
Ajaccio A62 R. Lot A20
Agen
Montauban
Bonifacio
Toulouse A68
Bayonne Auch
Biarritz
San Sebastian Pau
Bilbao A63 A64 Tarbes A64R. Garonne A66
Lourdes
Foix
SPAIN
Pamplona
Ax
0 100
ANDORRA
kilometres Madrid
Dunkerque BRUSSELS Amsterdam Bonn Berlin
BELGIUM
A26A25 Lille E42
Arras A2 Frankfurt
AmiensA1 CaSmt-QAb26ureanitiCnharleville-Mézières LUX.LUXEMBOURGR. Moselle Mannheim E41 Berlin
Beauvais A34 A6
Senlis Reims Verdun
PARIA1S A4 R. Marne ChâlonAs4-sur-MarneR. Meuse A31MNeatnzcy StraA4sbourg SAt6uttgart
A26 Lunéville A33 GERMANY
Fontainebleau Troyes
A5 Chaumont
A6 A19 Sens A31 MulhCoolumsaer
Auxerre Langres Belfort A36 Basel
Bourges A77 A6 A38Dijon R. SaAôn3e6 Besançon Zürich A3 AUSTRIAVienna
Nevers BERN
SWITZERLAND
A1 A12
A71 A39 A1 Lausanne
Bourg-en- A9
Montluçon R. Loire MâcoA6n BreAs4s6e Annecy Geneva Chamonix
A72
Lyon
Clermont-Ferrand
A89 A47 A43 Chambéry A4 Milan
R. DordoAgnuerillac A75R. Allier SLet- PÉutiyenne ValenAce49 A48 AG41renobBleriançon Turin ITA2A1LY Genoa
Gap
Aubenas
Rodez Millau Alès Rh .ôRne Orange Sisteron Digne A10
Albi R. Tarn Nîmes A9 Avignon A51R. Durance Grasse NiceMOMeNntAonCO
Arles Aix-en-Provence
Castres
Montpellier A8 Cannes
Fréjus
A61 Carcassonne A9 BéziersSète Marseille A50 A57 St-Tropez
Toulon
Narbonne Hyères
Perpignan MEDITERRANEAN SEA
8 INTRODUCTION
FACT FILE Where to go
•
With a land area of 547,000 square
Travelling around France is easy.
kilometres, France is the largest country in the
EU; its population of 66 million is second only Restaurants and hotels proliferate, many
to that of Germany. of them relatively inexpensive when
• compared with other developed Western
France has a long secular republican
tradition dating back to the revolution of European countries. Train services are
1789. Yet the majority of its population is admirably efficient, as is the road
Roman Catholic – nominally, at least – and
network – especially the (toll-paying)
there’s a substantial Muslim minority of
around 8–10 percent. autoroutes – and cyclists are much
• admired and encouraged. Information is
Annual GDP per capita is around $44,000,
highly organized and available from
making France one of the world’s richest
countries, but unemployment is a persistent tourist offices across the country, as well
problem, at around 10 percent. Taxes are as from specialist organizations for
high, at around 43 percent, but so is social
walkers, cyclists, campers and so on.
spending, at almost 30 percent.
As for specific destinations, Paris, of
•
France remains by far the most popular
course, is the outstanding cultural centre,
tourist destination in the world, with some 82
million visitors annually. with its impressive buildings and
atmospheric backstreets, its art, nightlife
•
The French film industry is the world’s third
and ethnic diversity, though the great
most prolific, after the US and India, with
around 215 million tickets sold annually. provincial cities – Lyon, Bordeaux,
Toulouse, Marseille – all now vie with
•
France is no longer the bastion of popular
the capital and each other for prestige in
gastronomy it once was. Frogs’ legs, horse
flesh and snails do indeed still appear on the arts, ascendancy in sport and
many restaurant menus, but contrary to its innovation in attracting visitors.
self-image, the country is also the second
For most people, however, it’s the
largest consumer of McDonalds’ burgers after
the US, flipping more than a million Big Macs unique characters of the regions – and
daily. not least their cuisines – that will define
• a trip. Few holiday-makers stay long in
A great source of confusion when meeting
and greeting French people is the double kiss, the largely flat, industrial north, but
or bise. When it is appropriate, and how many there are some fine cathedrals and
times to do it, which cheek to start with,
energetic cities to leaven the mix. The
whether to touch or air kiss, what to do with
your hands, or whether it’s better to shake picture is similar in Alsace-Lorraine
hands instead, are all matters that vex the where Germanic influences are strong,
French just as much as foreign visitors – not
notably in the food. On the northern
least because norms vary between regions,
social situations and age groups. When in Atlantic coast, Normandy has a rich
doubt, hang back, copy what everyone else heritage of cathedrals, castles, battlefields
does, and go left for the first one.
and beaches – and, with its cream-based
• In 1910, a law was passed in France sauces, an equally rich cuisine. To the
forbidding couples from kissing on train west, Brittany is more renowned for its
platforms to avoid delayed departures. The
Celtic links, beautiful coastline,
law is still in place, though no longer enforced.
prehistoric sites and seafood, while the
OPPOSITE FROM TOP HOT-AIR BALLOONS, CHALON-SUR-SAÔNE; CYCLING ALONG THE CANAL DE BOURGOGNE; HAUT KOENIGSBOURG, ALSACE