The France Most Travelers Never Experience: 10 Amazing Places

France is the most visited country on earth. It's also the country where most international visitors see about 15% of what it offers and then go home and talk about Paris. Welcome to Optimized Travel Destinations. My name is Ricky and I am part of the Optimized Travel Team. We help travelers plan amazing trips through our concierge service and our team has worked together to list the absolute best places France has to offer. These are the top places to visit in France, counting down from 10 to 1. Paris is on the list, but it's not where you think. Number 10. Dordogne. The Dordogne sits on the Perigord in southwestern France, about 90 kilometers east of Bordeaux. This is where France keeps its oldest stories and best food. The Vizera Valley has the world's highest concentration of prehistoric cave art. The original Lascaux is sealed, but its full-scale replica is one of the finest museum experiences in France. Along the river, the castles of Béarnac and Castanel glare at each other across the water from the Hundred Years' War. And Sarla is where to go to eat. Duck confit, foie gras, and black truffles from the Saturday stalls. I think the Dordogne is where the French actually holiday, which tells you more than any guidebook. Base yourself near here for four nights. Spend a day exploring the river castles, another at Lascaux sites, and leave one morning free to do nothing except wander the market and eat. Number 9. Bretagne. Bretagne occupies the big peninsula jutting into the Atlantic in the northwest, with rent about two hours from Paris by TGV. Bretagne is the part of France that isn't entirely French, and it's better for it. Saint-Malo is an old corsair city wrapped in stone ramparts, and walking the walls at dawn is one of the finest walks in France. The pink granite coast is rose-colored boulders worn smooth by the sea, and the Pointe-du-Rhin is the edge of France in Atlantic weather. In Cancal, they sell oysters off the harbor wall. My favorite thing is the weather. Atlantic storms and a gray-green sea that the Mediterranean can't give you. I'd give Bretagne four nights, two based in Saint-Malo for the ramparts and a Monte-Michel day trip, and then two further west for the pink granite coast and the Pointe-du-Rhin. Number 8. Alsace and Colmar. Alsace runs along the Rhine valley between the Vosges mountains and the German border, with Colmar about two hours from Paris by TGV. Alsace has changed nationalities four times in 75 years, giving one of the most distinctive cultures in France. Colmar's petite Venice quarter is half-timbered houses and blue and ochre reflected in a canal, more vivid in person than in photos. The wine route runs 170 kilometers through villages, making Riesling and Gewurztramir for generations, and Strasbourg's cathedral has one of its two planned towers. When the vines turn gold in October, it's one of the loveliest drives in France. Then in December, the Christmas markets are the best in Western Europe. I would stay three nights, a day for Colmar and the wine villages, a day in Strasbourg, and an afternoon with one producer, vineyard to cellar. Number 7. Paris. Paris sits on the Seine in the north. It's the hub of the national rail network, with TGV links to almost every major city. Paris is number seven here. It's worth visiting, but they have a little work to rebuild their reputation. Let's just say that over-tourism is real, pickpocketing near the Eiffel Tower is endemic, and sanitation has been a talking point since the Olympics, so go in knowing that. Still, that doesn't change what Paris holds. Notre-Dame reopened with restored stonework, and it is extraordinary. The Musee d'Orsay has the world's finest impressionists, and the Saint-Chapelle turns its 13th century glass into pure colored light. For me, the best time in Paris is November. Early morning, a zinc bar and croissant, and Saint-Chapelle as it opens. Give Paris three nights. Spend half your time in museums, and the other half simply walking, eating, and letting the city happen around you. Number 6. Bordeaux. Bordeaux sits on the Garonne in southwestern France, now just two hours from Paris on the high-speed line. Bordeaux spent the last century as a faded wine capital, but in the last 15 years it's become one of the most energized cities in France. The Place de la Bourse mirrors itself and is a thin sheet of water on the riverfront, and the Cité du Vin is the most comprehensive wine museum anywhere. 40 minutes out, Saint-Emilion is a medieval village with a church carved from a single block of limestone, and great right bank merlot beside it. If I had to pick one thing, it's a half day in Saint-Emilion, the vineyards, and then the underground church, and the wine. I would go to Bordeaux for three nights, spend a day exploring the city and the Cité du Vin, another in Saint-Emilion, and then leave an afternoon free for a bike ride along the Garonne. Number 5. Normandy. Normandy runs along the Channel Coast in the northwest, with trains from Paris reaching Caen and Béat in about two hours. Normandy holds two completely different histories side by side, one medieval and one modern. The D-Day beaches run for 80 kilometers. Omaha is now a wide, peaceful beach, and that contrast with what happened there makes it more affecting, not less. The American cemetery at has over 9,000 white crosses above the sea. On the bay, Mont-Saint-Michel is best at high tide, but the place that stays with you the longest is the Pointe du Hockey, where rangers scaled sheer cliffs under fire and the craters are still there. Spring and early summer are best. Mont-Saint-Michel is mobbed in August, so go early or late. Plan for four nights in Normandy, two days for the D-Day sites and the cemetery, one day for Mont-Saint-Michel, one day for Béat, Enfleur, and the Etretat cliffs. Number 4. Loire Valley. The Loire Valley spreads through central France, with the TGV from Paris reaching Tours in about an hour. The Loire is where the French kings went to feel powerful, and the buildings they left make the point. Chambord has a double helix staircase, two spirals intertwining without meeting, so you watch two groups pass without crossing. Chenisseau spans the Cher on arched bridges. The real way to see it is the Loire-et-Vélo cycle route between Château, flat through the Voray vines. Even a short stretch convinces you. Some cave dwellings carved into the soft Tufa cliffs are still lived in and also open to stay in. Go in May for the harvest. Stay for three nights based in Tours or Amboise, one day cycling between Chambord and Chamverny, one for Chennault, and the Voray wine caves. One evening in Amboise for dinner with the château above you. Number 3. Provence. Provence fills the southeastern corner between the Alps and the Mediterranean. With Aix-en-Provence, its cultural heart, about three hours from Paris by TGV. Provence is the France that light painted itself into, and the painters who came here were not exaggerating. The Liège-Bourgogne is full of hilltop villages, among the most photographed in the country, and the lavender of the Vénusol plateau is full bloom through late June and July. It really is as vivid as the photos, which isn't true of most famous landscapes. Arles is where Van Gogh spent 14 months and made over 300 works, and many of the exact views are still recognizable. The Rion embankment, at night the Roman arena, and the Place du Fouron. North of Nîmes, the Pont du Gard is the best preserved Roman structure in France. Three tiers of arches over the river, and you can swim in the water below it, which is both allowed and slightly surreal. Come in June and July for lavender, or May and September for the best balance of warmth and crowds. I'd stay for five nights, two near Gyor for the villages and lavender, a day for Arles, a day for the Pont du Gard, and a slow market day in Aix. Number two, Lyon. Lyon sits where the Rion and Seine rivers meet in East-Central France, about two hours south of Paris by TGV. Lyon is where France keeps its actual food culture, and it's been doing it long enough that most French people will tell you it isn't even a competition. It's been the gastronomic capital by broad consensus since Paul Basquius once helped define modern French cooking here in the 60s and 70s. The institution is the Bouchon, a small noisy room with checked cable cloths where the menu is fixed, the cooking rich and generous, and the house wine comes in a thick-bottomed pot designed to nudge you toward another round. The old town, Lyon Lyon, is a UNESCO site full of Renaissance mansions and passageways cut through the insides of buildings that silk workers use to move goods unseen, and the resistance used during the Occupation. Many are open through coated doors. Above it, the Fouvière Hill has Roman theaters still used for summer concerts, and Les Halles Paul Basquius, the covered market, is where the city chefs shop, and you can eat at the best cheese and charcuterie stalls in one room. Time a winter visit for the Fête des Lumières in December, four nights when the whole city becomes a canvas for huge light installations, one of the finest free events in Europe. Before I reveal number one, a quick word about optimized travel. Planning a French trip sounds simple until you realize that TGV is brilliant, but some regions need a car, and the difference between hitting the right village at the right season and missing the lavender by a week is enormous, but getting that right and knowing which places deserve an overnight rather than a quick stop will make an enormous difference, and that's what our concierge team is here for. Head to optimizetravel.com or click the link in the description. And now, number one. Number one, Corsica. Corsica sits in the Mediterranean about 170 kilometers southeast of Nice, breached by ferry from the south coast or a direct flight under two hours from Paris. Corsica is technically part of France, but very much its own place. The language closer to Italian, the culture emphatic about its difference, and the landscape unlike anything on the mainland. Granite mountains dropping to turquoise water and white beaches. On the west coast, the Calanca dei Piana is a UNESCO site of orange and red granite pillars plunging straight into the sea, deep amber at sunset. And at the southern tip, Bonifacio perches on white cliffs that drop 70 meters to the water, and the boat trip into the caves below shows the sea in a blue that looks fake. Down near Porto Vecchio, Polombaja beach has pink granite boulders and umbrella pines coming right down to sand to water, so clear it reads turquoise from space. And the food is its own tradition entirely. Charcuterie from chestnut-fed pigs, fresh braccio cheese, chestnut flour in everything, miglioccio red from the north. Mid-June and September are ideal, but it's warm enough to swim, and beaches are not a capacity, and prices are well below August. Stay in Corsica at least a week, a couple of days around Bonifacio, two more at the Calante and Porto, time inland at Corta, and a few days with no plan at all, because doing nothing is something Corsica does better than anywhere else in France. So, these are the 10 best places to visit in France, from the prehistoric caves of the Dorniga and the Celtic coast of Bretagna, all the way to the granite mountains and the turquoise water of Corsica. This country genuinely never gets old, and if you're ready to plan your trip, head to optimizetravel.com. Our team is ready to help you build that perfect itinerary. And let me know in the comments, which of these 10 would you visit first? Lyon for the food, or straight to Corsica for the beaches and the mountains? And be honest, where do you think Paris would land? Drop it below, we read every single one. If you found this helpful, don't forget to subscribe. 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