Key Takeaways:
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France is a top European destination for an Indian traveller, and most of them plan to do multiple things. The truth is, no one can visit all the places in France on a short trip. Moreover, people usually plan for 7 – 10 days in France; with that duration, there are only a few things recommended to do in France.
So, instead of getting confused about what to do, get the list here. This guide provides you with the famous things to do across France.
Quick Overview of France for Indian Travellers
| Ideal trip duration | 10 days (for 3 regions) |
| Best places for first-time travellers | Paris, Provence, Loire Valley or Bordeaux |
| Visa for Indians | Schengen visa |
| Round-trip flights cost | Approx. 60,000 INR |
| Currency (fluctuates every day) | 1 EUR = 111.03 INR |
| Top vineyard regions | Rhône Valley, Burgundy, Bordeaux, Champagne, Loire Valley |
| Top beach regions | Corsica, Basque Country, Saint-Tropez, Brittany, Normandy |
| Top skiing spots | Chamonix, Val d’Isère, Courchevel, Avoriaz |
Top 15 Things to Do in France
France is large enough that every region feels like a different country in terms of landscape, climate, food, and history. Make sure to visit France in its right season to experience what each region has to offer.
The 15 experiences listed below are spread across the country. Use this to decide what suits your style and which place you need to plan your trip around.
1. Visit the Eiffel Tower in Paris
- Cost: Approx. 36 EURO (4,000 INR) (including elevator to the second floor)
- Timings: 9:30 AM – 11:00 PM
One of the most famous things to do in France is to visit the Eiffel Tower. It was built in 1889 for the World’s Fair and stands 330 metres tall in the heart of Paris. When you stand beneath the tower and look up at it, it makes your trip worth it. On a clear day, you can view around 70 kilometres in every direction.
Highlights:
- The Summit View: Standing at the top gives you a clear view of how Paris is built around the river.
- The Evening Light Show: Every hour after dark, the tower flashes for 5 minutes. You can watch this for free from the park at the base without buying a ticket.
- The Second Floor Terrace: The second floor at 115 metres has a section with a glass floor where you can look straight down to the ground below.
- Champ de Mars Park: The large open park at the base is free and gives you the best ground-level view of the full tower.
2. Explore the Louvre Museum
- Entry: Approx. 32 EURO (3,600 INR)
- Timings: 9:00 AM – 9:00 PM (Wednesday, Friday); 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM (Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday) (Closed on Tuesdays)
The Louvre is the world’s largest art museum, located in a former royal palace in Paris. It is a massive place filled with thousands of famous paintings, statues, and historical artefacts from around the world.
Highlights:
- The Mona Lisa: This famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci is usually crowded to see.
- The Glass Pyramid: This is the main entrance to the museum. It is a 21-meter-tall pyramid made of extra-clear glass.
- Famous Statues: Look for the Venus de Milo, a famous ancient Greek statue and the Winged Victory of Samothrace, a huge marble statue missing its head.
- Royal Rooms: Visit the apartments of Napoleon III. You can walk through these 19th-century rooms to see how people lived.
3. Walk Through Montmartre, Paris
Montmartre is a historic neighbourhood located on a hill in northern Paris. It is famous for its villages and was a home to many artists, including Pablo Picasso, Vincent van Gogh, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
Highlights:
- Sacre-Coeur Basilica: The church is located at the very top of the hill and gives excellent views of the city. You can walk up 222 steps to reach it, or take a funicular tram.
- Place du Tertre: This is a public square where you can watch artists sketch portraits, and you can ask them to sketch you. It will be one of the best souvenirs to take from Paris.
- Musée de Montmartre: You can visit this museum in a house where famous artists like Auguste Renoir once lived and worked.
- Rue des Saules: A quieter cobblestone street has the oldest and most famous working hidden vineyard, Clos Montmartre.
4. Take a Day Trip to the Palace of Versailles
- Cost: Approx. 45 EURO (5,000 INR) (It covers transportation from Paris and the tour)
- Duration: Around 5 hours
The Palace of Versailles is located about 22 kilometres outside of Paris. It started as a small hunting lodge and was turned into a palace by King Louis XIV. Today, this UNESCO World Heritage Site gives you a glimpse into how French royals lived before the 1789 Revolution.
Highlights:
- The Palace: Inside the main building, you can see the famous Hall of Mirrors and the royal State Apartments.
- The Gardens and Fountains: This is a huge garden with 50 different fountains and 620 water jets. From April to October, the museum conducts a musical fountain show.
- The Estate of Trianon: This is a quieter area on the palace grounds that includes smaller palaces such as the Grand Trianon, the Petit Trianon and the Queen’s Hamlet.
5. Visit Mont Saint-Michel
Mont-Saint-Michel is a famous World Heritage island village in Normandy. It has a beautiful medieval abbey, surrounded by the sea. For over a thousand years, it has been a major pilgrimage centre and even served as a strong fortress during the Hundred Years’ War.
Highlights:
- The Abbey: A medieval architecture built by monks in the 10th century.
- The Ramparts: The island is protected by stone walls and towers built during the Hundred Years’ War to keep the village safe.
- The Main Street: You can walk through the Grande Rue, a street filled with restaurants and souvenir stalls.
- La Mère Poulard: A historic restaurant located near the main entrance. Open since 1888, it is renowned for serving omelettes cooked over an open wood fire.
6. Visit the Normandy Beaches
The beaches in Normandy are the historic coastal sites where the famous invasion took place during World War II. On June 6, 1944, thousands of Allied soldiers landed on these shores to begin freeing Europe from Nazi control. The massive operation involved five main beaches code-named Omaha, Utah, Gold, Juno, and Sword. Today, these beaches are peaceful.
Highlights:
- Omaha Beach: Walk the 8-kilometre shore and see “Les Braves,” a stainless-steel memorial built on the shore.
- American Cemetery: Walk on the cliff above Omaha Beach to see nearly 10,000 white crosses perfectly aligned facing the sea.
- Utah Beach: It has more open space and fewer crowds than at Omaha. You can see open-air monuments right on the shore, including a replica of a Higgins landing boat.
- Utah Beach Landing Museum: You can see real World War II equipment here, including tanks, landing crafts, and a B-26 bomber.
7. See the Castles of the Loire Valley
The Loire Valley is a UNESCO-listed region known as the “garden of France,” filled with hundreds of castles. French kings and wealthy nobles built these palaces as their summer homes during the Renaissance period. Not just that, the region is covered in vineyards and rivers as well.
Highlights:
- Château de Chambord: A royal palace with 440 rooms, 365 fireplaces, and the double-helix staircase at its centre.
- Château de Chenonceau: Known as the fairy-tale castle, this building was built directly over the River Cher.
- Château du Clos Lucé: The home where Leonardo da Vinci lived from 1516 until his death in 1519. The basement has 40 working models of his inventions built from his original notebook drawings.
- Château de Villandry: This castle is extremely famous for its gardens, where you can explore green mazes and beautiful plant designs.
8. Go Wine Tasting in Bordeaux
- Wine Tasting Cost: Approx. 95 EURO (10,541 INR)
- Duration: Around 5 hours
When visiting France, wine tasting is one of the top things to do as the country has many vineyards. Bordeaux is one of the most famous wine regions you can visit. The old city centre is built of pale stone and is on the UNESCO list. Apart from its vineyards, it is one of the best-preserved historic cities in France, with wide boulevards and river views.
Vineyards to visit in Bordeaux
- Bordeaux Wine Trails
- Château Les Carmes Haut-Brion
- À la Française ! Bordeaux
- Château du Taillan
9. Explore the French Riviera
- The French Riviera’s famous cities: Nice, Monaco, Cannes, Antibes, Menton, and Saint-Tropez.
The French Riviera is along the southern coast of France. This region is built around the sea, with cities, small towns, and viewpoints along the coastline.
Nice is the most popular beach city to stay in. It gives you easy access to multiple nearby towns without having to change hotels.
Highlights:
- Promenade des Anglais: A 7-km walkway right along the sea where people can walk, relax, cycle, and jog at any time of the day.
- Vieux-Nice (Old Town): The streets are lined with small churches and cafes with terrace seating. Also, there is a daily flower and food market open Tuesday to Sunday.
- Colline du Château: A public park on the cliff above the old town with a view over the bay and the port below.
- Musee Matisse: This museum holds the largest collection of Henri Matisse’s paintings and sculptures, displayed in a 17th-century villa with a garden.
10. Take a Day Trip to Monaco
- Full Day Trip Cost: Approx. 112 EURO (12,500 INR)
Monaco is an independent sovereign city-state on the Mediterranean coast. You can take a train ride from Nice, which takes about 30 minutes. When you arrive, you will see a wealthy place with tall buildings, luxury boats in the harbour, casinos, and the Formula 1 race.
Highlights:
- Prince’s Palace: The royal residence on the cliff, open to visitors from April to October. You can see the changing of the guard daily.
- Oceanography Museum: One of the oldest marine museums in the world, with a live shark tank and deep-sea animals.
- Casino de Monte-Carlo: It’s a 19th-century building, whose outside and entrance hall are free to see. The interior was designed by the same architect who built the Paris Opera House.
- Formula 1 Grand Prix Circuit: The streets of Monaco are used as the race track for the Monaco Grand Prix every May. Outside of race week, you can walk the full circuit.
11. See the Lavender Fields in Provence
- Cost: Free to enter, but guided tours and photoshoots are charged.
Provence is a region in southern France known for lavender fields, stone hilltop villages, Roman ruins, and a slower pace of life. Hiring a car is recommended when you visit Provence, because the villages and historical sites are spread across and there are no good bus connections.
Highlights:
- Valensole Lavender Plateau: The largest lavender-growing area in France, where the fields are fully purple in late June and the first two weeks of July.
- Gordes and Senanque Abbey: Gordes is a stone village on a cliff above a small valley with a 12th-century monastery surrounded by lavender fields.
- Le Sentier des Ocres: A short hiking area through natural cliffs of orange, red, yellow, and purple rock in the village of Roussillon.
- Arles: A small city with a Roman arena built in 90 AD. This is also the city where Van Gogh lived and painted nearly 300 works in one year.
12. Visit Marseille and the Calanques
Marseille is France’s oldest and second-largest city, on the Mediterranean coast. It is a working port city with a fish market on the old harbour every morning. The food here is influenced by a mix of French, North African, and Italian influences. In the south of the city, in just 14 kilometres, you have the Calanques with white limestone cliffs.
Highlights:
- Vieux-Port Fish Market: Every morning from 8 AM, fishermen sell fish directly from boats in the old harbour.
- Calanques Boat Tour: The trip takes 1.5 to 3 hours through the white limestone sea inlets departing from the old harbour.
- Notre-Dame de la Garde: A hilltop church 154 metres above the city with an open view of Marseille, the old port, the sea inlets south of the city, and the coastline stretching east toward the Riviera.
- MUCEM: A museum about the history and culture of the Mediterranean region, built on an old sea fort and connected to the mainland by a long footbridge.
- Château d’If: A 16th-century fortress on a small island about 3.5 km offshore, used as a prison for nearly 300 years and the setting of the novel The Count of Monte Cristo.
13. Explore Colmar, Alsace
Colmar is a small city in the Alsace region, on the border between France and Germany. The old town has half-timbered houses from the 15th and 16th centuries, painted in yellow, pink, and green. The town’s architecture is a blend of French and German influences.
Highlights:
- Petite Venise Canal Quarter: A 15th and 16th-century neighbourhood of coloured half-timbered houses built along a canal, where you can walk or take a boat tour along the water.
- Eguisheim Village: A small medieval village 6 km from Colmar. The houses have wooden frames with flowers on the windows, and many are small wineries where you can taste local wines.
- Alsace Wine Route by Bicycle: Rent a bicycle at the station and ride to Riquewihr, Ribeauville, Eguisheim, and Hunawihr. These are four medieval wine villages, all within 15 km of Colmar, and stop at any small wine family producers for tastings.
- Colmar Christmas Market: A Christmas market is held from late November to the end of December across various squares in the city.
14. Visit the French Alps
The French Alps have two different experiences across seasons, and Chamonix is one of the most famous places people visit. It is located below Mont Blanc at 4,808 metres, the highest peak in Western Europe. In summer, Chamonix is popular for hiking, cable cars, and viewing glaciers such as the Mer de Glace. In winter, it turns into a ski destination from December to March.
Highlights:
- Aiguille du Midi Cable Car: It takes 3,842 metres in 20 minutes, and you have a glass-floored platform at the top to get a clear view of the mountains and valleys.
- Mer de Glace Glacier: It’s France’s largest glacier, reached by a small mountain railway from Chamonix station.
- Tandem Paragliding: Take a flight with a trained pilot from a launch point at 2,000 metres, where you fly over the Chamonix valley.
- Chamonix Town: The town centre has cheese shops and bakeries along the river.
15. Visit Lyon for Food and the Old Town
Lyon is France’s third-largest city and is widely considered the best place to eat in the whole country. The indoor food market has over 60 stalls selling the best cheese, cured meats, pastries, and fish. The old town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with buildings dating from the 15th to the 17th centuries built along the banks of two rivers.
Highlights:
- Traboules of Vieux-Lyon: It’s a passageway that takes you through old buildings. Originally, it was used by silk workers to move fabric without getting it wet.
- Les Halles Paul Bocuse: An indoor market to buy the best food Lyon produces, cheese, cured meats, pastries, fresh river fish, chocolate, and bread.
- Basilique Notre-Dame of Fourviere: A large basilica on the hill above the old town with a view over both rivers and the city below.
- Fete des Lumieres: A four-night festival in early December, where over 80 large light displays are projected onto buildings across the city.
- Gallo-Roman Theatres of Fourviere: There are two ancient Roman open-air theatres. The Grand Theatre was built in 15 BC, but the Odeon was built in the 2nd century AD.
Conclusion
France is a country where your experience depends completely on where you stay. Each region is different, from the Alps to the Riviera to the wine regions.
Keep your plan simple: 4 days in Paris, then pick 2 or 3 regions based on your interests, such as Lyon, Nice, or Bordeaux.
If you are unsure of where to go or need ideas on what France is actually about, contact Dimaak Tours. Our team will explain what a vacation in France is like and give suggestions on places that suit your budget and style.
FAQ on Top Things to Do in France
1. How many days do you need for France?
To visit Paris, the Riviera, Provence, and the Alps, plan 14 days. However, most people just plan Paris; in that case, 4 – 6 days work well for the city and day-trip activities.
2. What is the best way to travel within France?
Use trains for city-to-city travel, like Paris to Lyon or Nice, which are fast and direct. For places like Provence, renting a car is better.
3. What are some of the best things to do in France with kids?
Take them to the Eiffel Tower at night for the light show, and then go dessert tasting at various cafes. Then, for a little adventure, you have Disneyland Paris and cable car rides.
