Timed tickets in Paris, long lunches everywhere else.
Which Louvre ticket really skips the line. What a Saint-Émilion tasting costs before lunch. Whether Normandy is worth fourteen hours out of Paris. The answers, tour by tour, with the price attached.
A first French week: a cruise, a battlefield, a cellar and a cove.
Four bookings that shape the rest of the trip. What each one costs, how long it takes, and where it belongs in the week.
01The first eveningEvening River Cruise with MusicAn hour on the Seine after dark, past the Institut and back under the bridges. It fixes the map of Paris in your head for the rest of the week.
02The day out westNormandy D-Day Sites & Cemetery Day Trip from Paris with LunchFourteen hours to Omaha Beach, the American cemetery and Pointe du Hoc, lunch included. Nothing else on that day survives it.
03The wine dayMedoc or Saint Emilion Wine Tasting and Chateau from BordeauxMédoc or Saint-Émilion out of Bordeaux, two châteaux and a cellar, back by evening. The driving is somebody else’s problem.
04The southern dayCalanques National Park Guided HikeMarseille to the Calanques on foot. White limestone, water the colour of a swimming pool, and a five-hour walk to earn the swim.
Four ways to spend a day in Paris, and what each costs at the door.
The city sells itself in tickets. Pick the queue you are prepared to stand in, then build the rest of the day around it.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · Louvre Museum Timed-Entrance Ticket
The museum morningReserved entry, and someone to walk you to the Mona Lisa.
The river hourOne loop past the Île de la Cité, best after dark.
The towerLift to the second floor, stairs when the queue is long.
The day out westPalace, gardens and the train back before dinner.
All 724 Paris tours and tickets →
The most-booked days out in France.
The full French catalogue →More travellers take these than anything else in the country. What each one is, and what it costs.
1
Louvre Museum Timed-Entrance Ticket
Book a one-day Louvre ticket with timed entrance within a 30-minute window. Use the Pyramid, Porte des Lions, or Carrousel entrance, pass security, and explore permanent collections and temporary exhibitions without a guide or audio tour.
From · $26
Read our review →
2
Versailles Palace and Gardens Full Access Ticket
from $17
3
Evening River Cruise with Music
from $27
4
Eiffel Tower Entry Ticket with Optional Summit Access
from $29
5
Eiffel Tower Summit or Second Floor Access
from $59
6
Louvre Guided Tour with Reserved Access & Boat Cruise
from $81
7
Moulin Rouge Cabaret Show Ticket with Champagne
from $115
8
Eiffel Tower Summit or Second Floor Access
from $41
Paris, the Riviera, Provence, Bordeaux, Normandy and Alsace.
Six bases that carry a French trip. The city everyone lands in, two coasts that could not be less alike, a wine capital, a stretch of Channel beach with a long memory, and a half-German corner of vineyards and gables.
On the Riviera the day starts on the water.
Villefranche bay before the crowds, the Esterel cliffs by boat out of Cannes, the corniche road east towards Monaco. This coast reads better from a deck than from a car park.
French wine is a day out, not a shop.
Saint-Émilion in the morning, Médoc after lunch, Reims for the chalk cellars, Beaune for the Burgundy hillside. The good tastings come with a driver, so nobody at the table has to be sensible.
- 1Cité du Vin Entry Ticket and Wine Tastingfrom $27
- 2River Garonne Cruise with Glass of Wine and Caneléfrom $22
- 3Montmartre Hill French Gourmet Food and Wine Tasting Walking Tourfrom $145
An abbey in the tide, a chalk cellar and a field of lavender.
Cathedrals and vineyards run the length of Europe. A monastery that turns into an island twice a day, kilometres of tunnels cut for champagne, and the Valensole plateau in July do not.
Mont Saint-Michel
The abbey stands on a granite outcrop in the bay between Normandy and Brittany, and on the big spring tides the sea crosses the sand faster than a person can walk. A causeway keeps it reachable now, though the lower car parks still flood. Day trips from Paris run fourteen hours door to door, which is the honest price of standing in that cloister.
- 1Mont Saint Michel Day Trip from Paris with English Speaking Guide★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 2,750 reviews
- 2Mont Saint Michel Day Trip with a Guide★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 1,970 reviews
- 3Mont Saint Michel Guided Day Trip with Abbey Entry from Paris★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 1,254 reviews
The chalk cellars
Reims and Épernay sit on soft chalk, and the growers have been cutting cellars into it since the Romans opened the first pits. Bottles rest at a steady ten degrees, gallery after gallery, and the tasting happens down there rather than in a shop upstairs. Most houses take bookings only, and the small family growers take the fewest.
- 1Champagne and Family-Run Wineries Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 671 reviews
- 2Reims afternoon tour Champagne and family growers★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 535 reviews
- 3Morning Champagne Tour and Tastings★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 463 reviews
The Valensole plateau
Provence turns purple from the last days of June to roughly mid-July, and then the harvesters come through and it is done. The plateau above Valensole holds the widest rows; the Sault fields further north flower a fortnight later and buy you a second chance. Go early, because the heat and the coaches both arrive by ten.
- 1Gorges of Verdon and Fields of Lavender Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 1,975 reviews
- 2Gorges of Verdon and Fields of Lavender Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 342 reviews
- 3Valensole Lavender Full-Day tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 259 reviews
France, sorted by what you are willing to spend.
Every tour on the site grouped by price. Plenty of the best French days cost less than the dinner you will have afterwards.
Museum entries, river hours, market walks and the tickets that buy you out of a queue.
Guided Louvre mornings, Versailles with transport, half-day tastings out of Bordeaux.
Full-day battlefield trips, private drivers, dinner cruises and the once-a-trip splurge.
The Louvre shuts on Tuesday. The Orsay shuts on Monday.
Nearly every French museum takes a day off, and the two biggest take different ones. Versailles closes on Mondays as well. Put the galleries where they fit, then give the leftover day to the river, the markets and the table.
Turn up without these four and you are looking at a closed door.
Most of France can be arranged the night before over a carafe. These four run on timed slots, tide tables and seating plans that take no interest in when you land.
- 01Eiffel Tower Entry Ticket with Optional Summit AccessSummit tickets are released on a timetable and the good hours go first. The stairs are the fallback, and they are not a small climb.
- 02Louvre Museum Timed-Entrance TicketEntry runs on timed slots, the Tuesday closure removes a whole day, and the Mona Lisa room is at its worst once the walk-ups arrive.
- 03Mont Saint Michel Day Trip from Paris with English Speaking GuideThe abbey day runs on the tide and one road in. Coaches leave Paris before dawn and fill weeks ahead through the summer.
- 04Moulin Rouge Cabaret Show Ticket with ChampagneThe cabaret seats by table, so the good rows sell first and the late sitting is what is left over.
Versailles in the morning, a Paris museum for the afternoon.
The palace runs on a timed ticket and a long walk, and the gardens deserve the extra hour. Back in the city, the Orsay, the Rodin and the Invalides carry the crowds the Louvre cannot.
Every palace and museum day →
By place, north coast to Corsica
By kind of day, gallery to gorge
Paris, Versailles, the Loire, Bordeaux, Provence, the Riviera.
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