Openshaw Gene - Rick Steves France 2014

Rick Steves & Steve Smith

Bienvenue! Youve chosen well. France is Europes most diverse, tasty, and, in many ways, most exciting country to explore. Its an intriguing cultural bouillabaisse that will challenge your preconceptions and inspire you to think differently.

France is a place of gentle beauty, where the play of light transforms the routine into the exceptional. Here, travelers are treated to a blend of man-made and natural beauty like nowhere else in Europe. With luxuriant forests, forever coastlines, truly grand canyons, and Europes highest mountain ranges, France has a cover-girl beauty from top to bottom. Youll also discover a dizzying array of artistic and architectural wonderssoaring cathedrals, chandeliered chteaux, and museums filled with the cultural icons of the Western world.

In many ways, France is a yardstick of human achievement. Travelers can trace the whole of European history, from the earliest prehistoric cave paintings to Roman ruins that rival Italys. In medieval times, France cultivated Romanesque and Gothic architecture, erecting the great cathedrals and basilicas of Notre-Dame, Chartres, Vzelay, and a dozen others. With their innovative designs, French architects set the trends for cities throughout Europeand with their revolutionary thinking, French philosophers refined modern thought and politics. The chteaux of the Loire Valley and the grand palace of Versailles announced Frances emergence as the first European superpower and first modern government. It was France that gave birth to Impressionism and the foundations of modern art. Todays travelers can gaze dreamy-eyed at water lilies in Claude Monets Giverny, rejoice amid the sunflowers of Provence that so moved a troubled Vincent van Gogh, and roam the sunny coastlines that inspired Picasso and Matisse. And after all these centuries, France still remains at the forefront of technology, fashion, andof coursecuisine.

There are two Frances: Paris...and the rest of the country. Frances top-down government and cultural energy have always been centered in Paris, resulting in an overwhelming concentration of world-class museums, cutting-edge architecture, and historic monuments. Travelers can spend weeks in France and never leave Paris. Many do.

The other France venerates land, tradition, and a slower pace of life. After Paris, most travelers will be drawn to romantic hill towns and castles, meandering rivers and canals, and oceans of vineyards that carpet this countrys landscape. Village life has survived in France better than in most other European countries because France was so slow to urbanize. It was an agricultural country right up until World War II (when a smaller proportion of French citizens lived in cities than Italians did 500 years earlier). And today, even as young people are chasing jobs in the cities, France remains farm country. Everyone venerates the soil (le terroir) that brings the flavor to their foods and wines and nourishes a rural life that French people dream about. So although the countrys brain resides in Paris, its soul lives in its villagesand thats where youll feel the real pulse of France.

France offers more diversity than any other nation in Europe; moving from region to region, you feel as if youre crossing into a different country. Paris and the region around it (called Ile de France) is the island in the middle that anchors France. To the west are the dramatic D-Day beaches and Tudor-style, thatched-roofed homes of Normandy; to the south lie the river valleys of the Loire and Dordogne, featuring luxurious chteaux, medieval castles, and hill-capping villages. Explore under-the-radar France to the far south and west, in the Spanish-tinged Languedoc-Roussillon and Basque regions. Closer to Italy, sun-baked and windswept Provence nurtures Roman ruins and rustic charm, while the Riviera celebrates sunny beaches and yacht-filled harbors. And to the east, travelers encounter Europes highest snow-capped Alps, the venerable vineyards of Burgundy, and the Germanic villages and cuisine of Alsace.

The forte of French cuisine is its regional diversity. Youll enjoy Swiss-like fondue in the Alps, Italian-style pasta and pesto on the Riviera, Spanish paella in Languedoc-Roussillon, and German sauerkraut mixed with fine wine sauces in the Alsace. Cest magnifiqueyou can taste a good slice of Europe without stepping outside of France.

Each region also produces a wine or other drink that complements its cuisinesuch as rich Burgundy wines that go perfectly with coq au vin, meaty wines from Languedoc-Roussillon to counter heavy cuisine (such as cassoulet), fruity Ctes du Rhne wines that work well with herb-infused Provenal dishes, and dry whites in Alsace that meld perfectly with the Germanic cuisine. And in Normandy and Brittany, youll enjoy apple ciders with crpes and fresh seafood.

As if that werent enough, France is also famous for its many pts, foie gras, hundreds of different cheeses, sizzling escargots, fresh oysters, herbes de Provence, raw meats, fine wine sauces, French fries, duck and lamb dishes, pastries, bonbons, crme brle, and sorbets.