Travel Features

As the Loire Valley prepares to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Renaissance, with the Viva Leonardo da Vinci! festival, Gillian Thornton immerses herself in the region's iconic châteaux, where half a millennium ago...

The Lot-et-Garonne department in the Nouvelle Aquitaine region of Southwest France has been described as "the France that you always hoped existed but could never quite find". It's idyllic; a paradise. I looked over at...

Just two and a half hours from Paris by train, which depart several times a day from Gare Saint-Lazare, Deauville is the destination of choice for many well-heeled Parisians looking for a quick weekend...

If the name “Sancerre” springs forth visions of crisp white wine, dripping with minerality and dancing on your taste buds, then you are in for a treat. This luscious wine from Sauvignon Blanc grapes...

A happy combination of fecundity and fortuitous location has made this famous wine region a foodie’s paradise. Guy Hibbert inspects its tables... The spring showers have fed the streams, lakes and canals; the snails are...

Underground and overground, Gillian Thornton celebrates the dramatic landscape and history of Midi-Pyrénées Darkness doesn’t get any blacker than deep inside the Pyrénées. As my senses gradually adapt, the bright sunlight of France’s far south...

France might be the world’s most popular tourist destination. But the focus of all this attention is mostly clustered around the usual suspects: flirtatious Paris, the picture postcard Alps, the smouldering Riviera and the...

Hands up if you've ever left one of France’s Channel ferry ports and driven on without stopping to discover this area. Rachel Ifans pulls over and finds plenty to see and do in this...

This mountainous massif in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes is an outdoor enthusiast’s dream. Discover its many peaks and plateaux, hiking trails, cycle paths and paradisiacal nature reserve... MONT AIGUILLE An isolated body of limestone, spectacularly flat and rectangular, this...

Opening day at the Lalbenque truffle market in Quercy: On a cool December early afternoon, truffle sellers in their farming clothes, buyers in their city clothes and members of a Truffle Brotherhood adorned in...