As the largest country in western Europe, France has more than its fair share of amazing places to visit. This amount covered our hotels, city tours, meals, and probably even our Eurail passes. I want to celebrate my 17 visits to France by listing my 17 quirky, fascinating, amazing favorites. Each holds special memories for me that I want to share with other artsy travelers. The map below shows my 17 choices in the order in which I mention them, starting with Honfleur 1 and ending with the Fontainebleau Forest If you have wheels, you could easily string together an around-France itinerary using these 17 places as stop-over points.
I also include a Google map showing the location of each individual place following its description in the post. For a place to make my list, it needed to have an artsy component, be beautiful not hard to do in France , and be off the beaten path. Ready to check out my 17 favorite places to visit in France? Here they are, starting with Honfleur on the Normandy coast northwest of Paris and going in a more or less counter-clockwise direction to take in Brittany, the Loire Valley, the Dordogne, the south of France, the east of France and ending at the Fontainebleau Forest just south of Paris.
A few years ago, Gregg and I were fortunate to be artists-in-residence at a gallery located in the Perche region of central Normandy. Although close to Paris, peaceful rural Normandy feels like another country. On one trip, we went north to the gorgeous little town of Honfleur on the Normandy coast. To our delight, Honfleur was packed with artsy sites. You can spend many happy hours browsing the offerings in the galleries lining the streets leading to the harbor.
From an architectural perspective, Honfleur has much to offer. The Church of St. Catherine on the town square was built entirely of wood in the late 15th century by shipwrights. Wander through the church to view its many decorative details. The distinctive high and narrow timber-frame houses are reflected in the still water of the boat-filled harbor. We spent quite a bit of time walking along the harborfront enjoying the gorgeous views and stopping for a dinner of moules et frites mussels and fries along with local wine.
Courbet, Boudin and Monet each painted these cliffs. But our favorite of the two museums we visited in Honfleur is the entrancingly eccentric Maisons Satie. Honfleur is about a two-hour drive northwest of Paris. The Normandy coast from Honfleur in the northeast to Mont St. Michel in the southwest on the border with Brittany is worth a good long stay.
