France

Exclusive guide to the best holiday destinations in France, independent reviews from award-winning travel writers

Solange Berchemin stays at the historic L'Hotel Du Chateau in Carcassonne.

L’Hotel Du Chateau. Carcassonne

L’Hotel du Chateau, situated right below la Porte de Narbonne, the main entrance to the walled city of Carcassonne, is a perfect example of what happened back then. Cecile and Stéphane Rives acquired a 1* hotel and turned it into a stylish boutique hotel

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Hotel les Bains bar

Les Bains Hotel. A famous iconic Paris name is back.

An 1885 bathhouse off a charmless Paris boulevard may seem an unlikely vehicle for one of the city’s most desirable boutique hotels. But Johnny Depp and his cohorts have pulling power, and the too cool for school crowd cavorted for years in the basement of Les Bains when it was a hip nightclub.

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Lucy Daltroff tracels to northern France to visit the Slack Deux Caps Art Festival. 

Slack Deux Caps Art Festival. Where beautiful art and nature merge.

The coast, between Calais and Bologne sur-Mer, just across the English Channel is relatively undiscovered by visitors and it may because of this that an outdoor art exhibition has been mounted on some of its most scenic points. Slack Deux Caps art festival is running between, 20th June to 20th September 2015 and the idea is that the art fits seamlessly into the landscape.

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L'Orangerie du Chateau L’Orangerie du Chateau

Magnificent L’Orangerie du Chateau Restaurant. Loire Valley

Lucy Daltroff heads for the Loire Valley as she dines at L’Orangerie du Chateau Restaurant.

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Loire Valley

The Loire Valley. Wine and castles

  Lucy Daltroff heads to the Loire Valley in search of wines and castles

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Hotel Le Saint James. Bordeaux

The view of The Garonne river from my bedroom window is spectacular, no question. Particularly as it is framed by the vines in the foreground from Hotel Le Saint James own vineyard. But in all fairness, even that charming montage is surpassed by the sight of the full size Harley-Davidson standing like a silent sentinel next to my bed.

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