France Travel Guide: 5 Cities, Costs and Itineraries

Overview

France is not one country to travel, it's four or five stitched together by a rail network that makes hopping between them easy. Paris is the obvious start: dense, walkable, self-important about its own history in a way that's usually earned. Two hours south by train and you're in Lyon, the country's actual food capital, quieter and less photographed. Keep going and the Mediterranean shows up around Marseille and Nice, where the light changes and the pace drops. Bordeaux sits off to the west, built on wine money for three centuries and still acting like it. What holds all of this together is food and a national insistence on eating well, at set hours, without rushing. That habit trips up first-time visitors more than the language does. Restaurants close between lunch and dinner. Small shops shut for two hours at midday and most of August. None of it is designed around a tourist's schedule, and once you plan around that instead of against it, the country gets a lot easier to enjoy.

Best time to visit

May, June, and September give the best weather-to-crowd ratio. July and August are hot, packed, and the month when many small businesses and even some Paris restaurants close for owner vacation. Shoulder season (April, October) is quieter and cheaper.

Jan-Feb

Cold, gray in the north, cheapest hotel rates in Paris. Ski season in the Alps runs through this window.

Mar

Still cool and unpredictable, but crowds and prices haven't picked up yet. Good for cities, too early for the Riviera.

Apr

Mild, gardens starting to bloom, Easter week brings a domestic crowd spike.

May

Arguably the best month: warm, long days, before summer prices and crowds hit.

Jun

Warm and reliable, schools still in session so it's calmer than July-August.

Jul

Peak heat, peak crowds, peak prices on the coast. Bastille Day (14th) brings fireworks and closures nationwide.

Aug

France's own holiday month. Many Parisians leave the city, some restaurants and small shops close for 2-4 weeks, while the Riviera is at its most packed and expensive.

Sep

Warm sea, thinning crowds, businesses reopened. Many locals rate this the best month to visit.

Oct

Cooling fast, wine harvest season in Bordeaux and Burgundy, good light for cities.

Nov-Dec

Cold and short days outside the south. Christmas markets in Alsace and Strasbourg are the draw; otherwise it's low season.

Visa

Canadian passport holders don't need a visa for tourist stays in France or the wider Schengen area, up to 90 days in any rolling 180-day period, and that count includes time spent in any other Schengen country on the same trip. Your passport needs to be valid for at least 3 months past your planned departure date from the Schengen area. ETIAS, a pre-travel authorization Canadians will eventually need for short Schengen visits, has been delayed multiple times since it was first announced; as of Canada's official travel.gc.ca page (last updated August 25, 2026), applications are still not open and no confirmed start date is public. Do not pay any third-party site claiming to process an ETIAS application now, and check travel-europe.europa.eu directly before you book if your trip is more than a few months out.

Money

Currency: EUR. Widely accepted, including contactless, in hotels, restaurants, and shops in every city in this guide. Rural gas stations, some markets, and small cafes can still be cash-preferred or have a minimum card spend (often EUR 10-15). Carry EUR 40-60 in small notes as backup, especially outside Paris. Service is included by law (service compris) and shown on the bill, so nothing is owed on top. Rounding up or leaving a couple of euros for good sit-down service is appreciated but not expected. Taxi drivers and hotel porters get small change, not a percentage.

Getting around

SNCF's TGV network connects every city in this guide by fast, direct train: Paris to Lyon is under 2 hours, Paris to Bordeaux about 2 hours, Paris to Marseille or Nice around 3 to 5.5 hours. For a France-only trip hitting 3-5 cities, point-to-point tickets booked early almost always beat a rail pass. SNCF opens bookings roughly 3-4 months ahead and prices climb the closer you get to departure, so a Paris-Nice ticket bought months out can run under EUR 30 versus well over EUR 100 bought same-day (verify current fares on sncf-connect.com, pricing tiers shift). A rail pass only pencils out if you're adding many smaller regional legs on top of the main routes.

Connectivity

An eSIM is the simplest option for a modern phone: Orange, Holafly, and Airalo all sell France or EU-wide data plans, activated by QR code before you land, from around EUR 15-25 for a week of data. Free wifi is common in cafes, hotels, and TGV trains (patchy on the train, don't rely on it for video calls). A physical SIM from Orange or SFR is worth it only for stays over 2-3 weeks or if you need a French number.

Where to go

Frequently asked questions