Revel in French pleasures any time, although many swear spring is best. In the hot south sun-worshippers bake from June to early September (summer) while winter-sports enthusiasts soar down snow-covered mountains mid-December to late March (winter). Festivals and gastronomic temptations around which to plan a trip abound year-round. School holidays – Christmas and New Year, mid-February to mid-March, Easter, July and August – see millions of French families descend on the coasts, mountains and other touristy areas. Traffic-clogged roads, skhigh accommodation prices and sardine-packed beaches and ski slopes are downside factors of these high-season periods. Many shops take their congé annuel (annual closure) in August; Sundays and public holidays are dead everywhere.The French climate is temperate, although it gets nippy in mountainous areas and in Alsace and Lorraine. The northwest suffers from high humidity, rain and biting westerly winds, while the Mediterranean south enjoys hot summers and mild winters.

Accommodation is the biggest cost: count on minimum €60 a night for a double room in a midrange hotel and €140 plus for a top-end hotel. Backpackers staying in hostels and living on cheese and baguette can survive on €60 a day; those opting for midrange hotels, restaurants and museums will spend upwards of €120.

There was nothing beautiful about the start of the Third Republic. Born as a provisional government of national defence in September 1870, it was quickly besieged by the Prussians, who laid siege to Paris and demanded National Assembly elections be held. Unfortunately, the first move made by the resultant monarchist-controlled assembly was to ratify the Treaty of Frankfurt (1871), the harsh terms of which – a 5-billion-franc war indemnity and surrender of the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine – prompted immediate revolt. During the Semaine Sanglante (Bloody Week), several thousand rebel Communards (supporters of the hard-core insurgent Paris Commune) were killed and a further 20,000 or so executed.Despite the bloody start, the Third Republic ushered in the glittering belle époque (beautiful age), with art-nouveau architecture, a whole field of artistic ‘isms’ from Impressionism onwards, and advances in science and engineering, including the construction of the first metro line in Paris.
World Exhibitions were held in the capital in 1889 and again in 1901 in the purpose-built Petit Palais.

 France is a country whose people have attracted more stubborn myths and stereotypes than any other in Europe. Arrogant, rude, Bolshie, unbelievably bureaucratic, sexist, chauvinistic, superchic and stylish are among the dozens of tags – true or otherwise – pinned on the garlic-eating, beret-wearing,sacrebleu-swearing French over the centuries. The French, by the way, don’t wear berets or use old chestnuts such as ‘sacrebleu’ anymore. Sit in a café some
afternoon and you’ll soon hear the gentle expressions of surprise favoured by Parisians these days as they slip on dog droppings (a frequent sight on most pavements). ‘Merde’ (shit) is  quite popular. Most people are extremely proud to be French and are staunchly nationalistic to boot, a result of the country’s republican stance that places nationality – rather than religion, for example – at the top of the self-identity list. This has created an overwhelmingly self-confident nation,both culturally and intellectually, that invariably comes across as a French  superiority  complex. Contrary to popular belief, many French speak a foreign language fairly well, travel and are happy to use their language skills should the need arise.

Of course, if monolingual English-speakers don’t try to speak French, there’s no way proud French linguists will let on they speak fluent English with a great sexy accent! French men, incidentally, deem an English gal’s heavily accented French as irresistibly sexy as women deem a Frenchman speaking English. Hard to believe,  but true. On the subject of sex, not all French men ooze romance or light Gitane all day. Nor are they as civilised about adultery as French cinema would have you believe. Adultery, illegal in France until 1975, was actually grounds for automatic divorce until as late  as mid-2004. Suckers for tradition, the French are slow to embrace new ideas and technologies: it took the country an age to embrace the internet, clinging on for dear life to their own at-the-time innovative Minitel system for eons. Yet the French are also incredibly innovative – a dichotomy reflected in every facet of French life: they drink and smoke more than anyone else, yet live longer.They eat like kings, but are  not fat…

The economy was the key issue for French voters in the 2007 presidential elections, hence their demand for change in the charismatic shape of Nicolas Sarkozy who pledged to reduce  unemployment and income tax (currently between 5.5% and 40%), create more jobs and boost growth in a slug-gish economy that nonetheless ranks as the world’s  eighth largest.
Unemployment is down (from 8.7% in early 2007 to 7.6% in mid-2008) but the electorate remains unhappy, possibly because of the traditionally high expectations it has of theeconomy: this is a country whose people are accus-tomed to receiving free education ( opposite ) and health care (employees pay 8% of their salary in social-security contributions, deducted at source), state-subsidised child care for preschoolers, travel concessions for families, ample
leisure time and a 35-hour working week – at great cost to  state coffers. Hence Sarkozy, during a speech to civil servants in Nantes, warned of the urgent need to ‘change mentalities’. Predictably his first national budget in September 2007, aimed at reducing public spending and rejuvenating the economy, did not go down well: only one in two retiring civil servants would be replaced, income-tax rates for top earners would be reduced, and tax breaks for overtime hours would be introduced to encourage people to work longer hours. Hard-line attempts to reform a pension system which entitles 1.6 million workers in the rail, metro, energy-supply and fishing industries to draw a full state pension after 37.5 working years provoked widespread horror and a series of national strikes and protests – as did his bid to extend the number of working years for a full state pension from 40  to 41.Despite ritual denunciations of globalisation by politicians and pundits, the French economy is heavily dependent on the global marketplace. It is the fourth-largest export economy and, within the EU, the largest agricultural producer and exporter, thanks to generous subsidies awarded to the agricultural sector. Its production of wheat, barley, maize (corn) and cheese is particularly significant. The country is, to a great extent, self-sufficient in food except for tropical products such as bananas  and coffee.

 France is not that densely populated – 107 people inhabit every square kilometre (compared to 235 in Germany, 240 in the UK and 116 in the EU), although 20% of the national population is packed into Paris’ greater metropolitan  area.The last 10 years have seen rural and suburban areas gain residents, and Paris and the northeast (except Alsace) lose inhabitants to southern France, an increasingly buoyant part of  the country.In keeping with European trends, France’s overall population is ageing: on 1 January 2006 almost 22% of the population was 60 or older (compared to 16% in 1950, 17% in 1980 and 19% in 1990). This demographic phenomenon is less marked in urban areas like Paris and Lyon, and on the Mediterranean coast, where increasing work opportunities ensure a younger,  more-active population.Of France’s 4.3 million foreign residents, 13% are Algerian, 13%Portuguese, 12% Moroccan and 9% Italian. Only one-third has French citizenship, which is not conferred at birth but is subject to various administrative requirements; see  p55  for more on France’s foreign  population.

France maintains a rigid distinction between Church and State. Some 55% of French identify themselves as Catholic, although no more than 10% attend church regularly. Another one million people  are Protestant.Coexisting uneasily with this nominally Christian majority is France’s five million–strong Muslim community – 12% of the country’s population – most of whom adhere to a moderate Islam. Fears that a more-radical Islam is gaining ground in France have increased calls for the State to help train imams in a French-style Islam and build  more mosques.More than half of France’s 600,000-strong Jewish population, Europe’s largest, live in and around Paris. Marseille and Strasbourg likewise have notable  Jewish communities. French Jews, who in the late 18th century were the first in Europe to achieve emancipation (abolition of discriminatory laws), have been represented by the Paris-based umbrella organisation, the Consistoire,  since 1808.Despite the huge public outcry following the murder of Jewish telephone salesman  Ilan Halimi, tortured for three weeks by a multiracial gang in the
Paris suburb of Bagneux in early 2006,  anti-Semitic and racist crimes still occur: in 2008, in the same suburb, a 19-year-old Jewish man was kidnapped and kicked, punched and ridiculed for nine hours by a gang of six youths aged between 17  and 28.France’s largest Jewish community – 20,000 mainly second-generation North African Jews – lives in Sarcelles, a predominantly Jewish neighbourhood  in Paris.

Paris has all but exhausted the superlatives that can reasonably be applied to any city. Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower have been described countless times, as have the Seine and the differences between the Left and Right Banks. But what writers have been unable to capture is the grandness and the magic of strolling along the city’s broad avenues, which lead from impressive public buildings and exceptional museums to parks, gardens and esplanades.With more famous landmarks than any other city in the world, the French capital evokes all sorts of expectations for first-time visitors: of grand vistas, of intellectuals discussing weighty matters in cafés, of romance along the Seine, of naughty nightclub revues, of rude people who won’t speak English. If you look hard enough, you can probably find all of those. But another approach is to set aside the preconceptions of Paris that are so much a part of English speaking culture, and to explore the city’s avenues and backstreets as though the tip of the Eiffel Tower or the spire of Notre Dame weren’t about to pop into view at any moment.You’ll soon discover (as so many others before you have) that Paris is enchanting almost everywhere, at any time, even ‘in the summer, when it sizzles’ and ‘in the winter, when it drizzles’, as Cole Porter put it. And you’ll be back. Trust us.

When it was built for the 1889 Exposition Universelle (World Fair), marking the centenary of the Revolution, the Tour Eiffel faced massive opposition from Paris’ artistic and literary elite. The ‘metal asparagus’, as some Parisians snidely called it, was almost torn down in 1909 but was spared because it proved an ideal platform for the transmitting antennas needed for the new science of radio-telegraphy. It welcomed two million visitors the first year it opened and more than three times that number – 6.9 million in 2007 – make their way to the top each year.The Eiffel Tower, named after its designer, Gustave Eiffel, is 324m high, including the TV antenna at the tip. This figure can vary by as much as 15cm, however, as the tower’s 7300 tonnes of iron, held together by 2.5 million rivets, expand in warm weather and contract when it’s cold.Three levels are open to the public. The lifts (in the east, west and north pillars), which follow a curved trajectory, cost €4.80 to the 1st platform (57m above the ground), €7.80 to the 2nd (115m) and €12 to the 3rd (276m). Children aged three to 11 pay €2.50, €4.30 or €6.70, respectively. If you are strong of thigh and lung you can avoid the lift queues by taking the stairs (€4/3.10 over/under 25 years) in the south pillar to the 1st and 2nd platforms.

With the vineyards and plains of Champagne to the north and the Rhône Valley, gateway to the Midi-Pyrénées, to the south, Burgundy (Bourgogne in French) can make a strong case for being the real heartland of France. Amid some of the country’s most gorgeous countryside, two great French passions, wine and food, come together here in a particularly
enticing and hearty form.Burgundy’s towns and its dashingly handsome capital, Dijon, are heirs to a glorious architectural heritage that goes back to the Renaissance, the Middle Ages and beyond, into the mists of Gallo-Roman and Celtic antiquity. Many civil and religious buildings, in-cluding Beaune’s stunning Hôtel-Dieu, are topped with colourful tile roofs. Dijon, Beaune, Châtillon-sur-Seine and other towns have truly outstanding museums.
Burgundy is a paradise for lovers of the great outdoors. You can hike and cycle through the highly civilised vineyards of the Côte d’Or, on a network of cycling trails (such as the Voie Verte in Saône-et-Loire) that are also great for in-line skating, and in the wild reaches of the Parc Naturel Régional du Morvan (Morvan Regional Park); glide along the waterways of the Yonne in a canal boat; or float above the vineyards in a hot-air balloon.The majority of Burgundy’s most interesting historical sights are found in three départements: Côte-d’Or (capital: Dijon) in the northeast; Yonne (capital: Auxerre) in the northwest, almost at the gates of Paris; and Saône-et-Loire (capital: Mâcon) in the south. Most of the lightly populated Parc Naturel Régional du Morvan is in the region’s fourth département, Nièvre.

Known for cows, cider and Camembert, Normandy is bordered to the north and the west by the English Channel (La Manche), Brittany to the southwest, the Paris basin to the east and France’s far north to the northeast. It’s a place of churned butter and soft cheeses, where gentle fields divided by hedgerows end at chalk-white cliffs and dune-lined beaches.Ever since the armies of William the Conqueror set sail from its shores in 1066, Normandy has played a pivotal role in European history. It was the front line for Anglo–French hostilities for much of the Hundred Years’ War and later became the crucible of Impressionist art, but it was during the D-Day landings of 1944 that Normandy leaped to global importance. Although many towns were shattered during the Battle of Normandy, the landscape is still dotted with sturdy châteaux and stunning cathedrals, as well as the glorious abbey of Mont St-Michel.These daysNormandy is an enticing blend of the maritime, the pastoral and the urban – and of old and new. The D-Day beaches are a short drive from the marvellous Bayeux Tap-estry; chic boutiques occupy half-timbered houses near Rouen’s famous Gothic cathedral; sheer cliffs meet the sea along the Côte d’Albâtre; fishing boats jostle with designer yachts in the harbours of Honfleur; and postwar concrete exudes 1950s optimism in Le Havre.Normandy is divided into two French administrative régions: Haute Normandie (the Eure and Seine-Maritime départements), to the east; and Basse Nor-mandie (the Calvados, Manche and Orne départements), to the west.

Kallisté to the Greeks, Corse to the French, and ‘La Montagne en Mer’ (mountain in the sea) to the island’s more poetically minded inhabitants, the mysterious island of Corsica goes under many sobriquets. But there’s one that sums up the island in a nutshell – the île de beauté (beautiful island). Crowned by sawtooth peaks, mantled in forest cloaks of green oak, chestnut and pine, and shot through with rushing rivers and tumbling cascades, it’s one of the most dramatic, diverse and downright gorgeous islands in the Mediterranean. Officially a part of France, and yet fiercely proud of its own culture, history and language, Corsica has long had a love-hate relationship with the mainland: you’ll see plenty of anti-French slogans on the walls, and French-language road signs are an enduring target for nationalist spray-cans. Despite the political posturing and its reputation for aloofness, Corsica has long hosted a hotchpotch of cultures: everyone from ancient Greeks to Genoese settlers has helped shape the island’s history, and you can still feel the cultural melting pot at work today. While most people make abeeline for the glittering bays, glitzy ports and bone-white beaches around the 1000km coastline, Corsica’s mountainous interior is where you’ll find the island’s rugged heart and soul. Shrouded in dense shrubs, gnarled trees and unruly scrubland known as the maquis (whose wild herbs flavour the island’s cheeses and charcuterie), Corsica’s mountains andpastures were traditionally the preserve of bandits and bergers (shepherds). But today, the high-altitude trails are more often frequented by trekkers: the GR20 hike cuts down the island’s spine through an otherworldly landscape of peaks, forests, waterfalls and shimmering mountain lakes. Prepare to be dazzled by France’s diamond in the rough.