Top tips for visiting France

• Indulge: If you’re going to visit France, don’t hold yourself back when it comes to the culinary delights. French cuisine is all about the good stuff, incredible baked goods, sumptuous cheeses, dishes smothered in garlic, wines that slip down with total ease, chocolate like you’ve never tasted before. Whether you’ve arrived in cosmopolitan Paris or rural Gascony, head straight for a boulangerie.
• Get outdoors: whilst France may boast some of the best art galleries, museums and restaurants in the world, it also has soaring snow-capped mountains, vast swathes of mystical pine forest, incredible beaches and wave-battered cliffs, all helping to make France the ultimate playground for an outdoor adventure.
• Head to the vineyards: Virtually nowhere boasts as many vineyards or as many varieties of exquisite wines as France, so whether experiencing the history of Champagne, or getting out into the countryside of Bordeaux, a wine experience in France should be near the top of your list.
• Learn a few phrases: getting off the beaten track in France is essential to an authentic experience, but the locals have a perhaps unfair reputation for not being the most welcoming bunch. The fact is, in the more remote parts of France, English just isn’t commonly spoken, make the effort and you’ll be rewarded by kind-hearted locals and unforgettable experiences.