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2 1 4 F R A N C E

FRANCE

RENCH HOTELS are a compliment, this new breed of
beginning to enjoy hands-on owner will be there
F a reputation as the to listen to you – with
point of your journey, interest. Such hotels are
rather than somewhere to typically family-run and
be endured along the way. housed in sympathetically-
This is not a universal restored and furnished historic
trend, but individual buildings – part of the
hoteliers have been landscape rather than
adding personal attention, style modern intrusions. Often
and comfort to their existing culinary they are proud to proclaim
reputations. If you have a complaint or their unique regional identity.

Château du Domaine St-Martin, at Vence, page 264, one of the most expensive hotels in France
FRANCE REGION with its memories of William Renaissance, are almost
BY REGION the Conqueror’s invasion of always breathtaking, and not
England (and the more all just for looking at: two
N THIS GUIDE the country recent D-Day landings), and exquisite examples of places
Ihas been divided into the lush farmland of the to stay are the Château de
Northern France, Central Pays d’Auge and La Suisse Noirieux at Briollay, (page
France and Southern France. Normande, with châteaux, 239) and the Hostellerie du
mills and half-timbered inns. Château de Bellecroix at
Northern France To the west of the Channel Chagny (page 239).
The plains of Picardy, with port of Cherbourg lies the Burgundy stands out for
their traditional inns and monastery island of Le the rustic buildings of the
converted châteaux, are Mont-St-Michel; here begins fragmented vineyards of the
bordered to the north by the the more rugged landscape Côte d’Or; the religious
Ardennes forests and to the of Celtic Brittany, with its showpieces at Vézelay,
east by the mountains and manors and seaside hotels. Fontenay and Cluny, and
hills of Vosges. Paris and its the splendid palaces of
surroundings dominate the Central France Dijon. Further east is
centre of the region, its We define this region as Franche-Comté, with its
hotels ranging from chic beginning to the south of alpine highlands, crystal
townhouses to the grand the Ile de France, and rivers, and rolling farmland
buildings of the large hotels. stretching from Nantes at in the Saône valley.
The Channel coast has its the mouth of the Loire in
share of heavy industry and the west, to the Jura moun- Southern France
oil refineries, concentrated tains in the east. The great Poitou, to the north of the
round Le Havre and Rouen, châteaux of the Loire Valley, city of Bordeaux, and
but close by lie the beautiful many of which were re- Aquitaine, stretching down
port of Honfleur, Bayeux modelled during the to the western end of the