‘There’s no better place to start exploring the world again’

Few countries offer a richer mix of terrain, history, culture and cuisine than France – and it’s right here on our doorstep. Nick Trend introduces 12 pages of inspiration for that first long-awaited holiday of 2021

If, after a traumatic year of lockdowns and travel restrictions, you feel like exploring the world again, it’s hard to think of a better place to start than France. Surely no other country in the world encompasses so much beauty, so much history, so many contrasting landscapes and such a rich and varied cuisine within borders so compact.

Choose from pancakes on the granite coast of Brittany, the cider orchards of Normandy or the vineyards and chateaux of the Loire. Head south and west to the beaches and rolling surf of the Vendée or the gorges of the Dordogne or Tarn. Or how about the Alps or the Pyrenees, or the olive groves and lavender fields of Provence? It’s all on our doorstep, within a day’s drive or train ride or a 90-minute flight of the UK.

With current uncertainties (not least the ongoing ban on travel from the UK to France), it may be safest to delay your trip until the spring or summer when you will surely find a ferry crossing or a cheap airfare to a holiday that suits you.

Over the next 11 pages, our experts reveal some of that variety in detail – from the deepest rural landscapes, traditions and villages of la France profonde to the latest in Parisian design hotel. We hear about family holidays on the Côte d’Azur where you can enjoy the glamour of its beaches at a bargainpriced campsite; about how to keep two children and a grandmother with Alzheimer’s happy at a Corsican villa; and about a trip to the volcanoes of the Auvergne that changed one writer’s life.

We have all the news on sights, attractions and cross-Channel services for 2021, too. And if you want to break the journey, or get out and explore some more, Anthony Peregrine has some excellent tips for some memorable stopovers and sights en route.

If you think France is for you in 2021, this is where to start planning.