French villages – the ones fabled for markets, bars, boulangeries and a sense of communal purpose – are a joy to discover. But which villages? I’ve compiled a list of my top 10 – starting with my favourite.
In a sense, the selection is nonsensical: there are so many variables, and some 36,000 French communes to choose from. But it’s quite fun, and not to be taken too seriously. I’ve tried to avoid too many of the blindingly obvious (La Roque-Gageac, Mont Saint-Michel); too many of those which have more potters and ceramicists than bakers and grocers – in that case, the village is clinically dead – and too many of those that are shuttered in the off-season because they’re overcome with holiday-home owners.
I’ve favoured instead those whose prettiness and life have substance and are rooted in history; those that maybe have a story to tell. I’ve randomly set a maximum population of 3500 for a village (one slides slightly over that limit) and have attempted to focus on those French villages that I get most excited about returning to.
1. Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, Basque Country
Population: 1487
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In the lee of the Pyrenees, St-Jean (or Donibane Garazi, according to Basques), the pint-sized capital of inland Basque Country, sees beret-wearing folk come down from surrounding mountains for Monday markets, pelota matches and late-night bar-room singing about the wonders of being Basque. Modesty gets a look in, but not often.
Walled and self-contained, with narrow paved streets rising to seek the citadel up top, and a fine old bridge spanning the river below, St Jean is as sturdily pretty as Basques have been making it for centuries; it’s welcoming, too. Pilgrims pause here, girding their loins for the subsequent 17-mile hike up the Pyrenees, en route to Santiago de Compostela. This makes everyone else feel guilty. Get over it with a glass of Irouleguy red at the Hotel les Pyrenees.
To get into the swing of Basque life, you need to see a pelota match. The trinquet (indoor pelota court) at St-Jean hosts them regularly. Don’t be tempted to bet. It’s serious business. Locals have staked, and lost, farms on the game.
Where to stay: The four-star, family-run Hotel Les Pyrenees is the stately spot round here, with doubles from $204. Excellent restaurant, too, dinner menus from $90.
How to get there: Fly to Biarritz then hire a car for an hour’s drive to St-Jean.
2. Le Pont-de-Montvert, Cevennes, Occitanie
Population: 291
RL Stevenson passed through Le Pont-de-Montvert during his Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes. Let’s forget that. The book is like being cornered by a hiking bore. More interesting is that this close-packed village – it stretches with sober dignity along the infant Tarn River in the lee of Mont Lozere – was a hotspot of the 18th-century religious wars pitting Camisard Protestant guerrillas against the Catholic royal authorities.
In the surrounding hillscape there’s no thicket, dell, slope, cave or rock that wasn’t roared over by the faithful keen to tear the other faithful apart. These days, there’s a nestling calm, notably right now as the stone village adopts summer wear and sends walkers off in all directions. And it’s not just walking – Le Pont-de-Montvert is a centre for all sorts of outdoor activities. Rock-climbing rocks are to hand, as are via ferrata, canyoning, orienteering and much else besides.
Where to stay: La Lozerette – along the Tarn valley, just outside Le Pont-de-Montvert – may have only two stars but it’s as comfortable as anyone needs (the bedding is terrific), with a garden, terrace, a cracking restaurant and charm to spare. Doubles from $117; dinner menus from $58.
How to get there: Fly from Stansted to Rodez or Nimes and hire a car. It’s a little over two hours to Le Pont-de-Montvert from both.
3. Angles-sur-l’Anglin, Vienne, Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Population: 327
On its rocky promontory, Angles is so startlingly pretty that it brings me up short. From above the Anglin River – just before this joins the Gartempe valley east of Poitiers – the village unravels sharply down in a jumble of stone, horticulture and thigh-stiffening walkways. It requires no improvement.
What it needs, it already has: a castle crumbled to perfection, a reproduction of the world’s longest Magdalenian sculpted frieze (20 metres of wild animals and naked women: sculptors’ interests haven’t changed much in 15,000 years; the real thing is nearby, too fragile for public gaze) and a sort of sunlit self-assurance. In this, one of the loveliest slices of unknown France, nearby villages have treasures of their own: unequalled Romanesque frescoes at St Savin, five châteaux in Chauvigny. But Angles has the serenity.
Best bit: The reproduction of the Roc-aux-Sorciers Magdalenian, with its 50 metres of wild animals and naked women, indicates that sculptors’ interests haven’t changed much in 15,000 years ($14).
Where to stay: The Relais du Lyon-d’Or hotel is a lovely village auberge; doubles from $179. Book the day before and you may dine there amid the wistaria on the terrace. Allow $57pp.
How to get there: Fly to Poitiers then hire a car for an hour’s onward drive.
4. Montreuil, Pas-de-Calais
Population: 1900
Hill-topping Montreuil is better than we deserve, barely 60 minutes from the Channel. Beset by ramparts and equipped with a powerful 16th-century citadel, it had a starring role in Hugo’s Les Miserables. It’s also a repository of British military memories: in 1916, Field Marshal Haig established GHQ here. An equestrian statue of the fellow recalls the episode (you can puff out the chest further at Agincourt; it’s just half an hour east).
These days, Montreuil is a tight delight of unexpected squares, gardens and cobbled streets; the whole is punctuated by so many bistros and restaurants that the village reckons itself La Destination Gourmande. You’ll get the idea at the Saturday market on Place General-de-Gaulle (to get you started: “Un Welsh” round here is a local version of Welsh rarebit). The beam-and-bare-brick Le Patio restaurant absolutely sustains Montreuil’s claim to be La Destination Gourmande. Three-course dinner menus from $75, mains $45.
Where to stay: The Chateau de Montreuil is less a castle, more the result of an illicit affair between a French villa and an English country house. It has lovely double rooms from $190, plus a first-class restaurant and very pleasing gardens.
How to get there: Ferry to Calais and a 60-minute drive.
5. Kaysersberg, Alsace
Population: 2528
Alsace gets a kicking whenever Latin and Germanic worlds come to blows. Locals have thus taken refuge in epic domesticity rooted in hard work, fraternity and unflagging festivity. The result, notably along the wine route, is a succession of half-timbered villages overcome with flowers and joie de vivre, all the while wearing Sunday best.
Most seductive is Kaysersberg, its wonky cobbled streets winding blithely below the vine-covered slopes of the incipient Vosges mountains. Up top is forest and what’s left of the imperial chateau, down below the birthplace of Albert Schweitzer, theologian, organist, musicologist, writer, humanitarian, philosopher, Nobel Peace Prize winner and doctor – among the greatest men of the 20th century. He was born in Kaysersberg. His birth house reopened in 2023 as the Schweitzer Centre Museum celebrating his life, thought and dedication to peace; entry $11.
Where to stay: The magnificent Chambard has double rooms from $427 and, under the commands of Oliver Nasti, one of Alsace’s finest tables. It is double Michelin-starred, so don’t be surprised by a five-course dinner menu at $459. The associated, traditionally Alsacien, winstub (brasserie) is much more affordable, with mains from $53.
How to get there: Either drive (Calais to Kaysersberg is six hours 30 minutes) or train it to Paris, then take the TGV Est to Strasbourg. The full journey should take slightly over five hours. Now take the train to Colmar and switch to the bus for the last leg – about 90 minutes in all.
6. Minerve, Herault, Occitanie
Population: 101
This astonishing spot grows directly out of a rocky promontory almost entirely encircled by gorges meeting in a vortex of vertigo. Apart from houses which teeter on the edge – mothers must have palpitations – slaughter is the village’s key claim to fame. The 1210 papal crusade against Cathars bade village heretics to renounce Catharism or die. Three gave in; 140 walked out of the town gate directly to be burned at the stake.
These days light and heat of centuries pours out of the huge sky onto dense scrub, rock and patches of vineyard – and the village crams in upon itself to shelter. Stroll the streets and you might just be strolling the 13th century.
Minerve, of course, gives its name to the Minervois appellation wines, among the most interesting from Languedoc. There’s a minerality about them which reflects their origins. For proof, call in at Domaine Cavailles at 2 Grand Rue in the village centre. The red cuvées Coralie and Jeannot, at around $11-$13, are remarkable value.
Where to stay: In the heart of the village, the Hotel Relais Chantovent has simple double rooms at $98. Its first-rate restaurant oversees the gorges, with dinner menus from $57.
How to get there: Fly to Beziers or Carcassonne. There’s an onward drive of about an hour from both.
7. Barcelonnette, Ubaye Valley, Alps
Population: 2492
In the Ubaye valley, Barcelonnette is so purely Alpine – mountains, surging river, crags, skiing – that you expect vigorous yodelling. So wherefore the mariachis? What’s all this Mexicana? The Hotel Azteca? Adelita Mexican restaurant? The Baita boutique with more Mexican stuff than they have in Oaxaca? A Mexican consulate, for heaven’s sake? Simple.
Folk from the surging Ubaye valley traded far and wide. Notably, by the late 19th century, over and away into Mexico, where they controlled 90 per cent of the textile business, and some 27 per cent of foreign investment. The exiles sent money home, or themselves came back rich, established fancy villas (and equally fancy tombs) – and lasting links with Mexico. The tale is well told in Barcelonnette’s recently refurbed Musee de la Vallee. The Fêtes Latino-Mexicaines celebrates Barcelonnette’s Mexican connections every August. Mariachis, sombreros and dancers in dipping dresses abound. There’s Mexican food, theatre, concerts, ballet and much else besides (August 7-16, 2026).
Where to stay: If you’re going to do the Mexican job properly, you need the four-star, arty Hotel Azteca. It has doubles from $162.
How to get there: Fly to Nice then hire a car. It’s three hours to Barcelonnette.
8. Bagnoles-de-l’Orne, Normandy
Population: 2730
I choose Bagnoles not because it’s a celebrated spa town (though it is: Roumanian royalty were regulars). It is, rather, for the associated, raffishly elegant Belle Epoque aspect which all self-respecting spa towns wear. This is a French version of Leamington Spa, but with its hat at a more rakish angle. Built round a lake as big as the village, Bagnoles is more garden than town, and more forest than either. It’s edged by 18,000 acres of beech, oak, spruce, rocks and much else besides.
As I do, US billionaire Frank Jay Gould thought the place delightful. He invested much of his crooked dad’s railway fortune in a casino and Grand Hotel. He expected gratitude, didn’t get it, so cleared off to establish Juan-les-Pins on the Riviera. Bagnoles has, though, got on pretty well without him, a seam of Edwardian charm running through to right now.
Just out of town, the Manoir du Lys nestles in the Andaine Forest, a manorial hotel with a formidable gastronomic reputation. Chef Franck Quinton probably knows as much about mushrooms as any person alive. Doubles from $196; three-course dinner menus from $160.
Where to stay: Slightly more modest, bang in the village centre – and much lovelier inside than it looks from the outside – Hotel Beryl is as friendly as it gets. Overlooking the lake, it has a spa and double rooms from $212; the three-course menu is from $49.
How to get there: Ferry to Ouistreham with Brittany Ferries and then it’s 90 minutes to Bagnoles.
9. Saint-Cirq-Lapopie, Lot valley
Population: 204
Unravelling down its rocky promontory way above the River Lot, Saint-Cirq-Lapopie is a marvel of vertical stone streets and surrealism – a work-out for both the thighs and the mind. There’s barely a flat bit to be had as one roams a spot which has been hanging on – physically and figuratively – for centuries. Once famed for its castle and the production of wooden taps for barrels, it is these days set up to receive visitors – don’t wear heels, for heaven’s sake – and pilgrims to a temple of surrealism.
This is the 13th-century tower house of André Breton, kingpin of surrealism. It’s presently the International Centre for Surrealism and World Citizenship. Later, you might focus on the ruins of the vertiginous castle, and on the church. Note the statue of local lad St Jean-Gabriel Perboyre, strangled on a cross while a missionary in Wuhan, China. The atmospheric sense of a solid past has absolutely survived into the tourist times of the 21st century.
Where to stay: At the foot of the village, the Hotel-Spa Le Saint Cirq is a classy base for both the village and the Lot valley. President and Mrs Macron have been there a time or two. Doubles from $160.
How to get there: Fly Stansted to Rodez and hire a car for the 90-minute drive to St- Cirq.
10. Hautvillers, Champagne
Population: 628
“My only regret,” said the ageing Maynard Keynes, “is that I haven’t drunk enough champagne.” It’s not a risk worth taking, so travel to the region. The big posh houses gather in Reims and Epernay – but the heart of the matter is out in the villages where family operations create independent champagnes in cellars dug out by great grandad with a pick-axe.
Prettiest of all is Hautvillers, base to 17th-century monk Dom Perignon. He didn’t (as claimed) invent champagne, but certainly improved it. Stroll to his tomb in the village church along sunny white-stone streets hung with wrought-iron signs. Then stroll back to Champagne G Tribaut whose vines sweep down to the River Marne with Renaissance rightness. The Cuvee de Reserve is a steal at $36.
Where to stay: La Chevalee chambres-d’hotes with the Fedyk champagne-making family has – as you’d expect – classy double rooms, suites really, from $360, including breakfast.
How to get there: Best bet is to take your own car – you’ll need to fill up the boot. Calais to Hautvillers is a little under three hours.
Telegraph, London
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
