Where do French people travel in France? Cote d’Azur Burgundy Brittany

Worldwide vacationers could prioritize visits to the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre after they go to France.    

However French residents produce other concepts.

Border restrictions in the course of the pandemic largely gave locals the prospect to discover their nation with out international vacationers, which in 2019 numbered some 90 million.

The French didn’t squander the chance. Greater than two-thirds of French residents traveled in 2021, with 84% of France’s metropolitan residents selecting to remain throughout the nation, in keeping with the French tourism advertising analysis agency Raffour Interactif.

Whereas Covid pummeled tourism in French Polynesia, some islands nearer to the mainland drew many native vacationers, stated Bailly. Ile de Re, off France’s west coast, fared properly due to its proximity to Paris — it is lower than 5 hours away by automobile, she stated — whereas guests additionally went to the “tremendous well-known, implausible” island of Belle Ile within the north, in addition to Corsica within the south.

“When individuals are going to Corsica … they’re texting me [saying] ‘it is no use going to Maldives as a result of the water seems to be the identical,” she stated. She spoke to CNBC from the Resort Molitor Paris-MGallery the place, she stated, many Parisians have been having fun with staycations.

From skiing in the Pyrenees to diving within the Mediterranean, it is the range of landscapes and experiences in France — which is about twice the dimensions of Colorado — that make it so in style, stated Bailly.

“I imagine that the richness of this small nation, with so many various potentialities of leisure and vacation in just one place — is a bit distinctive,” she stated.  

However one exception, a minimum of for now, is the Alsace wine route.

“You possibly can simply go to Strasbourg after which begin by automobile, leaping from a village to a different one and simply tasting and discovering the wine, the castles … the landscapes,” she stated. “It is fairly secret.”

The key is out on locations similar to Beaune and Macon within the world-renowned wine area of Burgundy. Each have been in style with home vacationers final yr, she stated.  

Earlier than the pandemic, almost 60% of France’s wine vacationers have been home vacationers, stated Martin Lhuillier, head of wine tourism at Atout France, the nation’s tourism improvement company.

One among his prime “insider ideas” is to go to Jura, one of many smallest wine areas in France, to go to the village of Chateau-Chalon, he stated. There, guests can strive the world’s “coronary heart and soul” — its vin jaune, or yellow wine.  

Bailly and Lhuillier each suggest the French division of Dordogne. Situated between the Loire Valley and the Pyrenees, it has “unspoilt pure jewels” like Bergerac and Duras, stated Lhuillier.

Although it is much less stylish than different components of France, Dordogne is a spot “the place you may actually get pleasure from French artwork de vivre, gastronomy and nature,” stated Bailly.

France’s “artwork de vivre” — actually “the artwork of dwelling” — is a part of the rationale that France has for many years been among the many hottest locations for worldwide vacationers. The emphasis on having fun with life is omnipresent — alongside boulevards of Paris, throughout the rooms of the Palace of Versailles and contained in the nation’s eating places, which collectively have extra Michelin stars than another nation on this planet.

However Bailly stated it is within the “extra secret, discreet locations” that vacationers can actually “relaxation and reconnect to the French way of life.”

One other place in Dordogne, Beaulieu-sur-Dordogne, is likely one of the latest villages on the listing of the “most beautiful villages in France.”

The listing, which began 40 years in the past, names 168 villages of outstanding heritage and sweetness. Every is evaluated on 30 standards, together with heritage websites and structure in addition to smaller particulars similar to hidden electrical wires. There’s lower than a 1-in-5 probability of constructing the listing, in keeping with the listing’s web site.

Southern France has the best focus of those villages, with greater than 75% situated in provinces like Nouvelle Aquitaine, Occitanie and Provence-Alpes-Cote-d’Azur.

The tv present “Le Village Prefere des Francais” — or “The Favourite Village of the French” — additionally attracts guests to lesser-known spots within the nation. Fourteen villages are shortlisted annually — one in every area in France — with the winner topped by public vote.

Last year’s winner drew more tourists: the tiny hilltop city of Sancerre, which is likely one of the most recognizable appellations for French Sauvignon Blanc.

The identical will probably occur for Bergheim, a village alongside the Alsace Wine Route, which was topped this yr’s winner on Wednesday.

Bailly stated vacationers can construct a complete journey round these villages.

“It is a extra non-public, home, cultural manner of taking a look at France,” she stated. “It isn’t Saint-Tropez, it is not Mont Saint-Michel or Eiffel Tower, however it’s additionally France with the richness of its historical past.”