Karen Fawcett just completed another French rail trip, where a chance encounter with another traveler reminded her that maneuvering through French transportation hubs can be a challenge. She has a few basic tips to help foreign travelers reach their assigned train car and seat after successfully navigating through French transit stations.

Aigues-Mortes has been immortalized in Hemingway’s Garden of Eden and Boccaccio’s The Decameron. Cara Waterfall reveals the city of “dead waters” still today captures the imagination, steeped in time and tourism.

France today has hundreds of monasteries and convents with comfortable lodging European travelers have enjoyed for centuries. Award-winning author and European monastery expert Eileen Barish introduces us to Maison Saint-François in scenic Brittany, an historic Capucins abbey now open to all.

Shortly after the Battle of Norman, it's believed that Bishop Odo, half-brother of William the Conqueror, commissioned the hand-embroidered 256-foot-long Bayeux Tapestry. What remains of the historical artifact is displayed at the Bayeux Tapestry Museum in Normandy. Adam Weiner gives you an overview and all the information you need to plan a visit.

Imagine a vertical village stacked on a hillside atop a seaside harbor town and beaches, with villas and palaces tucked between citrus groves and botanical gardens that scent the night air. No, it isn't a tropical island, it's sunny Menton, the last French town before the Italian border on the Côte d’Azur. Kathy Burke has more reasons to visit Menton.

Impressionist painter Auguste Renoir made his summer country home in Essoyes, a small village located just over two hours from Paris. Janet Hulstrand's story about the recently dedicated Centre Culturel Renoir and other cultural charms of bucolic Essoyes may inspire adding a stop to your Champagne region road trip.

L’Île de Ré has an enduring love affair with the sea: it shapes every aspect from the cadence of life to the colour scheme. The landscape is layered in green, white and blue – from the painted boats to the lumbering hollyhocks around each doorway. (In fact, there’s a building code to maintain the two-storey height and the local features.) This slender, 30-kilometre island is connected by bridge to La Rochelle, a port city near the Bay of Biscay.