Top Reasons to Go

Louis XIV's Versailles: Famed as glorious testimony to the Sun King's megalomania, this is the world's most luxe palace and nature-tamed park.

Creamy Chantilly: Stately château, stellar art collection, fabulous forest, palatial stables... all within the same square mile.

Van Gogh in Auvers: The great painter spent his last, manically productive three months here—you can see where he painted, where he got drunk, where he shot himself, and where he remains.

Chartres Cathedral: A pinnacle of Gothic achievement, this 13th-century masterpiece has peerless stained glass and a hilltop silhouette visible for miles around.

Monet's Water Lilies: Come to Giverny to see his lily pond—a half-acre "Monet"—then peek around his charming home and stroll the time-warped streets to the new Musée des Impressionismes.