1175 Best Sights in France

The main nightlife activity in town is at the casino.

Occasionally you see high stakes on the tables at La Baule's casino.

The famous Casino Barrière on La Croisette—open 10 am to 3 am (until 4 am on weekends and until 5 am during summer)—is said to draw more crowds to its slot machines than any other casino in France.

At this modern downtown recreation complex, the sea views through huge bay windows may distract you from the slot machines. The casino is open daily from 11 am to 2 am (4 am Friday and Saturday).

Looking out over the waterfront and catering to the city's many conventioneers, this casino has 150 slot and 30 video poker machines that operate daily 9 am–3 am (4 am on Saturday). The other games—English roulette, blackjack, and stud poker—however, don't open for play until 9 pm, and you'll need to show your passport. Le Café Barrière is open to the public and has a lovely terrace overlooking the port. 

At the glitzy Casino de Biarritz you can play the slots and blackjack or just chill while channeling your inner James Bond. It's open daily from 9 am until 4 am.

In the 1920s and '30s, the swanky Palais de la Méditerranée drew performers like Charlie Chaplin and Edith Piaf. The establishment, however, lost its glory and, in 1990, everything but its swanky facades was demolished to accommodate new construction that included hotel rooms and restaurants as well the casino. Choose from 170 slot machines, 38 electric roulette tables, three blackjack tables, two English roulette tables, and an Ultimate Poker and Texas Hold'em table.

This glassed-in complex houses 75 slot machines, English roulette, and blackjack, which are played every night: the casino is open until 3 am (4 am on Saturday). There's also a panoramic beach restaurant.

Inside the Cassissium’s sparkling glass-and-steel building, the world of cassis is explored through films and interactive displays. A 90-minute tour of Védrenne's liqueur production ends (of course!) with a cassis tasting. Guided tours need to be reserved in advance.

At the east end of the promenade, near Hotel Suisse, there is both a large public beach and a private one, where the water is calm and clear (you can rent a lounger at the latter for about €25, with umbrella). The public beach is composed of large stones, which are more comfortable to walk on than pebbles. Jellyfish are also less of a problem in this corner due to the currents. Amenities: lifeguards (private beach, seasonal); showers. Best for: snorkeling; sunrise; sunset; swimming.

Built between 1239 and 1484, this noted cathedral, one of the greatest churches of the Loire Valley, reveals a mixture of architectural styles. The richly sculpted stonework of its majestic two-tower facade betrays the Renaissance influence on local château-trained craftsmen. The stained glass dates from the 13th century (if you have binoculars, bring them). Also take a look at both the little tomb with kneeling angels, built in memory of Charles VIII and Anne of Brittany's two children, and the Cloître de La Psalette (Psalm Cloister), on the south side of the cathedral, where the canons of St-Gatien created some of the most beautiful illuminated manuscripts in medieval Europe.

Built mainly in the 13th century, the Cathédrale (called both Ste-Marie and Notre-Dame) is one of France's southernmost examples of Gothic architecture. Its 13th- to 14th-century cloisters are among its best features.

In the center of the Old Town, the Cathédrale de la Nativité de la Vierge was built in the 11th and 12th centuries on the site of a Roman military drilling field and is a hybrid of Romanesque and Baroque styles. The smallest cathedral in France, it has been expanded and altered many times over the centuries. Note the rostrum added in 1499—its choir stalls are carved with particularly vibrant and amusing scenes of daily life in the Middle Ages. In the baptistery is a ceramic mosaic of Moses in the bulrushes by Chagall.

This gargantuan, neo-Byzantine, 19th-century fantasy was built under Napoléon III—but not before he'd ordered the partial destruction of the lovely 11th-century original, once a perfect example of the Provençal Romanesque style. You can view the flashy interior (think marble and rich red porphyry inlay) of the newer of the two churches; the medieval one is being restored.

At first glance, the blazing, silvery onion domes of this Russian Orthodox cathedral, an easy walk from the Eiffel Tower and Quai Branly, appear like a mirage of Moscow on the Seine. The ultramodern edifice, designed by French architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte, is worth a quick peek for its graceful icons, mosaics, and colorful frescoes against pristine marble walls.

Toulon’s historic Romanesque cathedral was built in the 11th-century with successive additions in the 17th and 18th centuries done in the Provençal-baroque style. Among the notable artworks decorating the church’s dusky interior is a monumental marble altarpiece depicting God the Father surrounded by a throng of lifelike angels and two 17th-century paintings by Pierre Puget, a Marseille native whose sculptures once graced the palace of Versailles and are now housed in the Louvre. Francis I had the cathedral converted to a mosque in the winter of 1543–44 to accommodate the Muslim corsairs stationed in Toulon during the long Franco-Ottoman alliance to aid the king in his campaigns against Italy and Charles V.

Bayeux's mightiest edifice, the Cathédrale Notre-Dame, is a harmonious mixture of Norman and Gothic architecture. Note the portal on the south side of the transept that depicts the assassination of English archbishop Thomas à Becket in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170, following his courageous opposition to King Henry II's attempts to control the church.

Even in the so-called City of 100 Spires, the one crowning this cathedral stands out. Erected in 1876, it’s the highest in France—a cast-iron tour de force rising 490 feet above the crossing. The original 12th-century construction was replaced after a devastating fire in 1200; only the left-hand spire, the Tour St-Romain (St. Romanus Tower), survived the flames. Construction on the imposing 250-foot steeple on the right, known as the Tour de Beurre (Butter Tower), was begun in the 15th century and completed in the 17th, when a group of wealthy citizens donated large sums of money for the privilege of continuing to eat butter during Lent. Interior highlights include the 13th-century choir, with its pointed arcades; vibrant stained glass depicting the crucified Christ (restored after heavy damage during World War II); and massive stone columns topped by some intriguing carved faces. The first flight of the famous Escalier de la Librairie (Library Stairway), attributed to Guillaume Pontifs (also responsible for most of the 15th-century work seen in the cathedral), rises from a tiny balcony just to the left of the transept.

The breathtaking Cathédrale Notre-Dame, one of the country's oldest and narrowest cathedrals, dates to the second half of the 12th century. The superb spire—arguably the most elegant in France—was added around 1240, and the majestic transept, with its ornate rose windows, in the 16th century.

Despite its 12th-century exterior, the 19th-century interior of the Cathédrale Notre-Dame is somewhat bland. But don't miss the adjoining bishop's house, now a museum on the history of Grenoble; the main treasure is a noted 4th-century baptistery.

This vast, frigid edifice was completed in the 1740s in a ponderous Baroque style, eased in part by the florid ironwork of Jean Lamour. The most notable interior feature is a murky 18th-century fresco in the dome. The Trésor (Treasury) contains minute 10th-century splendors carved of ivory and gold but is only open to the public on rare occasions.

The 16th-century baroque cathedral where Napoléon was baptized sits at the end of Rue St-Charles. The interior is covered with trompe-l'oeil frescoes, and the high altar, from a church in Lucca, Italy, was donated by Napoléon's sister Eliza after he made her princess of Tuscany. Eugène Delacroix's The Triumph of Religion hangs above the Virgin of the Sacred Heart marble altar from the 17th century.

Nîmes Cathedral was damaged by Protestants during the 16th-century Wars of Religion but still shows traces of its original construction in 1096. A remarkably preserved Romanesque frieze portrays Adam and Eve cowering in shame, the gory slaughter of Abel, and a flood-wearied Noah. Inside, look for the 4th-century sarcophagus (third chapel on the right) and a magnificent 17th-century chapel in the apse.

Fragments from a Gallo-Roman basilica were used to build this solemn, Romanesque cathedral, whose cloister is surrounded by richly sculpted columns and arches.

Built in a pure Provençal Romanesque style in the 12th century, this cathedral was soon dwarfed by the extravagant palace that rose beside it. The 14th century saw the addition of a cupola, which promptly collapsed. As rebuilt in 1425, the cathedral is a marvel of stacked arches with a strong Byzantine flavor and is topped with a gargantuan Virgin Mary lantern—a 19th-century afterthought—whose glow can be seen for miles around.

On a cliff top overlook at the Old Town's edge, this Romanesque cathedral contains no fewer than three paintings by Rubens, a triptych by the famed 15th-century Provençal painter Louis Bréa, and Lavement des Pieds (The Washing of the Feet) by the young Fragonard. 

This magnificent Russian Orthodox cathedral was built in 1896 to accommodate the sizable population of Russian aristocrats who had adopted Nice as their winter home. This Byzantine fantasy is the largest of its kind outside the motherland, with six gold-leaf onion domes, rich ceramic mosaics on its facade, and extraordinary icons framed in silver and jewels. The benefactor was Nicholas II himself, whose family attended the inauguration in 1912. For six years the church was challenged over ownership, but in 2013 the French courts rejected a final appeal by ACOR, a niçois religious association that managed the property for 80 years. The Russian Archpriest rejoiced: "This ruling shows that it is history that has triumphed."

Rodin famously declared that \"there are no hours in this cathedral, but rather eternity.\" The Gothic interior, with its pure lines and restrained ornamentation, creates a more harmonious impression than the asymmetrical, one-tower facade. The most remarkable feature, however, is the rounded four-story southern transept, an element more frequently found in the German Rhineland than in France. Rubens's Adoration of the Shepherds hangs on the other side of the transept. Guided tours of the cathedral and towers take place on Sunday afternoons.

The onetime home of the Bishops of Uzès, the original Saint-Théodont was built in 1090 on the site of a Roman temple, but it was demolished during the ensuing religious wars. Though the impressive Fenestrelle Tower—a ringer for the Tower of Pisa minus the tilt—remains, it is too delicate to actually visit. The 19th-century neo-Romanesque facade shelters a pared-down interior and one of the oldest pipe organs in France. The views from the grounds are lovely.