11 Best Sights in France

With France as the world's third-largest producer of caviar—much of it from sturgeon raised in basins fed from the abundant rivers around the Dordogne—you'll be assured when a menu says "local caviar" it truly is. At this 50-acre estate, visitors are shown how caviar is produced, from the breeding ponds to harvesting, before tasting the homegrown delicacy. Neuvic offers "initiation" visits along with masterclasses (all booked in advance online) or you can just stop in between Monday and Saturday for a visit of the domaine that includes nature walks along the river and "swimming" with the sturgeon (in waders). The on-site boutique sells all of the various caviars along with a host of other local delicacies. There's also a gourmet restaurant and a chic boutique hotel in the 19th-century Tudor-style château if you're looking for the full caviar experience. The domaine is almost equidistant (about 30 km/19 miles) between Périgeux and Bergerac.

This haven for foodies occupies a complex that combines starkly modern buildings and a renovated former hospital dating back to 1204, all sprawled over a 16-acre site at the southwest edge of the city. One of the contemporary wings houses an outpost of the Ferrandi culinary school and the Ecole des Vins de Bourgogne, which holds tastings and workshops. But the hub is the Gastronomic Village, an outdoor shopping mall with high-end food and wine shops, a culinary bookstore, and an on-site kitchen where top chefs hold live cooking demonstrations and masterclasses. One of the highlights is the Cave de la Cité, an oenophile's paradise, with more than 3,000 different wines, 250 sold by the glass. Among the on-site eateries, you'll find the café-brasserie Comptoir de la Cité and the first-class restaurant La Table des Climats. There are also permanent and temporary food-focused exhibitions, a museum, and a cinema complex.

The cobbled streets and picturesque stone pavillons that once housed Paris’s thriving 19th-century wine trade were restored in the 1990s and repurposed as a charming shopping and dining district. Brimming with unique and French chain boutiques and lively cafés, bars, and a multiplex Pathé cinema, this is a great place to spend a few hours strolling, snacking, shopping, and lingering till evening for dinner and a movie, especially since shops and bars stay open late. Check out the website for seasonal activities for kids.

This prestigious national equestrian academy trains France’s future riding stars. Unique in Europe, the Cadre Noir de Saumur has 400 horses, extensive stables, five Olympic-size riding rings, and miles of specially laid tracks. Try for a morning tour, which gives you a chance to admire the horses in training. A gala equestrian performance is put on for enthusiastic crowds during special weekends in April, May, July, September, and October; reservations are a must.

Since 1895, this important local distiller has been producing not only lavender, but also essential oils of lavendin and other aromatic plants. Tours of its facility, offered May through August, cover cultivating lavender and the distillation process. You can stock up on lavender, organic essential oils, floral waters, soaps, sachets, and plant-based cosmetics in the on-site shop.

Held in the first half of August, this festival focuses on Celtic culture—music, drama, poetry, dance—and fellow Celts from Cornwall, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Galicia, and other Western European locales pour in to celebrate.

Hidden away in a small antiques district, not far from the Opéra Garnier, is Paris's central auction house, said to be the oldest in the world. You name it, Drouot sells it: vintage clothes, haute-couture gowns, tchotchkes, ornate Chinese lacquered boxes, rare books, art, rugs and tapestries, mid-century modern furniture, old master drawings, wine, and much more. Anyone can attend the sales and viewings, which draw a mix of art dealers, ladies who lunch, and art amateurs hoping to discover an unknown masterpiece. Check the website to see what's on the block or if you're pressed for time, bid online. Don't miss the small galleries and antiques dealers in the Quartier Drouot, a warren of small streets around the auction house, notably on Rues Rossini and de la Grange-Batelière.

If you have deep pockets (the nightly rate for staying here regularly reaches up to €2,300), you can spend the night in the former palace built for the Empress Eugénie in 1850. If not, you can still admire from a distance the opulent crimson facade and white colonnades of Biarritz's top landmark overlooking the Plage du Miramar and set within manicured lawns. You can dine at one its three fine restaurants, sip a cocktail at the Bar Napoléon, or treat yourself to a day at the Spa Impérial with its huge pool, sauna, hammam, and solarium (a one-day pass costs €90).

Follow the irresistible aromas of roasting hazelnuts, walnuts, and almonds to this circa 1560 mill, where seven generations of the Frateau family have pressed oils in the traditional way from nuts grown in local orchards. Watch the nuts being roasted, milled, and pressed, then taste and purchase exquisitely fresh and delicious oils, nut flours, and other local specialties at the boutique.

You can study miniature dioramas of scenes from Pagnol stories here. The characters are all santons, including superb portraits of a humpback Gerard Dépardieu and Yves Montand, resplendent in moustache, fedora, and velvet vest, just as they were featured in Jean de Florette. For more information, contact the tourist office.

This little movie house has a distinguished history. When it opened in 1928, it was the first theater in the world purposely built for art et essai, or experimental film, and Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí's L'Age d'Or caused a riot when it premiered here. Through the years artists and writers came to see "seventh art" creations by directors such as Jean Cocteau, François Truffaut, and Orson Welles. Today it's a repertory cinema, showing first-runs, just-runs, and previews—usually in their original language. Movies are screened beginning at 2 pm daily, and tickets cost €11. In the back of the movie house is a cozy bar and café that has a quiet outdoor terrace decorated with murals of film stars. Oh, and those charmingly bizarre chandeliers in the salle? Cocteau designed them.