France - five TOP travel destinations

Sights in France: in the capital Paris, but also in Marseille, Bordeaux, Lyon and Strasbourg.

The French capital Paris is a fascinating metropolis that will delight you with its countless sights.

One of the landmarks of Paris is the 324-metre-high Eiffel Tower, which was built on the south bank of the Seine in 1889 for the World's Fair. The Eiffel Tower is visited by seven million people every year.

The Panthéon, a mighty domed building, was built at the end of the 18th century as the Church of St. Genoveva, but has served as a national memorial since the French Revolution. Important personalities such as Voltaire, Rousseau and Émile Zola have found their final resting place in the Pantheon.

In the north of Paris, the Sacré-Cœur basilica, a pilgrimage church built between 1875 and 1914 in the neo-Byzantine style, stands on the Montmartre hill, visible from afar.

Sacré-Cœur is located in the artists' quarter of Montmartre. Explore sights such as the Moulin Rouge cabaret, street art in Rue Véron and the museum dedicated to the painter and sculptor Salvador Dalí on a tour of Montmartre.

Marseille, the second largest city in France after Paris, is located on the French Mediterranean coast.

Among the city's sights is the neo-Romanesque and neo-Byzantine basilica Notre-Dame de la Garde, which rises on a 160-metre-high limestone cliff in the south of the old town. The rich mosaic decoration inside the church is well worth seeing. Enjoy the impressive view over Marseille and the Mediterranean from the church building.

The Old Port (Vieux Port) is located in the city center. Visit the fish market on the Quai des Belges near the Old Port. You can learn interesting facts about Marseille in various museums such as the Marseille History Museum and the Maritime and Economic Museum.

La Canebière boulevard runs from the Old Port in a north-easterly direction.

In the fourth district (arrondissement), the Palais Longchamp, built between 1862 and 1896 in the historicist style, is an impressive sight.

Travel from Marseille in a north-westerly direction to Bordeaux on the Atlantic coast - 500 kilometers from Marseille. Bordeaux is the administrative seat of the south-western French département (administrative region) of New Aquitaine.

Saint-André Cathedral is part of the "Way of St. James in France". The church building has predominantly Gothic architectural elements (12th to 15th century). However, parts of the current church were already part of the Romanesque predecessor building.

The important Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux is a venue for operas and operettas, theater, concerts and various other events. The theater building was constructed between 1773 and 1780.

The most interesting museums in Bordeaux include the Musée d'Aquitaine (regional history and archaeology), the Musée d'art contemporain de Bordeaux (contemporary art) and the Centre Jean Moulin (information about France's role in the Second World War and during the colonial period).

The third largest city in France is Lyon, 280 kilometers north of Marseille. Lyon's history goes back to a Celtic settlement, on the site of which the city of Lugdunum was founded by the Romans in 43 BC.

The city's landmarks are Saint-Jean Cathedral, built from 1165 in Romanesque and Gothic style, and the pilgrimage church of Notre-Dame de Fourvière, consecrated in 1896.

The Lyon peninsula (Presqu'île de Lyon) with its stores and restaurants forms the actual city center. Trading posts were already located here in Roman times. The "peninsula" is bordered by the Rhône and its tributary, the Saône, which flows into the Rhône at the southern tip of the Presqu'île.

The Alsatian city of Strasbourg, capital of the Bas-Rhin administrative region, is located in the north-east of France, directly on the border with Germany.

The old town of Strasbourg (Grande Île) was built on a river island surrounded by two branches of the Ill, a tributary of the Rhine.

The Cathédrale Notre-Dame (Strasbourg Cathedral), a Gothic masterpiece dating from 1176 to 1439, was built in the middle of the old town.

Next to the cathedral is the 18th century Palais Rohan, the former residence of the bishops of Strasbourg. Today, the palace houses an archaeological museum, a museum of decorative arts and the "Museum of Fine Arts".