The Best Places to Stay and Do in France

The wrought-iron arched doorway and mosaic floors set the mood before you've even checked in: this is a properly Art Deco boutique hotel in Chamalières, just outside Clermont-Ferrand. Rooms are quiet and monochromatic with the occasional color note, and a few have separate sitting areas. The continental breakfast, with fresh-squeezed juices and house-made jams, is the kind that makes leaving feel rude.

A former post house tucked into the lavender fields and mountain peaks of Haute Provence, La Bonne Étape is the kind of small, classic Provençal hotel that makes you feel tired just thinking about leaving. Rooms lean traditional with the occasional modern chair thrown in to keep things honest, and the better suites have terraces overlooking serious gardens. The restaurant holding a Michelin star is, by most accounts, the real reason to book a room.

A former elementary school between Lyon and Geneva that didn't try too hard to forget what it was: chalkboards, writing desks, and children's books still fill the four contemporary rooms of this small bed and breakfast. Foosball and table tennis are on hand for anyone who needs a recess, and breakfast happens at a communal table off the old schoolhouse kitchen. The Michelin Guide has it in their selected hotels.

The cheerfully painted shutters and terracotta floors of this Basque farmhouse have been around forever, and the family that runs it kept both when they turned it into a boutique hotel. Rooms are simple and quiet, with white linens and good light, the kind of place where you sleep well and wake up remembering why you came to the Côte Basque. A beach walk and a terrace dinner are the obvious next moves.

The rooftop pool deck sits above the noise of the Croisette, which is more or less the point. This boutique hotel in central Cannes runs thirty rooms and fifteen suites, all built around canopy beds and enough in-room technology to keep you occupied on rainy days. The Palais des Festivals is a short walk; the Spa by Phytomer is downstairs. For anyone who finds the grande dame palaces a bit much, this is the smaller, quieter alternative.

The Second Empire facade on the seafront tells you everything about what kind of stay this will be: grand, a little theatrical, and unapologetically old Brittany. Rooms are generous and well-cushioned, with the sea-facing ones going fastest for obvious reasons. There's a spa, sauna, and hammam when the Channel convinces you indoors, plus a cafe running afternoon tea through to cocktails and a proper gourmet restaurant the locals haven't abandoned.

A mid-century facade on the quieter end of the Croisette, a short walk from the Palais des Festivals and one private beach club away from having an excuse to skip it. This is a luxury hotel that earns its Riviera credentials not by being eccentric but by being impeccably itself: contemporary-classic interiors, a restrained hand with the gilding, and the kind of tastefulness that Lucien Barrière hotels tend to enforce like a house rule.

Colmar's old town is all half-timbered facades and cobblestones, which makes this sleek MGallery hotel, facing the Champ de Mars park rather than a medieval roofline, a mild act of rebellion. The 62 rooms lean into 20th-century modernism, the spa is run by Clarins with a heated indoor pool, jacuzzi, sauna, and steam room, and the on-site restaurant, JY's, holds two Michelin stars if you'd rather not wander far for dinner.

A low archway off a quiet stone street leads into this small hotel two blocks from La Rochelle's historic port, and the modest facade does a reasonable job hiding what's inside. The lounge is the surprise: blonde wood floors, a sculptural fireplace, and a wall of glass that floods the room with light. Rooms are compact and neutral, covering the essentials without fuss. A breakfast buffet and a small bar with sidewalk seating handle the rest.

The only upscale hotel in La Rochelle occupies an 18th-century townhouse that was, for years, a diplomat's private residence, and it still feels that way. Mid-century rooms have parquet floors, leather headboards, and antique writing desks in a palette borrowed from the nearby salt flats. Downstairs, the bar runs afternoon tea and apéritifs by a grand stone fireplace, and in good weather the tables drift out to a sunny poolside courtyard.

A brick-and-stone mansion on the Emerald Coast that looks ready for an Agatha Christie plot, this hotel in Dinard carries the full weight of old-school French seaside glamour. The piano bar is modeled after a British club, breakfast arrives in a conservatory with locally sourced provisions, and the interiors have been tidied up without losing the feeling that someone's luggage was left here a century ago and nobody's claimed it yet.

A wooded hillside property in the Perche, run as a country retreat by the team behind Paris's Septime. Fruit trees, beehives, and a sauna looking out over the landscape give it the feel of somewhere genuinely off the clock. The cooking pulls from nearby Norman and Sarthe markets and whatever the kitchen garden is offering, so the menu moves with the season rather than against it. A handful of guest rooms mean you can stay long enough to actually decompress.

Rooms named after galaxies and constellations make sense here, because La Mongie sits in a low-light zone where the night sky earns it. This luxury boutique hotel sits directly across from the ski lift, with oversized windows, private balconies over the slopes, and a wellness area with Nordic baths and a sauna. The look is alpine lodge with a vintage lean: pale wood, midnight blue walls, retro armchairs, and tiled bathrooms with round mirrors.

An old tannery on the Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage route, converted by two Parisians into a five-room boutique hotel after four years of careful work. The co-owner, a former decorator, had custom paint shades mixed for the lime-washed walls, and the rooms pair designer furniture with vintage pieces and deep bathtubs. A separate Pilgrim Cottage houses hikers more simply. Breakfast arrives on ceramics made in the village.

A 19th-century mansion with twelve rooms, a love-story origin myth involving a French general and an Indian princess, and decor that lands somewhere between Mediterranean sun and Indo-opulent fever dream. The suites come with terraces; the lounge runs to red velvet and carved wood; and the hotel keeps its own beach club at Pampelonne, which is either very convenient or a very good reason to never come back inside.

Two spas on the same property, one of them Roman-style thermal baths, is either a coincidence or a philosophical position. This adults-only hotel sits just outside Aix's historic center, close enough to the markets and fountains but quiet enough to pretend the world has been cancelled. Rooms lean into the south, with warm Provençal colors and contemporary furniture. The on-site restaurant covers French Mediterranean ground without making a fuss about it.

Rotary phones in a ski hotel feel like a provocation, and at this boutique property near the Courchevel 1650 slopes, that's rather the point. The look is Seventies Parisian, all saturated colors and late-modernist furniture, while the bathrooms run to heated towel racks and the rooms to Bluetooth speakers. Ski-in/ski-out access keeps things practical, and the Zinc bar is on hand for when the mountain has been sufficiently conquered.

The rooftop pool looks out over the Saint-Tropez coast, which tells you roughly where you stand here. This grand old hotel went through a renovation that split the difference between its original 1930s opulence and a quietly Sixties-inflected palette, landing somewhere that feels romantic without feeling musty. Two restaurants, a Clarins spa, and a rooftop bar round things out for guests who'd rather not leave the building, and honestly, why would they.

Eleven rooms behind a blue-shuttered facade on the edge of Lake Annecy, with balconies angled to catch both the sun and the view. The chalet-style interiors run to warm wood paneling and neutral tones, which reads more refined than rustic. Outside there's a Norwegian bath, a sauna, and sun loungers right at the water's edge. Most guests, if we're being honest, are here because the two-Michelin-star restaurant is a short walk away.

A 17th-century mint building right on La Rochelle's Vieux Port, La Monnaie is a boutique hotel that takes the contrast between old stone walls and aggressively contemporary interiors very seriously. Vibrant colors, design furniture, and an actual art collection fill the rooms. The spa is compact but functional, the bar serves a light menu indoors and out, and there's no restaurant, which the neighborhood's waterfront dining scene makes easy to forgive.

A modern corner hotel and spa a short walk from the medieval ramparts of Vannes' old town, Le Maury fills four floors with pale hardwood, warm lighting, and a palette of white, beige, and deep turquoise. Marble bathrooms come with rainfall showers and Garnier Thiebaut linens. The top-floor suite has steeply pitched ceilings and a Jacuzzi for two, though even the standard rooms look out over a pretty square below.

A centuries-old mansion in the upscale Lyon suburb of Écully, Maison d'Anthouard is a 16-room luxury boutique hotel where the architecture has been doing most of the heavy lifting since long before hospitality was involved. The gardens and common rooms carry an aristocratic ease without the stiffness that usually comes with it. The kitchen runs from a proper French breakfast to a full gastronomic dinner, so you can commit to the house entirely.

Rooms here are compact by design, because the point is really the palm-fringed pool deck, the organic breakfast buffet, and a rotating calendar of cultural events that keeps the common spaces lively. This lifestyle hotel on Cannes's outskirts was renovated using mostly recycled materials, and the rooms come with kitchenettes and vintage mini-fridges sized exactly right for a bottle of local rosé. Larger suites add private terraces and original artwork.

The rooms here take their color palette from Cézanne's paintings rather than the usual lavender-and-farmhouse Provence playbook, which tells you something about the city's self-image. A contemporary boutique hotel a short walk from the Cours Mirabeau, it runs 61 rooms from snug singles up to a junior suite, all warmed with organic materials and southern light. The hotel's own Brasserie Léopold is a reason to stay in for dinner.

The outdoor heated pool is the giveaway: this hotel in Marseille's 8th arrondissement operates at full resort pitch despite sitting a short walk from the Plages du Prado. Rooms look out over the Mediterranean and the Borély racecourse, and a bar terrace, Jacuzzi, sauna, steam room, and boxing club fill out the rest of the picture. A Mediterranean restaurant is on site for when you eventually come inside.

A former monastery beside the hot springs of Barbotan-les-Termes, this hotel draws on the springs for its own spa and carries a Michelin Key. The 25 rooms feel traditionally stylish without trying too hard, and the dining room runs on Michel Guérard's seasonal French menu, so the cooking is a genuine reason to stay rather than an afterthought. The kind of place where the itinerary writes itself: soak, eat, sleep, repeat.

The views from these low-slung villas take in both the Corsican maquis and the old citadel itself, so the name is doing real work. Version Maquis Citadelle is a modern resort above Bonifacio, all clean lines and generous terraces where the rustic-Corsica aesthetic has been politely declined. The pool deck, a Biologique Recherche spa, and a poolside restaurant leaning into the island's Italian culinary streak keep guests occupied. It holds a Michelin Key.

A manor house on 42 hectares of forest, meadows, and ponds in the Loire Valley, the kind of estate where you half-expect to find someone in a hunting jacket. Repère Sauvage is a sixteen-room country house hotel inside a 19th-century hunting lodge, and the team has pulled off something tricky: rural hospitality that feels warm rather than themed. The restaurant leans on local produce, and the Michelin Guide has taken note.

A green light blinks at the end of the wooden jetty, and yes, the Fitzgeralds were here. Scott allegedly wrote "Tender is the Night" somewhere between the champagne and the swimming. The Art Deco villa is now a luxury hotel, still run by the same family, with gilded chandeliers, mosaic floors, and frescoed walls that take the Jazz Age very seriously. Rooms lean elegant and modern; the terrace tables face the sea and encourage the kind of afternoon that gets away from you.

The rooms face Lake Annecy, which France has kept so clean it borders on a flex. Black Bass is a lakeside hotel in Sévrier, a modernist riff on Alpine chalet style with blonde wood, balconies, and the kind of light that made Cézanne reach for a canvas. There's a fine dining room and a more casual bistro for nights when your legs are shot from the bike paths. Comfortable and unhurried, with the water always in view.

Thirty-five rooms on a private stretch of Riviera coast, which means the ratio of staff to guests tips noticeably in your favor. This intimate boutique hotel near Antibes skips the grand-promenade theatre for something quieter: minimalist rooms with terraces or gardens facing the sea, a spa, and an on-site restaurant that holds a Michelin star. The kind of place where the beach feels like yours, because it more or less is.

A boutique hotel in central Aix-en-Provence named for the city's most famous son, which is either a lot of pressure or a convenient excuse to hang interesting art. The rooms lean into Provençal color and texture without veering into lavender-and-toile cliché, thanks to a designer with some restraint. Breakfast is buffet, the bar runs all day, and dinner is firmly your problem, which is fine given the neighborhood.

Arched doorways, amber light, and sand-colored stone facing a beach on Saint-Malo's Emerald Coast: this is a grand hotel that actually looks the part. A recent renovation leaned into the building's Art Deco bones rather than papering over them. The 63 rooms run from comfortable to sweeping, a spa handles the restorative side of things, and the restaurant keeps things Breton, meaning the seafood arrives straight from the source.

A Belle Époque pile on the sands of Brittany, the kind of hotel that has thermal baths and a saltwater pool and a "parcours aquatonic," which is essentially a gauntlet of jets and currents that the French consider relaxing. Three restaurants and a piano bar mean you never have to leave, though Saint-Malo's walled city is close enough to feel like a guilty pleasure. Rooms vary from cozy European-single to properly expansive, with the best ones facing the beach.

A low-rise hotel on the boulevard that shares its name, the Roi René sits at the quieter end of the Provençal good-life spectrum, which is to say it's still very much the good life. Rooms are being refurbished toward warm earth tones and soft neutrals, with some categories offering private terraces and those abstract patterned ceilings that photograph well on their own. There's a heated outdoor pool and a Mediterranean restaurant when the terrace isn't enough.

A Provençal mansion and cluster of farmhouses a few minutes inland from the Saint-Tropez circus, surrounded by gardens lush enough to make you forget the port exists. Rooms and suites run to antiques and pale sunny tones, very classic Provence. A Carita spa, a pool, and the restaurant L'Isoletta keep you on property longer than planned, which seems to be the whole idea.

Art Deco bones and a Mediterranean view from a private balcony set the tone at this boutique hotel on the Cap d'Antibes coast, which has been on this exact spot since the interwar years it never stopped dressing for. The renovation kept the visual restraint that separates a contemporary tribute from a theme park. Seasonal restaurants handle both winter dining rooms and summer rooftop terraces with Italian and Spanish-leaning menus. The beach at Belle Rives is steps away.

Four sea-facing rooms with balconies hang over the beach at Saint-Malo; the other twelve look onto a garden or courtyard, which is the consolation prize and not a bad one. This 16-room boutique hotel in two joined 19th-century villas wears its coastal setting without tipping into nautical-theme-park territory. The interiors are stylish in a relaxed, slightly irreverent way, and the bistro sits close enough to the water that on a good day you're basically dining on the sand.

The ponds Corot painted are still there, visible from the bedroom windows of this quietly elegant hotel between Paris and Versailles. The décor has a contemporary eye despite all the historical bones, and the spa, Le Bains de Corot, is serious enough to anchor a whole stay. A gastronomic restaurant, a bistro, two bars, and a tearoom mean you rarely need to leave, which is probably the point.

A boutique hotel in a restored northern French presbytery where your two main options are a bed in what used to be the parish priest's room, or a painted wooden caravan parked in the garden. The annex rooms are whitewashed and vaulted, quietly pleasant. The caravans are a different proposition entirely, wood-paneled and dressed in colorful textiles, each with a private bathroom and enough charm to make even a charcuterie board feel ceremonial.

Four bedrooms and a garden apartment tucked into a medieval village in the Malepère hills, this is the kind of small guesthouse that makes you feel like you have a friend with taste and a spare room in the south of France. Handmade mattresses, Aesop in the bathrooms, and a conservatory with a communal table where guests actually talk to each other. Carcassonne's citadel is a short drive away for when the fire and the bookshelves stop being enough.

A former army barracks that became a school before becoming a boutique hotel is either a great story or a cautionary tale, and La Mission makes it the former. Seven low buildings arranged around a courtyard hold rooms with pale wainscoting, cheerful patterns, and antique pieces that lean nostalgic without tipping into fusty. A heated pool, pétanque courts, and rental bikes for the beach round out an Île d'Yeu stay that the Michelin Guide has selected.

Four rooms in a restored Gascon farmhouse in a corner of Gascony that likes to call itself the French Tuscany. One room has a freestanding tub and a stone fireplace, two have Jacuzzis, and the whole place has the eclectic, cheerful décor of someone who spent years in Parisian fashion before coming home to run their great-grandmother's inn. The kitchen punches above its size, and the Michelin Guide has taken notice of the hotel.

On the main pedestrian shopping street of Megève, three minutes from the gondola, this 39-room boutique hotel looks exactly as alpine as it should from the outside. Inside, designer Sybille de Margerie swapped the expected knotty pine for rich colors and modernist furniture without losing the mountain feeling entirely. The spa runs Tata Harper treatments, and Le Meige cocktail bar handles après-ski with quiet efficiency.

The cottages lean surf-shack on the outside, then quietly reveal heated pools and thalassotherapy treatments within. This 170-room resort hotel sits on the Emerald Coast with panoramic views over the English Channel, and the rooms carry a convincing casual-seaside feel that disguises how serious the amenities get. Two restaurants, a spa, and a setting that makes the grey Atlantic look like a selling point rather than a warning.

A converted Basque farmhouse sitting in the wooded foothills rather than on the beach, Indarra trades sea views for pale wood paneling, picture windows, and a quieter kind of Biarritz. The rooms run from attic nooks to a duplex with a freestanding tub to a minimalist cabin with a wide private deck. Breakfast is served outside overlooking the gardens and pool, which is exactly the morning you were hoping for when you booked.

The restaurant sits under a 19th-century glass atrium ceiling said to have come from the Eiffel workshops, which sets the tone for this 62-room boutique hotel across from Toulon's maritime museum. The nautical theme is telegraphed in the name, but the wave motifs and navy palette stay restrained. Toulon is a working port, not a resort town, and the hotel leans into that: some rooms sleep eight in bunk configurations, others are standard doubles.

Perched on the slopes of Mont Cindre with Lyon spread out below, this sleek, modern hotel earns its name by feeling genuinely removed from everything. The design is clean to the point of near-silence, and a wellness area with an indoor-outdoor pool keeps the mood accordingly still. The kitchen-dining room at its center serves inventive takes on Lyonnais cooking, which is either very on-theme or a little on the nose, depending on your relationship with French culinary pride.

A ten-story wooden chalet right on the slopes of Méribel, with vintage cuckoo clocks dotting the walls and a Tata Harper spa waiting for when your legs give out. This ski-in, ski-out luxury hotel sits inside Les 3 Vallées, the largest ski area in the world, and the indoor-outdoor pools separated by glass make a strong case for staying put. Three restaurants, a terrace with slope views, and interiors that mix antiques with warm natural light complete the picture.

A modernist chandelier fit for a Sun King hangs over the emerald-and-gold lobby bar, which sets the tone for this boutique hotel a ten-minute walk from Versailles. The 19th-century facade gives way to parquet floors and trompe l'oeil ceilings, and the restaurant, Alcôve, runs modern French rather than period pastiche. Small enough to feel intimate, central enough to make the palace an afterthought.

A 21-room boutique hotel tucked into a quiet courtyard right next to Tours' covered gourmet market, Les Halles, which is a useful combination. The rooms mix antique touches with genuinely modern comforts, and a wellness area adds an indoor pool, sauna, and steam room to the deal. The salon pours wines and cocktails and opens onto the courtyard, so you can sit outside feeling pleasantly secluded while the city carries on about ten steps away.

Rough-hewn logs and Canadian Rockies stonework in the middle of Megève's fur-coat après-ski scene, which is either a bold statement or a very good joke. This seasonal ski hotel leans lodge over chalet by design, courtesy of the Sibuet family. Rooms come with high-end bedding and fireplaces, a Longevity Spa runs the full circuit from pool to ice grotto to cryotherapy, and the bar draws a crowd that is absolutely not dressed as a lumberjack.

Arpin wool fabrics and carpets so thick you'll go barefoot within minutes set the tactile tone at this alpine chalet hotel in Megève, where the Rothschild après-ski heritage is worn without apology. The 42 rooms and suites each have balconies facing either the village or a mirror-calm courtyard pond. Downstairs, a bistro, a gastronomic open-kitchen restaurant, and a bar with a hot cocktail menu cover the full après spectrum.