Frankrike

With quiet country roads winding through vine-striped hills and wild stretches of coastal sand interspersed with misty islands, the Atlantic coast is where France gets back to nature. Much more laid-back than the Med (but with almost as much sunshine), this is the place to slow the pace right down.

Alsace is a cultural one-off. With its Germanic dialect and French sense of fashion, love of foie gras and choucroute (sauerkraut), fine wine and beer, this region often leaves you wondering quite where you are. Where are you? Why, in the land of living fairy tales, of course, where vineyards fade into watercolour distance, hilltop castles send spirits soaring higher than the region’s emblematic storks and half-timbered villages garlanded with geraniums look fresh-minted for a Disney film set.

I sommar lanserar Ving charterresor till "Skönhetens ö", eller Korsika, som ön också är känd som. I utbudet finns tre resmål – Bastia, Calvi och L'Île-Rousse.

Många drömmer om att starta ett eget bed & breakfast i solen. Men för Lisa och Niclas har drömmen blivit verklighet. I somras tog de emot gäster i sin stora villa ovanför franska Rivieran, efter månader av hårt slit, prövat tålamod och tårar av utmattning och glädje.

Montmartre’s lofty views, wine-producing vines and hidden village squares have lured painters from the 19th century onwards. Crowned by the Sacré-Cœur basilica, Montmartre is the city’s steepest quartier (quarter), and its slinking streets lined with crooked ivy-clad buildings retain a fairy-tale charm. The grittier neighbourhoods of Pigalle and Canal St-Martin are hotbeds of creativity with a trove of hip drinking, dining and shopping addresses.

Wedged between the plains and vines of Champagne and the hilly, thickly wooded Massif des Vosges, Lorraine is fed by the Meurthe, Moselle and Meuse Rivers – hence the names of three of its four départements (the fourth is Vosges).

Paris sägs vara romantikens stad och brukar förknippas med lyx och flärd. Men staden har många sidor och vi har listat 13 saker för dig som ska åka dit på en liten budget.

Commanding a strategic spot at the confluence of the Rhône and the Saône Rivers, Lyon has been luring people ever since the Romans named it Lugdunum in 43 BC. Commercial, industrial and banking powerhouse for the past 500 years, Lyon is France's third-largest city, and offers today's urban explorers a wealth of enticing experiences.

Named after the mountain range running east–west between Cavaillon and Manosque, the Luberon is a Provençal patchwork of hilltop villages, vineyards, ancient abbeys and mile after mile of fragrant lavender fields. It’s a rural, traditional region that still makes time for the good things in life – particularly fine food and even finer wine. Nearly every village hosts its own weekly market, packed with stalls selling local specialities, especially olive oil, honey and lavender.

The 'mouths-of-the-Rhône', where one of Europe's great rivers splits before spilling its Swiss-Alpine snowmelt into the Mediterranean, is Provence's most populous département. Its palpitating heart is Marseille, a gritty former Greek colony, France's second-largest city, and a place of real cultural energy. Centred on the bristling masts and bluff forts of the Vieux Port, it has a strong Maghrebian flavour – imported from nearby Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco – and the idiosyncratic pride of a long-established seafaring city, which runs counterpoint to the restless energy of its arts, dining and cultural scenes. Spreading out from Marseille's concrete margins are pine-swaddled coastal uplands cut by ravishingly beautiful calanques (coves), while inland is the still-thriving Roman spa town of Aix-en-Provence, reposing handsomely in the Pays d’Aix (Aix Country) so beloved of Cézanne.