Frankrike

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.

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.

Det finns massor att göra och se i Paris. Men för den som vill göra något speciellt listar Vagabond sju platser och saker där kvinnor står i fokus som ägare, feminister, ikoner och guider.

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.

Sizzling shoreline hogs the headlines here, and the coast is undeniably magnetic, but there’s so much more to Var than super-yachts and overpriced bouillabaisse. A string of stunning islands, magnificent secluded monasteries, and uplands dotted with memorable villages make this département one of the most varied and enticing in Provence.

If it's French splendour, style and gastronomy you seek, the Loire Valley will exceed your expectations, no matter how great. Poised on the crucial frontier between northern and southern France, and just a short train or autoroute ride from Paris, the region was once of immense strategic importance. Kings, queens, dukes and nobles came here to establish feudal castles and, later on, sumptuous pleasure palaces – that's why this fertile river valley is sprinkled with hundreds of France's most opulent aristocratic estates. With crenellated towers, soaring cupolas and glittering banquet halls, the region's châteaux, and the villages and vineyards that surround them, attest to over a thousand years of rich architectural and artistic creativity. The Loire Valley is also known for its outstanding wines (red, white, rosé and sparkling) and lively, sophisticated cities, including Orléans, Blois, Tours and Angers – yet more reasons why the entire area is an enormous Unesco World Heritage Site.

Från tyska Moseldalen till Atlantkustens stränder och Paris gator. Vagabonds chefredaktör tog med vänner och familj på en somrig tågluff genom Västeuropa.

Ingen huvudstad är väl så romantisk som Paris och vill man förena den känslan med en vidunderlig utsikt – då är det till varuhuset Galeries Lafayette man ska bege sig.

Staden Lyon brukar kallas för Frankrikes gastronomiska huvudstad. Från och med den 4 mars kan du resa dit från Göteborg med flygbolaget BRA.

The Île-de-France région – the 12,000 sq km ‘Island of France’ shaped by five rivers that encircles the French capital – contains splendid architecture including some of the most monumental châteaux in the country, set amid magnificent gardens.