The Grand French Odyssey of Santiago: Revealing 20 French Jewels

France, however, with its history and culture already so wonderfully well known to us all has always been dear to me. With its picturesque castles in the Loire Valley and cobbled streets of Riquewihr, there remains an experience around every corner for anybody who decides to explore this beautiful country. Today, I’d like to take you through my top 20 bucket-list experiences in France. These bucket list experiences in France capture my imagined travel adventures and fuel my curiosity.

From ballooning over vineyards to sipping Riesling in Alsace, or even wandering the medieval streets of Carcassonne, each of these bucket list experiences in France is a dream yet to be realized. Come on with me this time as I tour France analyzing some of its most iconic sites, discovering hidden gems and making succulent surges that make the country a paradise for any passionate traveler.

So make those huskies pack your bags, pick up a passport, and get ready for the ride of a lifetime.

I will post my top 20…ranking at the end

1. Loire Valley — Castle Skyscrapers on My Bucket List in France

Taking a hot-air balloon over the Loire Valley. Best known for the more than 300 châteaux including Chateau de Chanbord and Chenonceau Castle along with all those vineyards, Loire Valley is hard to beat. I want to ride in a hot-air balloon over them all. I can come home at night and snack on a beautiful bottle of Sancerre with some cheese or charcuterie from the shop, providing fun evening. But maybe some vineyards and wines that I have not even heard of. That’s definitely on my list.

2. Riquewihr: Alsace’s Time Capsule — A Must on My Bucket List Experiences in France

The town at the top of my bucket list is Riquewihr, which sits to the south of Strasbourg in France’s Alsace region. This outdoor museum, located a few miles outside of Colmar. The mountains and vineyards gape. Some of the buildings in that spot will be as old while 14th to help `the Seventeenth million years, together with every one constructing have different colouring and/or imagery.

It is a charming, stunningly pretty village that merits its own position among the most beautiful villages in France. Obviously, local food will be German-style… I am still looking for some choucroute and pretzels! That said, if there is one thing that I am most afraid to get it wrong with inside the region soon (promptly getting over excited) will be their Riesling wine offer no doubt being made along an entire spectrum. One of those things I simply have to do when mine is over there, and that thing is —

3. Avignon: The Papal Echoes — A Bucket List Experience in France

Avignon Next is Avignon. I mean, sing the song about dancing and singing on Le Pont Avignon when I was a child. Okay, but I found out there is much more to Avignon than that. In fact, a pope lived in the palace during the 1300s and Palais des Papes itself is now one of UNESCO World Heritage site. Well I live in the south of France, its one thing that actually is a truth. I still cannot wait to experience them all, dancing on the bridge and loving with my baby.

4. Rocamadour: The Hanging Village – Unforgettable Bucket List Experience in France

After the Dordogne, my next pick would be Rocamadour (in-donkey) within France’s other Grand Canyon at Rocamadour. It’s not the Grand Canyon — it is a kitsch of houses scattered all over its slopes. One of the most beautiful villages in France. It is just on the road to Bordeaux which has some of my favourite food in all the world so I am gagging for more pâté or foie gras not forgetting their wine. Rocamadour is for sure on my travel to do lists.

5. Camargue: Free Wild Hearts – Nature’s Bucket List Experience in France

I go again, and I think the Camargue for a southern jaunt. A whole marsh or biosphere with nature and 300–400 different bird species, including pink flamingos. They have some breed of wild horses named camargue which I would definitely want to ride on the beach. It is one of the things that I always wanted to do, horse riding in beach and what better place than Camargue.

6. The Heart of the Vineyard: Bordeaux – A Top France Bucket List Destination

Bordeaux, that is where I go next Bordeaux — Famous wine region, however the port city located on the Garonne River. Museum of Fine Arts, public gardens and river tours. Place des Quinconces central fountain: The Three Graces Bordeaux is of course famous for two things, except I already drink (admittedly fantastic) wine on a regular basis and so will expend my column-inches here instead to remind you that they also have nice stuff besides oysters from the nearby Arcachon region; Bœuf de Bazadais which basically amounts to free-range beef in an area where even relatively worse meats would probably pass off as nicer than something Tony Parker has tasted.e I cannot wait to get my teeth into that, your arm up in Bordeaux.

7. Mont Saint-Michel: Marvel of the Tidal – A French Bucket List Icon

Where Mont Saint-Michel Which is then humble. Strange because, well… how have I never been to such a famed and prolific spot? Those of us who made it to Mont Saint-Michel did so seeing the grand palace-abbey perched on its island backdropped at high tide between fast-moving tides. Seven bastions and its encircling ramparts still protect the living medieval town, an unassailable fortress on a little island. Much less accidentally, so does Madame Poulard. That is of course something I want to see. You’ve got to take me there.

8. Corsica: The Beautiful Island – Essential Bucket List Experience in France

I simply must go to Corsica. A moniker as obvious as Island of Beauty comes with an image-perfect landscape to boot—red cliffs sliding into turquoise water and stone villages clinging onto the mountains. It’s absolutely gorgeous. This island may not be big, but it offers an exotic blend of mountains, beaches, and plains. I really need to do some research on this lovely sounding place… oh also the base of home for Napoleon Bonaparte. I am just more and more intrigued by it, the further discovered. This really is a bucket list item of mine.

9. Volcanoes of Auvergne: A Fiery Bucket List Experience in France

So something like the 80 volcanoes in France’s Auvergne region is getting added to my bucket list. Sooo, I kind of just found out that France has volcanoes. What I find so interesting about volcanic lands is that they are often among the lushest environments — think of all those plants and produce it enables. You can walk into a volcano — and, in some places you actually real get to go inside of it (still feel like pretty confident Antoine may not have been okay with this). But I don’t know that for sure, if you can then feel free to. All the lush green grass you see create all sorts of great cheese products as well. So this is, in the end a 3 paradise for people who are nature oriented but have reality run through them where they can enjoy great food. I want to go.

10. Lyon: The Culinary Core – A Tasty Bucket List Experience in France

Next on my travels are the bucket list experiences in France in Lyon. Lyon (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes) is a very large city with a metro. Old Lyon, Vieux Lyon, is also part of my bucket list experiences in France, known for its gorgeous streets. What I am most eager to experience in Lyon are the bouchons – those small hole-in-the-wall kind of places with delightful food. But if I want a gastronomical experience as it should be, Then Lyon is where France keeps up with being called The Food Capital of The World! Secondly, you! And that is where all the cool stuff occurs. It may be on my bucket list as well (just this time I really need to get there), if that requires going over the neck of downtown Lyon.

11. Lourdes: A Journey of Belief – Spiritual Bucket List Experience in France

You will find Lourdes religiously fascinating, given its miraculous healing waters and stories of Mary mother of Jesus. I would love to have a bath in its holy springs, walk through golden processions and simply sit in peace. It’s a journey of reflection and belief.

12. Where Sophistication Meets Surf: Biarritz and Saint-Jean-de-Luz – Coastal France Bucket List

Before that, Brodeaux and Toulouse are on my bucket list followed by Biarritz and Saint-Jean-de-Luz. Biarritz Most of you already know Biarritz as the French Basque coast(or coastline) gem. Or, as good as Spain 20 miles upon entering the Basque region. Saint-Jean-de-Luz is also a surfing heaven. Positioned at the head of a river, the town is renowned for its surf culture, and if you’re truly into surfing, northern Spain might be where you’d be based. The local Italian tapas are delicious, with plenty of Spanish influences, given its location in the Basque country — a culinary experience I definitely need to try.

13. A Mystery of the God: The Cathedral in Chartres – Spiritual Bucket List Experience in France

And one more thing on the spiritual list for me. At Chartres Cathedral, I would learn to move through the labyrinth at its rhythm. Left me by tasting that energy ran there. I would like to walk in that geometry, and within it I dream of the walking meditation pilgrims have been doing since at least as early as time began displaying its decadence. It is hence no surprise that this is also a UNESCO World Heritage site, and another destination I have been meaning to tick off my bucket list for India.

14. Nice: The Riviera Jewel – Classic Bucket List Experience in France

Nice! Next on the list is all of France down in The French Riviera! Nice | Top Destination in the French Riviera He is reached by a picturesque stroll right along the beach through La Promenade des Anglais also, which in itself can be beautiful. They also have good pizza and amazing ratatouille. Well then, until I get there in that short period of time just write Pizza Ratatouille Kino-go To & enjoy! I would love to visit it again sometime this year

15. Chamonix: The Grandeur of Mont Blanc

The next is a place I had been to before, and got back once more with the hope of staying longer. As I was passing through, Chamonix lay at the base of Mont Blanc in a place where France, Italy and Switzerland meet. I am reminded of that and just from the hotel room will you be able to see higher than cloudabeams horizon.

Chamonix is most well-known for one thing: skiing and snowboarding. As this is correct but there are literally hundreds of things to do in Chamonix; you may not be aware. I would like to go back in the summer or during very hot weather and see that properly. So go hiking in the mountains, hitch a ride on cable cars or gondolas to reach high alpine heights, launch down an Alpine toboggan run (where you can also cycle), have a go at paragliding above world-class peaks and dip into local hot springs.

16. Dunkirk: The Liberation of a Festival

I know that sounds REALLY random but Dunkirk, for some reason… Is on my bucket list next. Jorts: The only reason I could think of is to return — the Festival de Dunkirk, which sounds like French for Mard Grarsense. I have seen the town of Dunkirk lovingly too many times to count, being that my mother was born there before she went crazy and skipped over a bunch o Mardi Gras. One of the craziest and most enjoyable festivals she recalls from her “Cinderella-type” childhood stories. You see people in costumes, there dancing and music on every second road. EVENTS I’M EAGER TO WATCH: Dunkirk Mayor chucking herring at peasants And now I’m stuck reading what seems a story as old and tired others have said it so very many times. Definitely putting that on my bucket list: Dunkirk Mardi Gras — last weekend in February.

17. Carcassonne: Old World Fantasy — A Bucket List Destination in France

The 20th-century medieval village of Carcassonne is followed by the actual one in Medieval Town. Set just under the Pyrenees in Languedoc, this human establishment with a Gallo-Roman foundation goes back to at any rate Neolithic instances. It not only has an old town (a pedestrian-only, car-free cobble-stoned city centre) with basilicas going back to the 11th century in about a dozen museums (even one on the Inquisition), but also is surrounded by a fortress containing 53 towers and two huge walls running all around. Instead I can hire a boat and slowly chug along in the shadow of a leafy canal. I want to do that.

18. Guédelon: Building a Castle — A Historical Bucket List Experience in France

The next one is the Guédelon medieval castle but it cracks me up as they’ve only been building Guedelon medieval castle for 20 years. Two decades ago, Programmers decided to find out how medieval castles were built. When I arrive they can actually do exactly the same things as how those workers would ever wear and build that castle on every block of them. Now, as I write, the castle builds itself. That answers how they did it in real life, like the 13th or 14th century? Well that’s one off my French bucket list (if I had such a thing).

19. Strasbourg Christmas Market: A Winter Wonderland on My French Bucket List

Last but not least, Strasbourg Winter in France is a Christmas market that leaves its place to match some of my favorites that the Alsace produces. Strasbourg Christmas Market, the oldest in Europe (born 1570) Strasbourg is as the capital of Christmas by many French people and hosts one of France’s oldest and most famous markets. In one of the most representative places, an ancient Alsatian town with half-timbered houses and Gothic cathedrals, you can view a 100-foot Christmas tree in Place Kléber and explore more than three hundred outdoor stalls. And, oh my God, the food. This is where all the best winter food I love from France that doesn’t sell here takes place, guide me through it together so during its rotation we only win(gca) Maybe I should begin configuring that.

20. Annecy: The Alps’ Venice — A Must-See on My French Bucket List

Stéphanie is a freelance intellectual who lives in the city of Annecy, which also takes me to my final location on my bucket list. France is home to the small village of Annecy which resides in the Alps. It is ranked among the 10 most beautiful villages in France. Cobbled stone roads wind through the city, with a canal snaking through and pastel houses lining each corner, gazing up at an old château. Annecy is a place many of my friends have recommended and clearly I need to add it to the places-to-go list.

So many other delights are part of my bucket list experiences in France, inspired by the wide variety of French products. These bucket list experiences in France truly top off my list from such a beautifully diverse country. Every part tells a story and every view has a dream. From the tranquillity of the countryside to the thrill-a-minute adventures in The Alps and vibrant city life, France calls. Dear travelers, what French odyssey will lead you to— I hope you journey is filled with joy, discovery and memories like sticky cobbler pudding on a summer evening. You can check my other blogs from here.

Goodbye and bon voyage until our next flight!