Natural features
Aiguille du Midi, Chamonix
Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, Haute-Savoie
A cable car from Chamonix climbs to the Aiguille du Midi, a granite peak at 3,842 m, in about 20 minutes, with one of the most spectacular views in t…
Natural features in France
Natural features
Baie de Somme
Le Crotoy, Somme
A huge tidal bay of sandflats and salt marshes, one of the most beautiful in the world, home to France's largest colony of seals.
Natural features
Cirque de Navacelles
Ganges, Hérault
A spectacular canyon in the limestone plateaus of the Causses, where the River Vis once looped around a meander, leaving a hill in the middle of a va…
Natural features
Dune du Pilat
La Teste-de-Buch, Gironde
Europe's tallest sand dune, about 100 m high and nearly 3 km long, between the Atlantic Ocean and a pine forest at the entrance to the Arcachon Bay.
Natural features
Étretat cliffs
Étretat, Seine-Maritime
Dramatic white chalk cliffs on the Normandy coast, with natural arches and a needle of rock standing in the sea, painted by Monet and Courbet.
Natural features
Gorges du Tarn
Ispagnac, Lozère
A deep canyon carved by the River Tarn between the limestone plateaus of the Causses, with villages of stone such as Sainte-Énimie and La Malène alon…
Natural features
Gorges du Verdon
Castellane, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence
Europe's largest canyon, up to 700 m deep, carved by the turquoise Verdon river through the limestone of Provence.
Natural features
Pont d'Arc and the Gorges de l'Ardèche
Vallon-Pont-d’Arc, Ardèche
A huge natural stone arch, 54 metres high, spanning the Ardèche river at the entrance to its gorges, where limestone cliffs rise 300 metres above the…
Natural features
Porquerolles
Hyères, Var
A car-free island off Hyères, part of the Port-Cros National Park, with pine woods, vineyards, cliffs and some of the most beautiful beaches in Franc…
Natural features
Route des Crêtes and Cap Canaille, Cassis
Cassis, Bouches-du-Rhône
A spectacular road along the top of the highest sea cliffs in mainland France, from Cassis to La Ciotat.
Natural features
Aven d'Orgnac
Vallon-Pont-d’Arc, Ardèche
One of the largest and most beautiful show caves in France, discovered in 1935, with vast chambers full of giant stalagmites up to 20 metres tall.
Natural features
Baume-les-Messieurs
Perrigny, Jura
A village and its old abbey at the bottom of a deep limestone valley, a 'reculée' typical of the Jura, closed off by cliffs over 200 metres high.
Natural features
Fontaine-de-Vaucluse
Lagnes, Vaucluse
The mysterious source of the River Sorgue, a deep pool at the foot of a 230-metre cliff, one of the largest springs in the world.
Natural features
Îles Sanguinaires
Villanova, Corse-du-Sud
A chain of four islands of red granite at the mouth of the Gulf of Ajaccio, which glow crimson at sunset.
Natural features
Jardins de la Fontaine and Tour Magne, Nîmes
Nîmes, Gard
Beautiful 18th-century gardens built around the spring that gave Nîmes its name, with statues, stone balustrades, canals and the ruins of the Roman T…
Natural features
Lac du Salagou and the Cirque de Mourèze
Clermont-l'Hérault, Hérault
A lake in a landscape of striking red earth, called ruffe, and black volcanic rocks, west of Montpellier.
Natural features
Marais poitevin
Coulon, Deux-Sèvres
The 'Green Venice': a maze of canals shaded by poplars and ash trees in the marshes west of Niort, best explored by flat-bottomed boat or canoe.
Natural features
Puy de Dôme
Clermont-Ferrand, Puy-de-Dôme
The highest of the Chaîne des Puys, a line of about 80 extinct volcanoes in the Auvergne, which form a UNESCO World Heritage Site with the Limagne fa…
Natural features
Roussillon and the Ochre Trail
Apt, Vaucluse
A hilltop village in the Luberon, painted in every shade of red, orange and yellow from the ochre quarried here for centuries.
Natural features
Saint-Florent and the Patrimonio vineyards
Saint-Florent, Haute-Corse
A pretty harbour town on a wide gulf in northern Corsica, with a Genoese citadel, surrounded by the hills of the Conca d'Oru and the vineyards of Pat…
Natural features
Valensole lavender fields
Valensole, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence
The Valensole plateau in Provence is covered with lavender fields that turn the land purple from about late June to mid-July, with rows stretching to…
Natural features
Camargue gardoise
Saint-Laurent-d'Aigouze, Gard
The western part of the Camargue, a land of marshes, reed beds, lagoons and salt meadows where white horses, black bulls and flamingos live.
Natural features
Domaine national de Saint-Cloud
Ville-d’Avray, Hauts-de-Seine
A large park on a hillside above the Seine, laid out by André Le Nôtre around a royal château that burned down in 1870.
Natural features
Dunes de Flandre
Bray-Dunes, Nord
A protected line of wild sand dunes and long beaches between Dunkirk and the Belgian border, among the oldest dunes in France.