Where to go in France
I see that visitors to the site are starting to look at places to visit in France for next year’s holidays, perhaps because the weather has turned a bit cooler over the last couple of days.
Not many are actually booking holidays in France at the moment - I guess that everyone needs a month or two of planning and decision making before they book that little attractive cottage or magnificent cliiftop villa for next year - but I can see from the site statistics which areas are being looked at the most. It’s interesting to see which places are tempting people…
Leading the way (as always) is Paris - but that’s presumably because of those of you planning short autumn breaks to Paris rather than summer holidays.
Paris is followed by Brittany, not a great surprise, given the region’s popularity with visitors from the UK (although I had thought that photos in the newspapers of Brittany beaches in the rain this August might have deterred people).
Several other regions then follow close on the heels of Brittany - these include Provence, Dordogne and Aquitaine, and Burgundy. But there was one region that came just ahead of these which surprised me - Alsace.
I never had Alsace down as a popular destination, unfairly perhaps because I’ve never been there. Likewise the Champagne region has a good showing.
The other surprise was Normandy, which had less researches than any of the regions above. Curious, I would have guessed it would be a close second to Brittany. It has some of the most attractive ancient houses in France, and very attractive countryside (second only to the Dordogne in both respects? I might be biased, though!)
The Normandy Landing Beaches and WWII cemeteries remain a perpetual favourite, however, above all with American visitors to France.
Poitou-Charentes doesn’t seem to be appealing to people quite yet either, despite being said to be the second sunniest region of France, after Provence.
Likewise the Midi-Pyrenees and the Massif Central don’t seem very attractive to visitors at the moment. Another surprise to me, because the northern part of the Midi-Pyrenees (and southern Massif Central) has some very beautiful villages in great scenery. Perhaps the regions are still a little inaccessible and a little unknown.
So where are you going for your holidays next year? Join in with the crowds on the Brittany beaches, or find a quiet mountain retreat in the heart of the Auvergne? Or are you hoping to get Christmas out of the way before you start to think about it?
very intresting this. we have been looking at the tarn area. what your saying doesnt bode well for us and our gites!
i suppose the most popular area for tourists will be the most popular area for expats aswell.
you have me thinking now, i wont get any work done for the rest of today!
I’ll update the figures in January or February when I have much larger numbers to judge by, but I guess the pattern will remain similar. Of course, to confuse matters, while much less people search for gites in the Tarn and some other departments, there are also much fewer properties available - so overall booking rates could actually be higher.
But its true that expats tend to be where the tourists are, and it would be bold to setup in business somewhere where tourists have never visited.
We have a related challenge - we live about 5 km outside the Dordogne, in the Lot-et-Garonne department, and although we are better placed to explore the Dordogne region than many properties actually in the department it doesn’t make marketing any easier.
Good luck with your plans!
There is one place we are looking at which is 8 minutes from Cordes. It is very well priced at 263e including a pool but only has one gite set up with scope for atleast 2 more. I suppose there is a reason why anything is cheap. You make a very intresting point with the fewer properties available thing. Thats something I have thought of myself. Thanks for that.
I’ve stumbled across your blog whilst surfing for information about France and wish to thank you for the interesting and insightful comments. As a member of the trivago travel community I often browse for relevant info and now have a better understanding of the various regions in terms of popularity - thanks ever so much!