Luxury holidays to France: luxury hotel holidays, touring holidays and special interest holidays
Luxury holidays to France from Expressions Holidays. We have 30 years’ experience in offering luxury, tailor-made holidays for individuals featuring a personal selection of luxurious hotels, full of regional and local charm and character, which offer exceptionally high standards of comfort, service, facilities and cuisine. Many of our personally selected luxury hotels are among the most acclaimed in France; others abound in rustic local French character and charm and often occupy converted chateaux, water-mills or country mansions.
French Expressions offers tailor-made luxury holidays to regions throughout France, from those closer to the Channel ports such as Normandy and Brittany, to the regions at the heart of France including the Loire Valley and Burgundy, to those furthest south such as the Basque country bordering the Pyrenees or Provence, a favourite destination for clients who often tour the vineyards, the historical, Roman towns or visit the lavender beds.
Each of the regions we feature contains a personal selection of luxury hotels. Holidays are created for stays at each hotel, of any number of nights and usually include a flight and a hire-car, depending on the location of the hotel. However, travel arrangements can be varied to include the popular option of self-drive from the UK, rail travel from the UK using Eurostar and then TGV for the French regions, and hotels and regions can be combined to give a multi-centre or a touring holiday. The touring holiday through France, whether by own car, fly-drive or rail and then hire-car is one of our most popular holiday concepts. We will construct a holiday according to your requirements, based on our knowledge and experience.
France as a country lends itself to special interest holidays, with a focus, among other things, on golf, spa, food and wine, and culture (visiting historic chateaux and their gardens, visiting art exhibitions and cultural events). We can offer you cookery in the Bordeaux region, holidays that suggest visits to the vineyards and gardens of France, golf holidays in Provence and many others besides.
Our bespoke, luxury hotel holidays can be
● Single centre or multi-centre● Long or short stays
● Combine a variety of different hotels in different regions
● Utilise a variety of transport arrangements to France and within France, combining flights, hire-car, ferry and Eurotunnel for self-drive, rail with Eurostar and TGV, and private transfers
Included in all our holidays
● Concierge service● Handcrafted helpful hints and local information provided with all our holidays
● Personal service by your sales consultant who looks after all aspects of your holiday
● Full financial protection with our ATOL (3076) for all holidays including a flight and our ABTOT for all non-air holidays
Call us on 01392 441245
Luxury holidays to France: luxury hotel holidays, touring holidays and special interest holidays
Our Hotels
Each hotel featured by French Expressions has been personally selected to deliver exceptionally high standards of comfort, service and cuisine. Many of our luxury hotels are among the most highly acclaimed in the whole of France. Some have more local or rustic charm and character, but all are authentic and typical of their region. Although most of our portfolio of hotels tend to be 4-star hotels, each hotel has unique qualities and an authentic individuality. We offer you a choice of room types at each hotel, so whilst the sample prices we quote are usually just based on a standard or entry-level room, we can offer you upgraded rooms, junior suites and suites. Really according to the variety of rooms each hotel has. In France, we almost always include bed and breakfast in the basic holiday price but if the hotel offers half board then we can offer you half board at a supplement. We know the hotels we work with and we have built up an experience of them over the years. Let us share this knowledge with you can guide you in your choice of holiday hotel.
Travel
The travel options we provide reflect the diversity of the range of holidays to France we offer. Certain means of travel are more appropriate to certain destinations and the method of travel you choose may depend upon where you’re travelling from in the UK. We can offer you holidays by air (with a hire-car when you get to France), by train using Eurostar and then the fast TGV French connections, or by ferry/Eurotunnel if you want to take your own car. Using a car for exploring the end destination in France is really a necessity in order to get the most from your holiday, although if you are happy to stick to visiting major cities (e.g. Paris, Tours, Lyons, Avignon and Nice), you can manage without. Again, the choice is yours. You choose your departure date, method of transport, duration and number of stays in different places.
By air
We include British Airways flights from London in the basic holiday price, but we can book other airlines for you if the route is more appropriate. Easyjet and Jet2 are the most popular airlines in addition to British Airways. With British Airways we can offer you Club Europe as an option. Many of our holidays will involve flying into one airport and out of another.
By rail
Rail travel to France is an obvious option. With the most extensive rail network in Western Europe, and with direct links from London with Eurostar with departures almost every hour, France is a great country to visit by train. In addition to Eurostar to Paris, sometimes you can change in Lille and avoid Paris. You can reach the southern cities of Bordeaux, Toulouse, Avignon and Nice easily in one day. SNCF runs fast, efficient services between the main towns.
By own car
We believe that the best way to experience the real essence of France is by driving along the highways and byways. Cross to France by ferry or Eurotunnel then journey across the country in your own car, ensuring a sense of space, freedom and independence. We will tailor-make your holiday to include travel to France by the most convenient means, and accommodation in as many hotels as you require. We have put together some suggested touring itineraries for self-drive holidays to France which can be adapted for you, or you may wish to simply stay in one hotel for the duration of your holiday. As we work with all cross-Channel operators, you have the freedom to choose the route and time that is most appropriate to your journey. Eurotunnel crosses from Folkestone to Calais in just 35 minutes, while the ferry from Dover to Calais takes around 90 minutes. Crossing durations vary greatly for other routes, with departures from Plymouth, Poole and Portsmouth to destinations in Normandy such as Cherbourg and Caen, or Roscoff and St Malo in Brittany. Alternatively, it may be more convenient for clients travelling from Scotland or the north of England to cross from Hull to Zeebrugge in Belgium
Hire-car
A hire-car is an absolute necessity for many of our holidays as without one the transfer is long and expensive and you need to be able to get out and about whilst at your holiday destination. Using a hire-car is a very cost-effective and convenient means of getting from the airport to your hotel and back, and it allows you to explore the area during your holiday. We work with Avis in France.
Private transfers
private transfer for you, depending on the hotel. Sometimes it is much cheaper just to take a taxi from the airport (e.g. for hotels in or near Nice).
Our bespoke, luxury hotel holidays can be
● Single centre or multi-centre● Long or short stays
● Combine a variety of different hotels in different regions
● Utilise a variety of transport arrangements to France and within France, combining flights, hire-car, ferry and Eurotunnel for self-drive, rail with Eurostar and TGV, and private transfers
Included in all our holidays
● Concierge service● Handcrafted helpful hints and local information provided with all our holidays
● Personal service by your sales consultant who looks after all aspects of your holiday
● Full financial protection with our ATOL (3076) for all holidays including a flight and our ABTOT for all non-air holidays
Call us on 01392 441245
Luxury holidays to France: luxury hotel holidays, touring holidays and special interest holidays
Regions of France
From the beaches of Brittany to the glaciated summits of the Alps, from the turquoise coastlines of Corsica and the Cote d'Azur to the rocky crags of Auvergne, the sheer physical diversity of France presents a lifetime of holidays. Almost several distinct countries crammed into one, France is a land where each region fiercely guards its own unique identity, boasting its own cuisine, architecture, accent and attitude. France's countryside has evolved slowly and organically over the years, its villages virtually unchanged in centuries. Today, they’re as much a part of the natural landscape as the spectacular rivers and hills, forests and fields. Despite its rural traditions, France has been at the forefront of European development with a cultural and political legacy that has left an endless inventory of attractions for visitors today. Paris the obvious example, a dynamic, living warehouse of historical treasures. But from the prehistoric cave-paintings of the Dordogne and Roman monuments of Provence, to the cathedrals of Normandy and the chateaux of the Loire, wherever you go in France you’ll find fascinating, seductive traces of the country’s historical past. As well as its history and countryside, France is also well known for the excellent wines from the Rhone Valley, Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne regions. It may be only 21 miles of water that separates Dover from Pas-de-Calais, but France is as exotic and tantalisingly unfamiliar as anywhere on the globe.
An excellent way to explore France is by car, allowing you to travel between different regions and discover the contrasts of geography, climate, architecture and culture. See our suggested touring holidays in France for some ideas of possible routes.
Capital
Paris
Airports
The main international airports that tend to be use in our holidays are Paris, Nice, Lyon, Bordeaux, Toulouse and Marseille.
Currency
Euro
Size
France is roughly 600 miles wide and 700 miles long
Population
66 million
Average temperature
Varies dramatically, from about 8 degrees in winter in Brittany to 26 degrees in summer in Corsica, with snow on the highest peaks of the Alps and Pyrenees year-round.
National holidays in France
Some tourist attractions as well as banks etc may close on the following days:
1 January
Good Friday
Easter Monday
1 May (Labour Day)
8 May
14 July (Bastille Day)
15 August (Assumption)
1 November (All Saints)
11 November (Armistice Day)
Christmas Day
Boxing Day (not all regions)
There are several local feast days that can affect conditions locally. In addition to the above days, museums are often closed on one day a week.
Unmissable holiday experiences in France
Skiing and hiking in the Alps and Pyrenees; the museums, nightlife, vibrant art scene and sheer romance of Paris; the WWII battle sights of Normandy; the wild, fretted coastline of Brittany; the spectacular gorges of the Ardeche and Dordogne; the beaches and super cool seaside towns of the Cote d’Azur; the gastronomy of Provence; the vineyards, chateaux and rolling hillsides of the Loire Valley; the rugged landscape and turquoise shallows of Corsica; fantastic local produce in simple but exquisite restaurants; Sunday markets; dining al fresco; café au lait and pain au chocolat for breakfast, eaten in a simple bar as the country awakes.
