Luxury holidays to France

How can we help you?

Search for your luxury, bespoke holiday to France by region, special interest, theme or feature

Search here if you want a single-centre, hotel stay in any particular region of France, for example, Provence or the Loire Valley.

Search here for a themed holiday such as a touring holiday, a suggested two centre holiday, holidays with travel themes such as rail or self-drive, or ideas for families, honeymoons and special occasions.

Search here if you are looking for, for example, to visit gardens and chateaux, for wine-tasting or for cookery. Many more special interest holidays in France to be discovered here.

Search here for a special featured holiday that might be with a seasonal angle such as New Year or Bastille Day or including visits to exhibitions and festivals. Combined early booking and special offer ideas will be found here too.

Then once you have had a look, speak to us and let us guide you using our knowledge and experience of the country.

Luxury holidays to France: luxury hotel holidays, touring holidays and special interest holidays

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

Whilst it’s obvious to us at French Expressions and to our many regular clients, it’s worth explaining, if you are a newcomer to our site and our programme of luxury hotel holidays, what our holidays are all about and how they work. Our holidays are tailor-made package holidays that include several elements such as hotel accommodation, transport to Italy, transport in France and perhaps special arrangements such as cookery courses, green fees, spa treatments or special meal reservations. Expressions Holidays provides a framework for flexibility, personal requirements and individual arrangements. Everything we offer on this website and from our brochure can be booked as it is, or, usually customised at the request of clients. This might mean adding extra nights, reducing nights from suggestions, upgrading room types and including special arrangements. A typical holiday to France will include several nights in one or more of our hotels, a flight out and back and a hire-car, with many clients opting for one of our suggested touring holidays, either self-drive or fly-drive, combining different regions. There is always a choice of departure date, duration, hotel room, flight route and cabin, local transport (perhaps a private luxury transfer instead of a hire-car or even with a hire-car, an upgraded model, perhaps automatic or cabriolet), combination of places (you can choose to visit as many different hotels for as many nights in each as you want) and local arrangements. Instead or flying or driving to France, taking Eurostar and TGVs are a popular alternative. We can accommodate all these options. Ideally, once you have had a look at our holiday ideas, we speak to you about what you are looking for, so that we can then put together the ‘package’ for you, creating a day by day itinerary and a price, along with upgrade and downgrade options. We find it most productive for us and our clients if we talk through the quotation, explain the day by day details and the pricing options. Then you have the full facts available in order to make your decision.

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, Jet2 and Flybe 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, there are services to Avignon at certain times or you can change in Lille and avoid Paris. You can reach the southern cities of Bordeaux, Toulouse, Avignon and Nice easily in one day. The nationally owned 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

As our numerous repeat clients over many years know, the attractions of France as a holiday destination remain countless; from the olive groves and lavender beds of Provence to the granite cliffs of Brittany, from the familiar rusticity of a Norman inn to the grandeur of a turreted chateau-hotel in the Dordogne, from a gastronomic feast created by a Michelin-starred chef to a simple wild mushroom omelette in a village auberge. This real taste of France can be appreciated with an Expressions holiday.

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.

Country facts

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.

Call us on 01392 441245