Founded in 123BC by the Romans, Aix-en-Provence draws its origin, its name and, to an extent, its reputation, from its thermal springs. Even to this day, the city boasts no fewer than 23 fountains.

An artistic city
This big student town is still home to many universities and is a centre for the arts, with numerous festivals taking place in Aix-en-Provence all year long, the most famous of which is undoubtedly the International Festival of Lyrical Art and Music.

With the now famous Montagne Sainte Victoire as a backdrop, Aix is surrounded by beautiful scenery, which has inspired many artists and intellectuals, most notoriously Paul Cézanne. It’s also a great base to explore the rest of Provence.

History
Aix began as the capital of Provence under the successive rule of the Celts, the Romans, the counts and the monarchs, until 1790, when it became merely the chief town of the area.

Today, one can spend days walking the twisted, cobblestone side streets or exploring the numerous mansion-lined squares. Admire the superb architecture, the legacy of the wealthy merchants and local dignitaries who helped turn this city into the ‘Florence of Provence’ in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Avignon, situated in the heart of the Vaucluse region in the south of France, is famed for two celebrated attractions – Le Palais des Papes (Popes’ Palace) and Pont St Bénezet (the bridge made famous in the ditty ‘Sur le pont d’Avignon, on y danse, on y danse…’).

The Palais des Papes marks the skyline with its graceful and ornate spires, an exterior more awe-inspiring than anything inside. The famous bridge of Pont St Bénezet, erected in the 12th century, to carry St Bénezet over to the neighbouring village of Villeneuve, nowadays retains only four of its original 22 arches.

Flood, fire, pillaging, plague and Le Mistral (a violent, cold and northwesterly wind) have all ravaged Avignon, but this gorgeous city has remained remarkably intact. Around every corner of the narrow, winding cobbled streets, elaborately decorated chapels, churches and convents are revealed. Most date from the 14th century, when Avignon became the centre of Christendom and the Palais des Papes was home to a series of popes.

Situated on the River Rhône, the setting of Avignon is as colourful as its history, with images straight out of a Van Gogh painting. Quiet streets suffused with golden light, secluded courtyards and secret gardens, cosy pavement cafes and fantastic restaurants make Avignon the perfect place for a romantic weekend away – though during high season the streets can be crammed with visitors.

Although subject to the infamous Mistral, Avignon’s climate is otherwise pleasant, with warm summers and it’s perfect for alfresco activities. The annual Avignon Festival runs throughout July and attracts aspiring performers and aficionados of the arts and shows the city at its best.

Bordeaux traces its origins to Roman times, when a settlement was founded on the Rive Gauche (left bank) of the River Garonne. The site chosen was on a bend of the river, which formed a crescent-shaped harbour, known as Port de la Lune.

The city grew rich from a surge in international commerce in the 18th century. Inspired by their new-found wealth, the city’s burghers decided to redesign their city. Its winding medieval streets were cleared to make way for grand squares and elegant tree-lined avenues, lined with monumental buildings.

Bordeaux is famous for wine, not surprising as it sits at the heart of one of the world’s
best wine regions, but the wine trade was not enough to prevent a slump in the 19th century, during which much of the city centre deteriorated.

Happily, things have improved dramatically and, after years of neglect and stagnation, Bordeaux is coming back to life. The 18th-century centre has been restored to its former glory, the quaysides have been landscaped, colonial-era warehouses are filled with trendy bars and restaurants, and new parks allow the city to breathe again.

A new network of trams makes the city easily accessible and has had a major effect on the volume of traffic. But Bordeaux’s spirit, as ever, is that of a city that knows about joie de vivre and pleasures: strolling along the Garonne or in the pedestrian streets, sitting on a café terrace and enjoying the mild year-round climate, admiring magnificent architecture and art collections, and sampling some of the finest wines together with the excellent local cuisine.

Cannes’ moment of glory takes place in May, with the International Film Festival, when images of the stars descending the red-carpeted steps of the Palais des Festivals are flashed across TV screens worldwide. For many, this city on France’s Côte d’Azur is synonymous with the glamour of this event. Often overlooked, however, is the fact that Cannes is France’s second most important city (after Paris) for business tourism. 

Tourists jostle with conference-goers, outnumbering business travellers only in the summer months. Their interests lie in the long, curvaceous, sandy beaches of La Croisette, the luxury cruise boats of the Old Port, the palatial hotels, the designer shops lining the famous promenade and the gastronomic delights of the Côte d’Azur.  This modern city grew up from a small fishing town on the south coast of France. In the 11th century Cannes was owned by monks whose budget, fattened by wealthy pilgrims, allowed them to expand beyond their monastery to the nearby Island of St Honorat. They built a square tower on the top of the hill as a lookout post for Saracen pirates. It still stands next to the Castre Museum, in Le Suquet, Cannes’ Old Town that was built on the site of a Roman military camp.

Today, tourism has largely replaced spirituality on the Cannes mainland. It was Lord Brougham, former British Chancellor of the Exchequer, whose visit to Cannes in 1834 established the city’s reputation as a health resort among the British aristocracy. The trend spread to the French establishment and the arrival of the railway increased Cannes’ accessibility. Soon the international aristocracy were playing golf and enjoying the hot and dry Mediterranean climate.

Lille is a top travel destination, with its Flemish ambience, excellent museums, great food and beer, and the world-renowned Grande Braderie (Europe’s biggest flea market). 

Lille (or Ryssel in Flemish) is the most important city in northern France, and the fourth biggest in France. It has a very young population (including many students), and a vibrant cultural scene.

The award of European Capital of Culture in 2004, and the massive investment that came with it, have helped boost the profile of the city. Lille is also very accessible and has been growing in popularity ever since the Eurostar arrived in 1994.

Situated at the crossroads of Europe, two hours from the ski resorts of the Alps and the Mediterranean, Lyon’s history, architecture, and cultural and culinary delights are more than worthy of a detour on the way to the sun or the slopes.

A UNESCO World Heritage site, Lyon’s major asset resides in its distinctive architectural hallmarks and the contrasts in its setting, between two hills (Fourvière and Croix-Rousse) and two rivers (the Rhône and the Saône). Lyon also has a mixed heritage, displaying traits of a typical northern French town in some areas, while other features bear witness to its Latin origins.

With outstanding art museums, fantastic shopping and a thriving nightlife, Lyon has become a cultural and dynamic city with plenty to offer. Thanks to its thrilling dining scene, France’s second biggest city is also a gourmet’s paradise – with the exception of Paris, Lyon boasts the largest number of Michelin-starred restaurants and famous chefs in the whole of France.

Looking out across the azure Mediterranean Sea, surrounded by rolling hills and the white limestone cliffs of the Calanques, Marseille enjoys a fantastic setting. And as many locals will tell you, in that peculiar accent that foreigners find both alluring and tricky to understand, they are proud of their heritage here.

A vibrant city
The gateway to Africa and a crossroad for many ships in the Mediterranean, Marseille has always been a cultural melting pot. Not always without its problems, the influx of immigrants has nonetheless made Marseille richer, not least culturally, and today it’s a vibrant place enjoying a new breath of life.

The city that gave France its national anthem is no longer ashamed of its past but has become proud of its individuality. Marseille, which was once notorious for its crime rate and rough edges, has cleaned up its act and it looks better than it has in decades. It has, however, lost none of its flavour and unique character.

Bright future
The booming music and fashion industries draw a trendy young crowd that has injected some much needed dynamism. Marseille has also been chosen as European Capital of Culture for 2013, and this, as well as boosting its new-found confidence, will also allow it to showcase its new face to the world. 

And with the extension of the TGV line, which has brought the city within three hours of the French capital (and six hours from London), it has become an ideal base from which to explore the beautiful surrounding area of Provence.

The famous writer Somerset Maugham once famously mused that the French Riviera was a ‘sunny place for shady people', and bold and brashy Nice does its best to epitomise this nefariously glamorous reputation. A collage of sultry cool and seedy decadence, Nice is a city that it is hard not to become enveloped in.

The traffic may be a nightmare and the tourist hordes can be suffocating in summer, but amongst the tack and the bawdy streets are a smattering of art galleries and museums (over 20 in total), a lively old quarter and the wide Mediterranean seafront that brought visitors here in the first place. The local authorities have recently signalled their intention to keep the city moving forward by the impressive redevelopment of the Place Massena, the city's largest civic space.

Modern Nice very much retains its split personality; you can revel in the world of such artistic greats as Matisse, Chagall and Picasso, marvelling at the famed local light that has always made Nice a mecca for artists. Then 10 minutes later you can delve beyond the centre and enter the insalubrious graffiti blighted suburbs that help make this the fifth largest city in France.

Nice may not always be a relaxed getaway or have the same exclusivity that its fin-de-siecle high society patrons once sought, but it has plenty to keep visitors occupied with in its own right. It's also a convenient base for longer explorations of the Côte D'Azur. And if it all gets too much, you can do what people have being doing for centuries: Turn your back on Nice and enjoy those sweeping Mediterranean views.

Paris is the city of a thousand clichés – the ‘City of Lights’, and Hemingway’s much quoted ‘Moveable Feast’ amongst them, but for once it is also a city that justifies the hype. The French capital is one of the world’s truly great cities, a metropolis that lavishly satisfies the desires of tourists and business people alike and manages to retain a standard of living that makes becoming a Parisian so alluring.

The city dramatically wears its history on its sleeve, and today it is still centred around the Ile de la Cité, where over 2,000 years ago Celtic tribes first eked out a living. The Romans were later drawn to this strategic location in the middle of the Seine, a natural crossroads between Germany and Spain, and took control in 52BC. Despite English rule between 1420 and 1436, a series of French kings brought about the centralisation of France, with Paris at its cultural, political and economic heart.

Despite its large size and population, almost everything worth seeing is contained within the Boulevard Périphérique (the ring road). The compact centre is easily navigable on foot, with the efficient and comprehensive Métro system always on hand to ease tired limbs. The lifeblood River Seine splits the city neatly in two and the useful arrondissements (districts) system neatly carves Paris into manageable chunks.

The history of Paris can be uncovered throughout its distinctive districts. Hilly Montmartre, with its village atmosphere, was where the Paris Commune began in 1871; the Marais evokes medieval Paris, its winding streets a sharp contrast to the wide, orderly Haussmann boulevards, envisaged by Napoleon III to keep the mobs at bay.

These grand 19th-century avenues still dominate the city, interspersed with modern flourishes. The grands travaux (large projects) of Président Mitterrand added the Grande Arche de la Défense, the ultra-modern Opéra de la Bastille, the impressive Institut du Monde Arabe, and plonked a glass pyramid in the central courtyard of the Louvre.

The best time to visit the city is, of course, during the famous Paris spring between April and June, when the days are sunny but not too hot. The autumn and winter months are another good time to come when there are smaller crowds and snow is a rarity, but there really is no bad time to visit one of the world’s truly great cities.

Situated on the Franco-German border, lovely Strasbourg has been passed back and forward between the two countries for years.

The result is a city and people with a distinctive local identity, combining the reputed efficiency and energy of the Germans with the joie de vivre and sophistication of the French.

Strasbourg is far enough away from the capital to be truly independent on a cultural level, with its own opera, France’s only national theatre outside Paris, two international music festivals and Europe’s only bi-national TV station, Arte.

Its symbolic significance as a major European city was confirmed when it was chosen as the seat of the Council of Europe in 1949, the European Court of Human Rights in 1994 and, finally guaranteed in 1992, the European Parliament.

The Grande Ile (Big Island), in the midst of the River Ill, is the ancient heart of the city, with the vast main square, place Kléber at its centre. Close by is place Gutenberg – named after 15th-century Strasbourg resident Johannes Gutenberg, famed for his development of printing. 

Strasbourg’s great landmark is the Cathédrale Notre-Dame in the Vieille Ville (Old Town), which has remained unchanged since the Middle Ages. Around the Cathedral clusters an impressive array of museums, cafes and restaurants.

The city centre’s attractive main shopping streets Rue des Grandes Arcades and parallel Rue des Francs Bourgeois are remarkably small and pedestrian friendly. Stunningly picturesque Petite France, in the Grande Ile’s southwestern corner, is Strasbourg’s medieval quarter and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. With its bridges and canals, half-timbered houses and narrow streets, it could not be more different from the ultra-modern City of Europe in northeast Strasbourg where the EU institutions are located.