Things to Do in France: The Australian Traveller's Guide for 2026

Why France Still Rewards the Long Flight

France is the most visited country on earth, and Australians have a complicated relationship with that fact. We fly for the better part of a day to get there, we arrive jet-lagged into a city that has been photographed a billion times, and we half expect to be underwhelmed. Then we stand in front of the Winged Victory of Samothrace at nine in the morning with almost nobody else in the room, or we eat a plate of Brittany oysters at a plastic table for the price of a Brisbane coffee, and the scepticism quietly evaporates.

The trick is knowing that France is not one destination. It is a capital that behaves like a museum with a metro system, wrapped around a country of thirteen mainland regions that each run at a different speed. Paris is dense, fast, expensive and unforgiving of poor planning. Provence is slow and hot and built around lunch. Normandy is grey-green and haunted. The Alps are vertical. If you plan France as a single trip with a single rhythm, you will exhaust yourself. If you plan it as two or three deliberate chapters, you'll come home saying it was the best three weeks of your life.

This guide is written for Australians specifically — the entry rules that changed in 2026, the seasons that clash with our school holidays, the realistic cost of a euro-priced holiday when the Australian dollar is doing what it usually does, and the practical business of covering distance in a country that has spent fifty years building the best passenger rail network on the planet.

Entry Rules for Australians: What Changed in 2026

This is the section to read before you book anything, because European border rules have moved more in the last eighteen months than in the previous twenty years.

Visa-free — but no longer paperwork-free

Australian passport holders still do not need a visa for France. You may stay in the Schengen Area for up to 90 days in any rolling 180-day period for tourism. That has not changed and is not changing.

What has changed is that the European Union is introducing ETIAS — the European Travel Information and Authorisation System. Starting in the fourth quarter of 2026, travellers who currently visit the EU visa-free will require an ETIAS. The fee has been confirmed at EUR 20 — roughly AUD 33 — and there is a six-month transition period, meaning strict enforcement is expected to begin around April 2027. The authorisation is valid for three years, or until your passport expires, whichever comes first.

Two warnings worth taking seriously. First, the official EU position is that no action is required from travellers yet, because the system is not live. Any website accepting ETIAS applications today is fraudulent — some have already collected passport details and card numbers from travellers who believed they were dealing with an authorised channel. The only authorisation portal will be the official EU domain. Second, if your trip includes Britain, that is a separate requirement: the UK operates its own pre-travel authorisation, the UK ETA, which is separate from ETIAS. Two countries, two systems, two applications.

The Entry/Exit System is already biting

The EU's biometric Entry/Exit System (EES) is now rolling out at external Schengen borders, replacing passport stamps with fingerprint and facial registration. It is not optional and it is not fast. Smartraveller currently warns that the EES is causing delays of up to four to six hours at some European airports, that travellers have missed connecting flights as a result, and that queues for the self-service kiosks can be long enough that you should be prepared to stand for an extended period.

Passport validity

Your Australian passport must be valid for at least three months beyond your intended departure date from the Schengen Area, and generally must have been issued within the previous ten years. If your passport expires within about eight months of your return date, renew it before you book — the renewal is cheaper than the rebooking.

When to Go: A Season-by-Season Read

Australians face a scheduling problem: our long holiday is their deep winter, and our winter is their peak summer. That mismatch drives almost every decision.

One quiet advantage for Australians: our September–October shoulder lines up with France's best month, and airfares out of Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne are usually well below the December peak. If you have flexibility, that's the booking to chase.

Paris: The Essentials, Done Properly

Four nights is the minimum that lets Paris breathe. Three is a checklist. Five or six lets you take a day out to Versailles or Giverny without feeling you've stolen time from the city itself.

The Louvre — and the 2026 price change

The Louvre is the largest art museum on earth and it is entirely possible to have a miserable time there. Two rules fix that: book a timed slot, and go in with a plan rather than an ambition.

Australians need to know about a significant pricing change. In January 2026 the Louvre introduced dual pricing: visitors from outside the European Economic Area now pay EUR 32, up from the previous EUR 22, which remains the rate for EEA residents. Under-18s enter free regardless of nationality. As an Australian you will pay the higher rate — build EUR 32 per adult into your budget and don't be caught out at the door.

On booking: the museum requires reservations for all visitors from 1 July to 31 August 2026, and timed slots in peak season routinely sell out days ahead. The museum is closed on Tuesdays and runs late openings on Wednesday and Friday evenings. Book directly at the official Louvre ticketing site. The museum itself warns about a rise in mirror sites and advises against buying any ticket that claims to let you jump the queue, or from street vendors — do so and you may be refused entry. Every standard ticket already includes a timed entry slot; that is the skip-the-line system, and third-party "skip-the-line" upsells are really buying you a guide, not faster access.

Practical route for a single visit: enter via the Carrousel entrance rather than the Pyramid, go straight to the Denon wing for the Mona Lisa, Winged Victory and the Italian galleries, then double back through Egyptian antiquities in Sully. Two and a half to three hours. Leave before 12:30 and the day is still yours.

The Eiffel Tower

Book ahead, always. Adult tickets currently range from about EUR 14.80 for the lower levels to EUR 36.70 for summit access by lift, with reduced rates for children and young people. One change worth diarising: from 29 September 2026, advance reservations will also be required for stairs tickets — the old trick of turning up and climbing to the second floor on a whim is ending.

The photographer's move is not to go up at all, at least not first. Cross the river to Trocadéro at sunrise, when the light is on the east face and the terrace is nearly empty. Go up in the evening instead, when the city is lit and the hourly sparkle is worth staying for.

Notre-Dame, Sainte-Chapelle and the Île de la Cité

Notre-Dame reopened to the public in December 2024 after the fire and the restoration, and the interior stone is startlingly pale — closer to how medieval Parisians would have seen it than anything in living memory. Entry to the cathedral is free; expect a queue, and reserve a time slot through the official site if you'd rather not stand in it.

Two hundred metres away, Sainte-Chapelle is the building most first-time visitors skip and most repeat visitors rank highest. Fifteen metres of thirteenth-century stained glass on all sides, best in late-morning sun. It takes forty minutes and it will stay with you longer than the Eiffel Tower.

Musée d'Orsay and the Impressionists

A converted Beaux-Arts railway station holding the greatest collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painting anywhere: Monet, Renoir, Degas, Cézanne, Van Gogh's self-portrait. It is a fraction of the Louvre's size and, for many travellers, twice the pleasure. Go on a Thursday evening when it opens late and the light through the great clock face is doing its thing.

Montmartre, the Marais and the parts you actually remember

Sacré-Cœur is worth the hill for the view alone, but go early — by mid-morning the steps are a scrum and the friendship-bracelet operators are working the crowd. Behind the basilica, the village lanes around Rue Lepic and Place Dalida empty out fast.

The Marais is where to spend an aimless afternoon: Place des Vosges, the Musée Carnavalet (free, and the best museum in Paris that tourists don't visit), falafel on Rue des Rosiers, and vintage shops in the Haut Marais. Add Canal Saint-Martin on a Sunday and you'll have seen more of how Parisians actually live than most people manage in a fortnight.

Is the Paris Museum Pass worth it?

The Paris Museum Pass covers more than fifty museums and monuments and runs at roughly EUR 55 for two days, EUR 70 for four and EUR 85 for six. The arithmetic is simple. If the Louvre is your only museum, skip the pass. It starts paying for itself at three to four attractions across the pass period — Louvre, Orsay, Versailles and the Orangerie in one trip and it clears comfortably. Note that it does not exempt you from security queues, and some sites still want a reservation.

Beyond Paris: The Regions That Justify the Airfare

Australians consistently make the same mistake — a week in Paris and a day trip. Paris is the entry point, not the country. Here is where the second half of your trip should go.

Provence

Lavender on the Valensole plateau (late June to mid-July only), Roman Arles, the hill villages of the Luberon, and Aix's morning markets. Hire a car — this is a region the trains can't serve.

The French Riviera

Nice as a base, Èze and Menton by bus, Antibes for the Picasso museum, Monaco for the spectacle. The coastal train from Nice to Ventimiglia is one of Europe's great cheap rides.

Normandy

The D-Day beaches, Bayeux and its tapestry, Mont-Saint-Michel rising out of the tidal flats, and cider country inland. Sobering, beautiful, and reachable as a two-day trip from Paris.

The Loire Valley

Renaissance châteaux at Chenonceau, Chambord and Villandry, strung along a river valley made for cycling. Two nights in Amboise or Tours covers it.

Bordeaux & the Southwest

Two hours from Paris by TGV. A restored river city, Saint-Émilion's limestone cellars, oysters at Arcachon and the largest sand dune in Europe an hour away.

Alsace

Colmar and Strasbourg, the wine route through Riquewihr and Eguisheim, and Europe's best Christmas markets in December. Germanic France — riesling, choucroute, storks on the rooftops.

The French Alps

Chamonix in summer is one of the most underrated bases in Europe: the Aiguille du Midi cable car lifts you to 3,842 metres in twenty minutes, and the Mer de Glace, Lac Blanc and the Tour du Mont Blanc trails start at your door. In winter it's a serious ski destination, and the Australian dollar goes further in the smaller Portes du Soleil resorts than in Courchevel or Val d'Isère.

Brittany and the Dordogne

Two regions Australians rarely reach and always rate. Brittany gives you walled Saint-Malo, the pink granite coast, crêperies and Celtic weather. The Dordogne gives you prehistoric cave art at Lascaux IV, honey-coloured bastide towns, walnut oil, foie gras and a river you can canoe under castles.

Eating and Drinking: How Not to Get It Wrong

France's reputation for intimidating restaurants is largely undeserved and mostly a function of tourists eating in the wrong places. A few rules do most of the work.

• Lunch is the value meal. The formule or menu du jour — two or three courses at a fixed price — routinely runs EUR 18–26 at lunch for food that costs EUR 45 the same evening.
• Avoid any restaurant with photographs of the food outside, a multilingual menu board, or a man trying to talk you in. This single rule will save your trip.
• Book dinner. Good neighbourhood restaurants in Paris seat forty people and are full by 8pm. Walk-ins are for tourists and disappointment.
• Service is included. Service compris is the law. Rounding up, or leaving a few euros for good service, is generous; ten to twenty per cent is not expected.
• Coffee costs less standing at the bar. Two price tiers — comptoir and terrasse — are printed on the wall. Paying more for the seat is a fair trade if you plan to watch the street for an hour.

Regionally, eat what the place does. Oysters and cider in Normandy and Brittany. Bouillabaisse in Marseille and ratatouille in Provence. Cassoulet in Toulouse. Choucroute and flammekueche in Alsace. Duck, walnut and truffle in the Dordogne. And in Lyon — France's most serious food city and a two-hour TGV from Paris — the bouchons serve offal-heavy Lyonnais cooking that will either convert you or defeat you.

Getting Around: Trains First, Cars Second

The single most important thing an Australian can understand about France is that the train is not the compromise option. It is the good option.

Book early. TGV fares are yield-managed like airfares. The same Paris–Marseille seat can be EUR 39 three months out and EUR 140 three days out. Tickets typically open around four months ahead. Book direct through SNCF's official channel and you'll pay less than through resellers.

Consider a rail pass only if you're moving a lot. For two or three long hops, individual advance-purchase tickets almost always beat a pass. For a multi-country loop with frequent hops, a pass can work — we cover this properly in our European train travel guide.

Hire a car only where you need one. Provence, the Loire, Normandy, Alsace, Brittany and the Dordogne genuinely require wheels. Paris, Lyon, Bordeaux and Nice actively punish you for having them — parking is expensive and much of central Paris is a low-emission zone requiring a Crit'Air sticker on the windscreen, including for hire cars. Australians drive on the right in France, and an International Driving Permit alongside your Australian licence is the safe play; it's available from your state auto club before you leave.

What It Costs: A Realistic Australian Budget

Airfares from the Australian east coast to Paris typically start around AUD 1,600 return in the quiet months and climb past AUD 2,600 in the December and mid-year peaks. Flying time is 22–26 hours with one stop, usually through the Gulf or Asia.

Paris runs 30–40 per cent above the national average; rural Normandy, the Dordogne and inland Provence run well below it. Currency is the euro. Cards are accepted almost everywhere including buses and bakeries, but carry EUR 50 in cash for rural markets, small cafés and the occasional stubborn tabac. Use an Australian travel card or a fee-free debit card and always decline the ATM's offer to convert to Australian dollars for you — that "dynamic currency conversion" is a worse rate every time.

Sample Itineraries

Ten days — first-time France

• Days 1–4: Paris. Louvre, Orsay, Sainte-Chapelle, Marais, Montmartre, an evening on the Seine.
• Day 5: Day trip to Versailles or Giverny.
• Days 6–8: Provence. TGV to Avignon; car hire; Luberon villages, Arles, Pont du Gard.
• Days 9–10: Nice. Old town, Cours Saleya market, Èze, then fly home from Nice.

Fourteen days — food, wine and history

• Days 1–4: Paris.
• Days 5–6: Normandy. Bayeux base; D-Day beaches, Mont-Saint-Michel.
• Days 7–8: Loire Valley. Amboise; Chenonceau and Chambord.
• Days 9–11: Bordeaux. Saint-Émilion, Arcachon oysters, the Dune du Pilat.
• Days 12–14: Lyon. Bouchons, Vieux Lyon, Beaujolais day trip; fly out of Lyon.

Three weeks — the full arc

Combine the fourteen-day route above with Provence and the Riviera, and add two nights in Chamonix or Annecy on the way east. Three weeks is the length at which France stops feeling like a highlights reel.

Practical Notes for Australians

• Power: Type E/F plugs, 230V. Australian appliances run fine on the voltage; you need the adapter, not a converter.
• Connectivity: An eSIM bought before you fly is cheaper than roaming and works from the moment you land.
• Language: Say bonjour before anything else. Entering a shop and launching into English without it is read as rude, and the response you get will reflect that.
• Pickpocketing: Real, and concentrated on Metro Line 1, around Gare du Nord, at Sacré-Cœur and beneath the Eiffel Tower. Bag zipped and in front. Phone off the café table.
• Strikes: Occasional and usually announced in advance. Build a buffer day before any international flight home.
• Travel insurance: Essential, and separate from any ETIAS or visa requirement. Cooee Tours can refer you to preferred Australian insurers; we don't sell or include insurance ourselves.
• Tourist tax: A per-person, per-night taxe de séjour is charged by accommodation across France. It's small — usually EUR 1–5 — but it's often collected on arrival in cash and it surprises people.