Best time to visit France

Cold, bright and quiet. The Alps are deep in snow whilst the Riviera holds 13°C afternoons under clear blue skies.

This is the best-value ski month of the year. The snow is cold and dry, the lifts are quiet, and the same chalet costs a fraction of what it will in February.

Paris is at its emptiest. The Louvre runs far below its summer numbers and the late openings on Wednesday and Friday are quieter still, so you can stand in front of the big paintings without a scrum.

From late January the hillsides behind the Riviera villages turn acid yellow as the mimosa opens, running inland towards Grasse.

Provence is clear, cold and almost empty, and the truffle markets are the reason to come. Richerenches on Saturday mornings, Carpentras on Fridays, boot lids up and the smell filling the street.

Milder than January and noticeably brighter. The mistral blows hard through Provence and scours the sky to a hard, empty blue within a couple of hours.

Nice gives itself over to carnival for three weeks. Illuminated floats fill Place Masséna at night and, on the Promenade des Anglais, costumed performers throw flowers into the crowd.

Snow depth in the Alps is at its most dependable of the whole season, mid-altitude resorts included. Do book early, as the best chalets go a year ahead.

Paris, the Loire Valley and Burgundy are quiet and inexpensive. Cellar visits without queues, restaurant tables on a whim, hotel rates at half their May level.

Spring arrives. Daylight passes twelve hours at the equinox, the cities warm up ever so slightly and high-altitude Alpine snow is still deep.

Spring skiing is the most civilised of the season: long days, settled weather, short queues and forgiving snow. Ski the morning, then give the afternoon to a terrace.

Paris blossoms in sequence and almost nobody plans for it. Magnolias open in the Jardin du Luxembourg and the Palais Royal, then the cherries take over at the Jardin des Plantes and around the Trocadéro.

The Loire Valley wakes up. Châteaux come off their winter hours, the gardens are cut back and ready, and you get the grand rooms almost to yourself.

Green, blossoming and changeable. Warm one day and wet the next, so pack for two seasons and you'll be fine.

The fountains at Versailles start up again in the first days of April and the difference is total. Water in every basin, music through the groves, Le Nôtre's design doing exactly what it was built to do.

The Loire Valley hits its spring stride. Villandry's geometry fills with tulips, Chenonceau sits out over the Cher and Chaumont opens its international garden festival. Two châteaux a day is plenty.

Alpine resorts hold their closing weekends mid-month and they are gloriously silly. Fancy dress descents, bands on the snow, pond-skimming and the season's last chairlift.

Normandy before the season is a quiet pleasure. The Étretat cliffs without the queue, Honfleur's harbour to yourself, the landing beaches walked in near silence. Cold wind off the Channel, hot cider in Honfleur. Fair swap.

One of the best months of the year. Gardens are at their peak, the coast is uncrowded and nothing is yet too hot.

Provence turns red before it turns purple. Poppies take over the fields around the Luberon and irises flower on the plain below the hilltop villages. Lavender is still a month away.

Cannes takes the film festival and Monaco takes the Grand Prix, back to back at the end of the month. Both are a spectacle if you go on purpose, and rooms along the coast are worth booking well ahead.

Saint-Tropez is at its most likeable now, before the yachts arrive. The Place des Lices market belongs to locals again and restaurants will find you a table without a fight.

The strongest month across most of the country. Light in the Paris sky until nearly half past ten, the Mediterranean up to 22°C, and French schools not yet broken up, so the Riviera is still calm.

Lavender begins. The Valensole plateau starts to colour from mid-June and the Luberon peaks in the last week, with the rows below Sénanque abbey going over at the same time. Early, uncrowded and worth the drive.

Fête de la Musique falls on 21 June and the entire country plays. Free concerts in Parisian courtyards, bands in the squares of the Provençal villages, nothing to book and nothing to pay.

Normandy marks the D-Day anniversary on 6 June, with ceremonies across the five landing beaches, the American cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer and parachute drops at Sainte-Mère-Église.

The Alps reopen for summer. Wildflowers peak, the Mer de Glace train restarts and the high refuges open progressively through the month.

Hot, bright and firmly in season. The Riviera is the sunniest (and busiest) corner of France and the sea is properly warm.

Bastille Day on the 14th is worth building a trip around. The parade comes down the Champs-Élysées in the morning and fireworks go up over the Eiffel Tower at night.

Lavender peaks. Valensole is at its best in the first half of the month and Sault, higher and later, holds on until the end of July.

Paris Plages lays sand and loungers along the Seine, and there are now three supervised swimming spots in the river itself. Swimming in the Seine was a joke for a century.

The warmest sea of the year, in the mid-20s off Nice and swimmable the whole way up the Atlantic coast.

Paris in August is the contrarian pick and a good one. Rates soften, queues shorten, Paris Plages is running and the city finally breathes.

Sault holds its lavender festival on 15 August, when the high plateau is still standing and everywhere lower has been cut.

The Alps are at peak hiking season, with the refuges fully staffed, wildflowers still going at altitude and nights cool enough to sleep well.

Warm, golden and quiet. The sea off Nice is still 22°C and the light turns low and generous.

French schools go back on 1 September and the country empties overnight. Beaches that were shoulder to shoulder in August have space by the second week, and the sea is warmer than it was in June.

The vendanges take over Champagne, Burgundy and Bordeaux. Harvest lunches, open cellars and a mood in the villages you cannot manufacture.

Here is the surprise: the Atlantic and the Channel are at their warmest in September. Arcachon and the long beaches of Normandy are better now than at any point in the summer.

Autumn colour in the north, and a Riviera sea still close to 20°C, which almost nobody expects.

Burgundy and Bordeaux are the pitch. Vineyards turn copper and gold, the last parcels come in, and the cellars are quieter and more generous than at any other point in the year.

Paris harvests its own vineyard mid-month at the Fête des Vendanges de Montmartre, running since 1934, with parades, food stalls up the hill and fireworks over the Clos.

October is the last month the Loire Valley is fully open, so this is when to take in Villandry, Chenonceau, Chambord and Chaumont on one trip. Autumn colour along the river is the bonus nobody sells.

Provence is at its calmest. The hilltop villages belong to their residents again, the markets are unhurried and the olive harvest begins in the Vallée des Baux.

Quiet, cosy and excellent value. Paris, Burgundy and Champagne carry the month, and flights and hotels sit at their annual low.

Beaune stages Les Trois Glorieuses on the third weekend, Burgundy's biggest wine event by a distance

Provence reopens its truffle markets mid-month and the first ones are the liveliest of the whole season.

The Alpine season opens, with the highest resorts turning their lifts on around 21 November. The cheapest lift pass and the emptiest piste of the whole winter.

Festive and snowy. The Alps fill in above the valleys whilst the Riviera stays mild and bright.

Paris does Christmas properly. Markets and lights the length of the Champs-Élysées, the department store windows on Boulevard Haussmann drawing crowds three deep, ice rinks in the squares and the whole city smelling of vin chaud and roasting chestnuts.

Provence keeps a Christmas of its own, a long way from tinsel. Santons and living nativities in the villages, the shepherds' midnight mass at Les Baux-de-Provence, and the treize desserts laid out on Christmas Eve, all thirteen of which you must try!

December is the biggest oyster month in France by a distance, so Arcachon and the Normandy beds are worth a detour.