Lindsey Hansen Guide

This is the face of a very happy guide who just got to lead her first Louvre Crash Course tour in almost a year. It's a whole new world and the conditions are very different (and still not ideal), but it's so wonderful to have tourists back in Paris and to be sharing French art, culture, and history with interested clients again!

When traveling in France, it’s easy to feel pressured to fill every day with trips to museums and cultural heritage sites. There’s just SO much to see in every city! But sometimes, it pays to to experience France’s historical and natural patrimony in a whole new way.

During our week in the Pyrénées-Ariégoises, for example, we rented electric mountain bikes and spent a day riding kilometer after kilometer through the Vallées d’Ax for breathtaking mountain views and unique angles on the region’s historical monuments. While in Tarascon-sur-Ariège, we also saw people kayaking down the river and taking in views of the many stunning old cliffside villages along their route. We did something similar while visiting the Dordogne a few years ago. A three-hour float gave us access to a number of incredible chateaux perched atop hillsides that can’t be seen quite so easily by car or on foot.

My partner and I try to plan at least one of these “experiences insolites” into our yearly vacations now. They always end up being the highlight of our trips. When planning your next French vacation, why not consider mixing a half day, full day, or even several days of outdoor activities into the usual mix of museums and monuments? These unique experiences provide a welcome break from the crowds and information overload of museums, and allow you to explore even more of the beauty and history of this incredible country.

Bon dia from Andorra la Vella, the highest capital city in Europe (1300 meters above sea level) and the capital of the 16th-smallest country in the world: Andorra.

This country of 77,000 inhabitants is nestled away in a high mountain valley along the border separating France and Spain. It isn’t part of the European Union; however, its leaders are. Controlled by a unique political system that has been in place since 1278, Andorra is a Co-Principality ruled jointly by the French head of state (currently Emmanuel Macron) and the Spanish Bishop of Urgell (currently Joan Enric Vives Sicília). This “diurnal” system of Co-Princes arose from a military dispute between the Counts of Foix, who controlled the area north of the Pyrenees, and the Bishops of Urgell, who controlled the Iberian Peninsula south of the mountains, in the years following the Albigensian Crusade. The Counts of Foix became the Kings of Navarre in 1479 and took the Co-Prince title with them. In 1589, when Henri III of Navarre became Henri IV of France, the leadership role was transferred again, and Andorra has been ruled (in part) by the French head of state ever since.

Today, the country is essentially all new-build towns or under construction. The route from France to the Andorran capital is lined with duty-free alcohol and to***co shops and outlet stores (the country’s principal economy). But if you look closely, you can find remains of Andorra’s medieval cultural heritage hiding among all the new things, like the Romanesque (11th- to 13th-century) chapels of Santa Coloma and Sant Joan de Caselles, pictured here. There are 40 such churches that lie along the “Andorran Romanesque Route,” which traverses the mountainous country from its southwest to the northeast.

If ever you find yourself with a bit of time to explore this unique country, I’d highly suggest focusing not on the capital city, but on these hidden treasures from Andorra’s greatest period of artistic flourishing. The views of these small churches perched precariously against the craggy mountains just can’t be beat.