France

The Entry/Exit System (EES) rolled out across the Schengen external border from 12 October 2025 and reached full operation on 10 April 2026. For non-EU short-stay travellers it replaces the inked passport stamp with a biometric record — four fingerprints and a facial photo, logged electronically on each entry and exit. First registration can add time at the booth; it is quicker on subsequent trips once your file exists.

The ETIAS authorisation is a different thing, and a later one. It is not required as of October 2026 — the EU abandoned its "last quarter of 2026" target in mid-2026 and now points to 2027, with several months’ notice promised before it goes live. When it does, it will cost €20, last three years or until the passport expires, and be waived for travellers under 18 and over 70, with a roughly six-month grace period after launch.

Do not pay for "ETIAS" or "EES" on a third-party website in 2026 — EES needs no application at all, and ETIAS is not yet open, so any site taking money for one now is a scam. When ETIAS does launch it will be sold only through the official EU portal.

Book the big sights before you fly, not when you arrive. The Louvre makes a timed slot obligatory for all visitors, Versailles makes it mandatory on every ticket type including free admission, and the Catacombs admit essentially no one without one. Sainte-Chapelle and the Eiffel Tower summit sell their slots out through spring and summer. The one that surprises people is natural, not cultural: in the Calanques National Park near Marseille, the Sugiton creek caps daily numbers and checks a QR code at the trailhead.

The Calanques quota is the shape of things to come. Sugiton’s roughly 400 free places are released three days ahead at 09:00 and checked by QR at the trailhead; the same rationing model is spreading to fragile natural sites across France. If the creek is full, the neighbouring Calanques (Morgiou, Sormiou) and the coastal path from Cassis are not quota’d.

Paris’s taxe de séjour (the local tourist tax, charged per person per night on top of the room rate) runs from about €1–€3 for a one- or two-star hotel up to €15.93 for palace-class hotels and unclassified short-lets — it has climbed since the 200% Île-de-France transport surcharge was folded in. Over a week for two, that is a real line on the bill, not a rounding error.

The Paris Museum Pass (€66/€82/€98 for 2/4/6 days) pays off quickly if you museum-hop, covering the Louvre, Versailles, the Musée d’Orsay and around fifty sites. The catch: it covers entry, but the Louvre and Versailles still require you to reserve a free timed slot separately — the pass is not a skip-the-booking card.

A week does one region, or two neighbours, well — not the country. The fast exception is the Loire, which day-trips from Paris by TGV. Everything along the Mediterranean (Provence and the Riviera) pairs naturally; so do Bordeaux and the Dordogne, and Strasbourg with the Alsace wine route.

If you drive, a Crit’Air vignette (a colour-coded emissions sticker) is mandatory to enter the low-emission zones (ZFE) in Paris, Lyon and other cities — missing it is a €68 fine. Lyon began fining the dirtier Crit’Air 3 vehicles from 1 July 2026; the Paris/Grand Paris ZFE is still in its no-fine "educational" phase through 31 December 2026. On the autoroutes, tolls run about €0.10/km, so Paris–Nice (~930 km) is roughly €90–€100 in tolls each way; the limit is 130 km/h, dropping to 110 in the rain.

Aim for May to mid-June or September — warm, quieter, cheaper, everything open. August is the trap: with five weeks of statutory leave, French workers take theirs then, and across the cities independent shops, boulangeries, pharmacies and restaurants hang a fermeture annuelle notice and close for two weeks or more — often until 1 September, frequently with no warning online. So the coast is packed while Paris and Lyon feel emptied. The grands départs on the first weekends of July and August jam the autoroutes and the trains.

Lavender is a short window, not a summer-long sight: the Valensole plateau in Provence runs from about 15 June, peaks roughly 1–15 July, and is cut from mid-July — arrive in late July expecting purple fields and you will find stubble (the higher Sault plateau holds on a little later). Strikes (grèves) are a real risk: 2026 saw nationwide rail action on 10 June and again around 30 June, with roughly two-thirds of TGVs running on the worst day. Check the SNCF Connect app before any dated travel and leave slack in tight connections.

The Louvre took about nine million visitors in 2025 and it feels like it — the headline sights are where the crowds concentrate, so trade down a rung and the experience improves:

• The Louvre is a scrumSkipqueuing for a glimpse of the Mona LisaGothe Musée d’Orsay for the Impressionists, or the small Orangerie for Monet’s Water Lilies — both far calmer
• You want the Eiffel Tower in the viewSkipthe Tower’s own summit queueGothe Tour Montparnasse rooftop — the one Paris viewpoint with the Tower actually in the picture
• Versailles is overwhelmingSkipthe state-apartments crushGoVaux-le-Vicomte (the château that inspired Versailles), Fontainebleau or Chantilly — grand palaces at a fraction of the numbers
• The Riviera is full in AugustSkipthe packed Nice–Cannes beachesGothe Calanques near Cassis, the inland Provence hill villages, or a ferry to Corsica

Mont-Saint-Michel takes around three million visitors a year and times its abbey entry; the day-trip coach crush peaks late morning to mid-afternoon. Arrive before 10:00 or after 18:00, or stay overnight on or beside the island, and you get the causeway and ramparts nearly to yourself — illuminated, in the evening. For a Loire château crush (Chenonceau, Chambord), swap to Azay-le-Rideau, the gardens of Villandry, or Chaumont.

Say "Bonjour" on entering any shop, café or office, and au revoir or bonne journée on leaving. This is not optional politeness — skipping it reads as genuinely rude, and it visibly changes how you are treated. Tipping is not expected: service is included by law (service compris), so prices already cover it; round up or leave a couple of euros for good service, up to 5–10% only in a smart restaurant after a memorable meal.

Outside the big cities, expect Sunday closures nationwide and a long lunch break — many shops, banks and some restaurants shut from about 12:00 to 14:00 (entre midi et deux), later in rural areas. Tap water is safe everywhere; ask for une carafe d’eau and it is free, or you will be served paid bottled water. For minor ailments, a pharmacy — green cross — is the first stop and the pharmacist will advise before a doctor is needed.

The one real nuisance is pickpocketing, concentrated at the Eiffel Tower and Trocadéro, the Louvre queue, Sacré-Cœur and Montmartre, the Champs-Élysées, Gare du Nord, and Métro lines 1, 4 and 9 (the "crush-and-grab" as doors close). Watch for the Montmartre friendship-bracelet, the clipboard-petition distraction and the gold-ring and shell-game cons near the big monuments. Keep your phone out of back pockets and your bag zipped and in front; violent crime against visitors is rare.