France
- ★★★★½
- Europe
You can take Italy’s ‘red arrow’ fast train even if you’re not in Italy
A business class trip passes in a blur of bucolic French countryside and Italian food and wine.
- Chrissie McClatchie
Latest
- ★★★★
- Hotel reviews
One block from the Seine, this family-owned hotel oozes period charm
Intimate, chic, colourful – this is a genial and delightfully placed Parisian address.
- Steve McKenna
How to train for an ocean swim when you live 600km from the beach
It took 25 years for Brendan Cullen to seek help for anxiety and depression. Now he has written a book about his recovery and what it takes to swim the English Channel.
- Julie Power
- Opinion
- Luxury holidays
My hotel charged $100 for a baguette. I’ll just eat a bag of chips, thanks
My hotel suite was so nice I didn’t want to leave the room, but paying exorbitant prices for room service wasn’t in the budget.
- Lee Tulloch
‘I’m crying’: How social media helps Tim and Felicity renovate their 105-room chateau
A cottage in Melbourne or a unit in Sydney goes for the $1.2 million it cost for a 250-year-old French chateau that was crumbling like a Breton biscuit.
- Julie Power
The French pocket super-carrier that could help shield Hormuz
France has deployed its sole aircraft carrier in an “unprecedented” naval build-up that could be used to protect cargo vessels from Iranian drones.
- Michele Kambas, John Irish and Staff reporter
French president sings national anthem aboard aircraft carrier
Emmanuel Macron joins crew aboard aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle to sing La Marseillaise after the French Navy was deployed to the Middle East.
‘I want to look him straight in the eye’: Gisèle Pelicot’s quest for truth
After a decade of unimaginable betrayal, the woman who changed French law wants a confrontation in prison with her former husband to demand answers about his crimes.
- Philippa Hawker
How Bill Crews turned a millionaire’s win at the track into genuine Loaves and Fishes to feed the poor
Compassion radiates from the crusading Uniting Church minister, who still has plenty on his plate even at the age of 81.
- Nick Galvin
Louvre boss quits four months after $146m heist
Laurence Des Cars had been blamed for security failings that allowed thieves to break in and steal France’s crown jewels.
- Lily Shanagher