France claims seventh position among the 20 countries readers judged, with 93.14 points and a 0.02 edge over Greece. Three neighboring pairs on the full list finish closer, with a single hundredth of a point between the members of each. No other adjacent pair matches the two-hundredths split between France and Greece, which makes theirs the fourth-tightest contest in the field.
Portugal stands 0.22 points above France at 93.36, a distance 11 times wider than the margin France holds below. No two neighbors from Cambodia through Poland sit farther apart, and the step outstrips Cambodia’s 0.20 cushion over Spain. Panama, ninth at 93.02, trails France by 0.12. Vietnam, 10th at 92.99, sits 0.15 behind France. France ends up nearer the country two spots beneath it than the neighbor one spot up.
France’s 93.14 falls 2.38 points short of Japan, the highest-rated country at 95.52. Italy, second at 94.80, outscores France by 1.66, more than France’s whole cushion over the 20th entry. Germany, 20th at 91.93, finishes 1.21 points behind France. Thirteen countries, Greece through Germany, fill the 1.21 points below France, while six spread across the 2.38 points above it. Among European entries, France follows Italy, Ireland, Spain, and Portugal as the fifth from that continent.
Wine routes through Alsace, Burgundy, and Champagne let travelers explore the vineyards of France’s wine-growing regions. Along the Champagne route, cellar visits teach guests how producers make sparkling wine.
Visitors to Auvers-sur-Oise, near Paris, can see a church and the cemetery holding the grave of Vincent Van Gogh, who lived there. In the Lot department, the village of Saint-Cirq-Lapopie served as a place of inspiration for the surrealist André Breton.
Lyon lines both the Saône and the Rhône with riverside embankments and keeps an old quarter called Vieux Lyon. Numerous green spaces and sunlit outdoor terraces dot the city. Bordeaux lies within one hour’s travel of the Atlantic coast, according to France.fr.
