I’ve spent a year travelling around France, and you’re going to all the wrong places

France was suffering from overtourism long before Instagram tourism was a thing. Although it has roughly the same population as the UK spread over a surface area almost twice the size, it’s the most popular country in the world among foreign visitors, and the French love a domestic trip too. Busloads of tourists descend on Mont-Saint-Michel daily, the Eiffel Tower has a queue which could rival the Seine in length and in St Tropez there’s barely a true Tropezienne left – so is it still possible to find the quiet corners?

Since moving to France over two years ago, my work writing guidebooks and travel articles has seen me yo-yoing around the country, from paths well trodden to places the French would poetically refer to as le trou du cul du monde (the arse-end of nowhere). While I can’t deny the appeal of the popular sites that make up every “France Top 10” list, I’d rather not fight for my sun lounger with half of South East England, thanks. Here’s where you should be going instead.

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Skip sightseeing in Paris for Nancy

Designed in the style of Versailles and Paris’s Place Vendôme, Nancy is like the French capital in miniature, without the crowds. When Louis XIV married the daughter of the dethroned former king of Poland, Stanislas, and made her father Duke of Lorraine, Stanislas showed his gratitude by rebuilding the city ready to receive the king. He copied the most opulent buildings in Paris, and all of the façades around the city’s main square, Place Stanislas, have a healthy dusting of gold. After all that effort, Louis XIV purportedly only visited a handful of times. It’s only 90 minutes by train from Paris, so if you’ve done the City of Light before, head here instead.

Skip lavender in Luberon for Rochefort-en-Valdaine

Luberon in June attracts so many selfie-stick wielding wannabe influencers that you risk losing an eye. Just 100km further north,  it’s the humming of bees rather than the click of camera shutters which fills the air. At the lavender fields of Rochefort-en-Valdaine in the Drôme, sleepy backroads wind through fragrant fields. Goat’s track footpaths up into the hills on the edge of Vercors Regional Park give a panorama over the purple landscape.

Skip skiing in Chamonix for Oz-en-Oisans