Most first trips to France are a trip to Paris with a day in Versailles bolted on. That is a perfectly good holiday and it is also about four percent of the country. The useful decision is whether you are taking a city trip or a country trip, because the two need different amounts of time, different budgets and different transport.
Visas and the border
France is in the Schengen area, so this is a Schengen question rather than a French one.
| Passport | What you need | | --- | --- | | Armenia | Schengen visa, applied for in advance. | | Georgia | Nothing. 90 days within any 180 across all of Schengen. | | Russia | Schengen visa, applied for in advance. | | EU and Schengen | Nothing. | | United States | Nothing for 90 days in 180. |
Armenian citizens apply at the French visa centre in Yerevan. The appointment slot is the bottleneck, not the document pack, and summer slots go two to three months ahead. You need insurance covering 30,000 euros, accommodation proof for every night, bank statements showing roughly 100 euros a day, and a return ticket. Apply to the country where you will spend the most nights.
The border itself changed this year. Since 10 April 2026 the Entry/Exit System is live across Schengen. There are no more passport stamps. On first entry your fingerprints and facial image are recorded, and every crossing after that is logged automatically. Charles de Gaulle in particular has long queues at the biometric kiosks in peak season, so if you have a tight connection, do not assume the old timings.
ETIAS, the online authorisation for visa-free nationalities such as Georgian citizens, is expected in the last quarter of 2026 and is not required yet.
When to go
May, June, September and early October for Paris and the north. The lavender in Provence peaks late June to mid July, which is the one thing worth planning around.
August is when Paris empties. This cuts both ways: fewer Parisians, shorter restaurant queues, and a large share of the good neighbourhood places closed for the month with a handwritten note on the door. The tourist infrastructure stays open, the local infrastructure does not.
The Riviera in July and August is at capacity, and the coast road between Nice and Monaco can take an hour to cover twenty kilometres.
Winter is genuinely fine in Paris. Museums are empty, light is low and good, and hotel rates drop hard in January and February.
Getting around
The TGV is the reason not to fly domestically. Paris to Lyon is under two hours, Paris to Marseille around three, Paris to Bordeaux about two. Book on SNCF Connect and book early: fares are yield-managed and the same seat can triple in price in the final fortnight.
Ouigo is SNCF's low-cost TGV brand. Cheaper, fewer amenities, and it often uses outlying stations such as Marne-la-Vallée rather than central Paris, which is the catch.
In Paris, the paper carnet of ten tickets is gone. Buy a Navigo Easy card and load it, or use contactless on your phone. A single metro, RER or train ticket in the city is 2.55 euros, a bus or tram ticket is 2.05, and a day pass is 12.30 euros. Airport journeys are a 14 euro flat fare on a special ticket, which catches out people who tap in with a normal one.
The day pass is worth it from about five journeys. Below that, singles are cheaper.
Do not drive in Paris. Do rent a car for Provence, Brittany, the Dordogne and Alsace, where the train network thins out and the point of the trip is the villages between the towns.
What things cost
- Budget day: 95 to 120 euros
- Mid-range day: 150 to 220 euros
- Central Paris hotel: 150 to 200 euros a night
- Mid-range dinner for two: around 70 euros in Paris, 60 elsewhere in France
- Single metro ticket: 2.55 euros
- Paris day travel pass: 12.30 euros
- Louvre or Eiffel Tower: 15 to 30 euros each
- Tourist tax: added per person per night, up to about 16 euros a night in the top bracket
Two ways to spend less without eating worse. First, many national museums are free on the first Sunday of the month, though that also means the queues are at their worst. Second, the formule at lunch, meaning a set two or three course menu, costs roughly half what the same kitchen charges at dinner. Lunch is when you eat well in France.
Coffee follows the Italian pattern: standing at the counter, au comptoir, is cheaper than sitting on the terrace, and the terrace on a famous square is a third price again.
Water is free if you ask for une carafe d'eau. Bread is free. Neither is offered unprompted in tourist areas.
Etiquette that actually matters
Say bonjour when you enter a shop, a bakery, a pharmacy, anywhere. Not saying it is the single most common reason visitors find French service rude. It is not optional politeness, it is the opening of the transaction, and the difference in how you are treated afterwards is large.
Tipping is not required. Service is included by law, service compris. Rounding up or leaving a couple of euros for a good meal is normal, ten percent is generous, twenty percent is an American import.
Dinner starts at 19:30 at the earliest and more realistically 20:00. Kitchens in smaller towns close by 21:30 and do not reopen. Turning up at 18:00 hungry is how people end up eating badly.
Keep your voice down in restaurants and on public transport. The volume norm is noticeably lower than in most places.
Safety
France is safe, and the risk profile is pickpocketing and phone snatching rather than anything violent.
The hotspots are specific: line 1 of the Paris metro, the RER B between the airport and the centre, the area around Sacré-Cœur and Barbès, the Champs-Élysées, and the steps of Montmartre. Phone snatching from the hand by scooter is a real and growing problem in central Paris and Lyon.
The classic street games are all still running: the gold ring found at your feet, the petition signature that turns into a demand for money, the friendship bracelet on the Montmartre steps, and the three-cup shell game near the Eiffel Tower, which is never winnable.
Strikes are a genuine planning factor rather than a safety one. Rail and air strikes are announced in advance, and SNCF publishes the affected services the day before. Build slack around the day you fly home.
Tap water is safe everywhere in France.
Staying connected
Coverage is good, including on the TGV lines, with gaps in the Alps and parts of the Massif Central.
Arriving from Armenia, Georgia or Russia, your carrier's roaming rate applies and adds up over a week. A French physical SIM from Orange, SFR or Bouygues needs identification and a shop visit, and the prepaid tourist offers are not good value.
An eSIM installed before you leave gets you data at the airport, which is exactly when you need it for the RER ticket, the ride app and the hotel address. It also keeps your home number reachable for the bank confirmations that French card terminals will trigger repeatedly.
Where to go
Paris deserves four days minimum and rewards a week. Pick two or three neighbourhoods and walk them rather than crossing the city for a list of monuments. The Marais, Canal Saint-Martin and the 11th are where the city currently lives.
Versailles is a half day for the palace and a full day if you walk the gardens and the Trianon, which is the better part and where the crowds are not.
Provence for lavender, Roman ruins at Arles and Nîmes, and hill villages. A car is close to essential.
The Loire valley is château country and works as a bike trip more than a driving one.
Normandy for the D-Day beaches and Mont-Saint-Michel, which is genuinely worth the crowds if you stay overnight and see it at low tide in the evening.
Lyon is where people who care about food go instead of Paris, and it is two hours from it.
If France is part of a broader European trip, the Italy guide and the Spain guide cover the two neighbours most often combined with it, and all three draw on the same 90 day Schengen allowance.
Questions people actually ask
Do Armenian citizens need a visa for France? Yes, a Schengen visa in advance. The appointment is the slow part, so start two to three months before a summer trip.
Is my passport stamped? No. Since 10 April 2026 the Entry/Exit System records fingerprints and a facial image instead.
Where did the carnet of ten tickets go? Discontinued. Use a Navigo Easy card, a day pass, or contactless payment.
Is the Paris Museum Pass worth it? Only if you are doing three or more major museums in consecutive days. It does not cover the Eiffel Tower.
How many days for a first trip? Five days for Paris alone. Ten days for Paris plus one region, which is a much better trip than Paris plus three cities.
Why is everyone acting cold? Try opening with bonjour. It changes the interaction more than anything else you can do.
