The Nice carnival feels like a cleaned-up version of New Orleans Mardi gras where costumed children throw confetti and the parade route traces the Mediterranean sea.

In 1890 an overworked Vincent Van Gough escaped to Anvers-Sur-Oise. After several months in a rented chamber of the Ravoux Inn he took his own life. He lies beside brother Theo in a graveyard beyond the sprawl of yellow wheat.

Nestled among ski resorts in the lower Alps, the Alpha reserve is home to three wolf packs. Visit the park during feeding time when the wolves cautiously reveal themselves.

Parisians use the Tuileries like their backyard for barefoot picnics and lazy afternoon sunbaths. Monet´s water lilies reside in the garden at the Orangerie and the Jeu de Paume nearly always has an interesting photography exposition on.

November has been an unusual month on the Cote d’Azur, first as the G20 summit temporarily closed Cannes, then as storms ravaged the coast. On a stretch of beach piled so heavily with debris that it resembles a beaver dam, a village of driftwood forts has been erected.

Decree that an object is art, display it as such, and that is what it becomes. France’s emerging avant-garde artists of 1960 sought to renew art with abstraction and themes of destruction and spontaneity surfaced.

To the purist’s discontent the definition of jazz has expanded to include nearly every other genre of music and the festival in Juan les Pins is no exception. It is a place the artists call paradise, where the crowd watches through parasol pine trees and the ocean sets the tempo.

Madame Grès' intricately worked, asymmetric designs accompanied by their sketches and fashion photographs present the timeless output of her Paris workshop. They are on display amongst the sculptures in Paris' Musée Bourdelle.

If you’re just passing through, not setting up house and home in France, then you won’t have to suffer the costs both monetarily and time-wise of attaining a French drivers license. Never the less, you need to be aware of the difference in road rules.

Marching bands serenade showers of carnations and roses at Antibes’ Battle of Flowers.