France's most walkable city revealed and it isn't Paris - as the underrated destination boasts 'unique' history and cheap flights from the UK
However, experts at digital publication The Travel have suggested that there's one French metropolis beats Paris hands down, not least because it comes without the huge crowds and selfie sticks.
Coming first in the list of France's ten most walkable cities, Nantes, Brittany's capital, was found to be more pleasing for visitors when it comes to tourist sights, foodie pit-stops and great walking routes.
Experts at the digital magazine said the city has 'one of the richest cultures in the country and a fantastic food scene.
'The city offers its unique charm through beautiful strolls along its cobblestone streets and local restaurants and cafes.'
On the River Loire, 30 miles inland from the Atlantic, Nantes is France's sixth largest city.
Nantes is known as the city of 100 parks, all of which are free to visit including the grounds of the splendid Chateau des Ducs de Bretagne, with its elegant ramparts and gardens.
Walkers can explore the labyrinthine, medieval streets of the city centre and admire the grand gothic exterior of the 15th-century cathedral.
There's also a mile-long stroll along the Loire and a great way to get a (free) city overview is to take a self-guided tour following a green line marked on pavements in a circular route leading to works of contemporary art and places of architectural interest (levoyageanantes.fr).
One of its most popular sights remains the highly unusual 'mechanical elephant' at a theme park called Les Machines de L'Ile.
Earlier this month, a study from Compare the Market has revealed the world's most walkable destinations and the top-rated city is just a short flight away from the UK.
Beating out tough competition from Milan and Paris, Munich was crowned the world's easiest city to explore on foot.
According to the researchers, 86 per cent of Munich's population live within 1km of a car-free space.
And 85 per cent of residents live within a 1km of healthcare and education facilities.
The Bavarian city is also a great destination for tourists to get around on foot with many of its main attractions located within walking distance.
The Marienplatz, Munich's large historic square, is the city's top attraction and sits overlooked by the clocktower.
Its Rathaus-Glockenspiel mechanical clock is a must-see with characters enacting scenes from the city's history twice a day.
From Marienplatz, tourists have just a five-minute walk to reach the city's Frauenkirche, a restored Gothic Catholic church.
The church is known for its mysterious 'Devil's Footprint', a large black footprint adorning one of its floor tiles.
After admiring the church, tourists face a mere eight-minute walk to reach the Residenz Munich, a historic palace that's another of the city's top attractions.
The Residenz houses the Bavarian Crown Jewels and served as Munich's seat of government right up until 1918.
Tourists are then just a short stroll from Munich's famous English Garden, the city's largest park.
The park spans 375 hectares with visitors able to watch surfers attempt the Eisbach wave on the Eisbachwalle River, or enjoy spectacular views from the Monopteros, a small Greek temple folly at the top of a hill.
And after all that walking, visitors can head to one of the city's renowned beer halls or gardens to soak up Munich's iconic beer culture.
According to Introducing Munich, the average cost of a beer is just €4/£3.40 in the German city. Meanwhile, a pretzel costs just €1.50/£1.27.
Milan was named as the world's second-most walkable city while Warsaw, Helsinki and Paris rounded off the top five.
At the other end of the scale, Manila, the capital of the Philippines, was ranked as the least walkable city in the world.
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6 hours ago
- Times
The Louvre makeover that will push up price of seeing Mona Lisa
A baking summer's afternoon at the Louvre. Milling around the Mona Lisa are maybe 150 people, all with their phones held high above their heads so they can snap that enigmatic smile. Meanwhile, in the vast galleries surrounding Leonardo's masterpiece, an eternal throng of visitors from every corner of the globe trudges wearily on — most, this far into the gallery, seemingly oblivious to the glorious art around them. Paris's great museum has about nine miles of galleries, spread over 403 rooms. You enter it from beneath IM Pei's celebrated glass pyramid, which on a day like this behaves like a giant magnifying glass for the blazing sun. Many visitors probably won't venture more than half a mile into the heart of the museum. But in this huge, former royal palace there is one tranquil room. Far from the madding crowd, Laurence des Cars, 59, the first female director of the Louvre in 228 years, sits in her book-lined office, the picture of the formidable, Sorbonne-educated Parisian intellectual she is. If she is physically distanced from the heaving mass of humanity trudging round her domain, however, her brain is constantly occupied with it. 'One of my first decisions when I became the director in 2021 was to limit our daily admissions to 30,000,' she says. 'You know that, just before Covid, the Louvre was getting ten million visitors a year? When I got here the staff said, 'Please let's not go back to that because some days we were up to 45,000 visitors.' And that figure is too much. Even now we are saturated. The building is suffocating. It's not good for staff, visitors or the art.' Last month the Louvre's staff emphasised their grievances by going on a spontaneous strike (a 'mass expression of exasperation', their union official said), leaving thousands of tourists outside with no idea why they weren't being let in. 'It wasn't a strike,' des Cars says firmly. 'It was a meeting with the unions because of the conditions and especially the heat. I put in place immediate measures to make things better and we reopened that afternoon.' All the world's top museums — from the Vatican in Rome to the British Museum in London — are facing this same problem: huge congestion, especially around the handful of masterpieces that every tourist has heard of. But the overcrowding is felt most acutely by the Louvre, which still receives more visitors (8.7 million last year) than any other museum, yet has some of the worst facilities. We know this because six months ago a memo outlining its problems was leaked to a Paris newspaper. It caused a stir not just because it was addressed to Rachida Dati, France's culture minister, but because it was written by des Cars. She was jaw-droppingly frank. 'Visiting the Louvre is a physical ordeal,' she wrote. 'Visitors have no space to take a break. The food options and restroom facilities are insufficient in volume, falling below international standards. The signage needs to be completely redesigned.' Pei's pyramid, she went on, creates a 'very inhospitable' atmosphere on hot days. Other parts of the old building are 'no longer watertight'. Nobody has revealed who leaked the memo, but it's hard to imagine des Cars being upset by the revelation because within days came a dramatic intervention from on high. President Macron announced a redevelopment project that he called the 'nouvelle renaissance' of the Louvre. It's masterminded by des Cars and every bit as radical a reshaping as François Mitterrand's 'grand projét' of the 1980s, which led to Pei's pyramid. By chance it will run simultaneously with something similar in London: the £1 billion masterplan to renovate the British Museum, a coincidence that hasn't escaped des Cars' notice. 'I talk a lot with Nick Cullinan [the BM's director],' she says. 'He's wonderful, a great professional and he's dealing with exactly the same issues.' The most controversial feature of des Cars' plan is her proposed solution to the problem of that huge rugby scrum around the Mona Lisa. She wants to remove the painting to one of several new underground galleries to be excavated under the Cour Carrée courtyard, where it will get its own entrance requiring punters to buy an additional ticket (the price is yet to be decided). • The secret life of the Louvre: inside the world's biggest museum She also envisages a second entrance to the Louvre on the far side from where the pyramid is. 'The idea of having just one entrance to this enormous museum was a nice idea in the 1980s when the Louvre had just four million visitors a year,' she says. 'But that was before the Berlin Wall fell, before the Chinese started travelling, before international tourism reached the levels we have today. We are going back to what was always the case — several entrances for the Louvre.' At the same time the museum will be given a technical makeover. That will take ten years, des Cars estimates, whereas she suggests that the Mona Lisa gallery and the new entrance will be ready by 2031 or 2032. 'We are running a competition to find an architect and will appoint one early next year,' she says. 'And the Louvre won't close at all. That's the strength of having a very large building. You can rebuild half of it and still function in the other half.' One benefit of all this, des Cars says, is that it will help people to get to different galleries more quickly, introducing more lifts and better signage. 'On the second floor we have the most extraordinary collection of French paintings anywhere in the world and virtually nobody looks at them,' she says. 'You start to think, what's wrong with Poussin? The answer is nothing. The real problem is that to get from the pyramid to Poussin takes 20 to 25 minutes, and that's if you walk quickly and don't get lost. If we can sort out these problems people will discover many new joys.' It comes at a price, though. The ten-year project is expected to cost about £700 million. Unlike the British Museum's masterplan, however, at least half the required funding is already guaranteed. 'The technical renovation will be funded by the Ministry of Culture,' des Cars says. 'As for the new galleries and entrance, our trademark licence deal with the Louvre Abu Dhabi [which des Cars spent six years helping to set up] will give us at least £175 million. The rest we will raise from corporate and private supporters.' Even here, des Cars has an advantage over her British counterparts. 'When you say the word Louvre people all over the world pay attention,' she says. The gallery has one other huge income stream not available to UK museums. It charges for admission and the ticket prices are about to go up — £19 for EU citizens and a hefty £26 for non-EU visitors, including the poor old Brits. Sounds as if we need to rejoin the EU, I say. 'Please do!' des Cars says, beaming. But what does she think of the UK's generous policy of keeping its national museums free to all, even foreigners? 'I am absolutely not allowed to make any judgment on that,' she says with a laugh, and then makes one anyway. 'I mean, it's very admirable but is it sustainable in today's world? That's a political decision. I leave you to have your debate.' • Best time to visit the Louvre: top tips for your trip The daughter and granddaughter of distinguished French writers, des Cars was a respected art historian, writing a classic study of the pre-Raphaelites before she started running big Parisian museums (she was head of the Musée d'Orsay and the Musée de l'Orangerie before the Louvre). Surely it must break her heart to see thousands of people using great art merely as background for their selfies, disrupting other visitors' enjoyment in the process? Has she considered banning the use of phones, as other art galleries have done? 'I know they are trying but I simply don't know how you do it,' she says. 'We considered it when I was at the Orangerie and the security team said, 'We can't force people not to use phones.' Also I think it's dangerous to go against the times we live in, but you can remind people that they are in a cultural space and need to respect each other, the staff and the artworks.' • Mona Lisa to get her own room in the Louvre And perhaps be a bit more curious about venturing into galleries that don't contain the most famous paintings on the planet? 'We are already making changes to attract people to less-visited parts of the museum,' des Cars says. 'For instance, we could have put our new Louvre Couture [the museum's first venture into fashion] in our exhibitions space, but instead we placed it within the department of decorative arts and now those galleries get a hugely increased number of visitors, especially young people.' As the Louvre's first female director, can she do anything to mitigate the fact that the vast majority of artworks here were created by men? 'You cannot change history but there are other ways of addressing that question. In the spring of 2027 I'm programming an exhibition on the theme of amazons, ancient and modern — from Greek women warriors to powerful women today. It will be a fascinating journey.' And how is this very powerful woman enjoying her own fascinating journey? 'When I was appointed I felt ready to run the Louvre, which sounds immodest,' des Cars replies. 'Maybe I will be a disaster and someone will have to shout, 'Stop!' I don't know.' I would be amazed if anyone did that — or at least not until the mid-2030s, when she has finished remaking the Louvre for the 21st century. Additional research by Ziba Manteghi
Times
11 hours ago
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Win a luxury seven-night French château stay for ten guests worth £12,000
Just imagine . . . you and nine of your favourite people embarking on une balade around the grounds of a glorious château in the heart of the Loire Valley — glass of local wine in hand — having feasted on a lunch of regional cheeses, charcuterie and artisan baguette. Well, that dream could fast become reality: we've paired up with Oliver's Travels to offer you the chance to win a week-long stay at Château Les Bains, a stunning belle époque residence set in a dreamy riverside location near the spa town of La Roche-Posay. The property delivers views across 17 acres of parkland and vines that undulate to the river and there's space for up to 20 guests — seven bedrooms are found in the main house, and there's an additional trio of rooms in a separate cottage. Days here can be spent basking poolside, getting competitive in the games room or tending the vines (before pootling to the in-house cellar). There's also a grand kitchen that inspires trips to the local market and will have you wondering why you didn't move here years ago. So what are you waiting for? Oliver's Travels is providing this prize, offering the winner exclusive use of the property for seven nights on a self-catering basis, plus daily housekeeping service. The fridge and pantry will be fully stocked with up to €200 worth of products. The prize also includes two LeShuttle car passes that will cover ten people. As the château's capacity is 20, you're able to invite an additional ten guests at your own expense. You'll need to book your stay at least six weeks in advance, and travel between October 1, 2025 and October 1, 2026. Blackout dates are July, August, Christmas and Easter. For more information, click here. For your chance to win, simply vote in each category in this year's Times and Sunday Times Travel Awards. There are 17 categories in total. Click here to vote. For the full list of prizes, see closes at 23.59pm on August 31, 2025. Open to residents of the United Kingdom who are aged 18 years or older, excluding employees and agents of the Promoter and its group companies, or third parties directly connected with the operation or fulfilment of the Promotion and their affiliates, and their immediate families and household members. One entry per person. Winners will be selected at random from all valid entries. No cash alternative and prize is non-transferable. Subject to availability, Prize must be redeemed within one year and booked at least six weeks in advance of departure date. Prize must be taken between October 1, 2025 and October 1, 2026, subject to availability and blackout dates apply including Christmas, New Year, Easter, and July 1, 2026 to August 31, 2026. All parts of Prize must be used in conjunction with same booking. Winner and his/her guest(s) are solely responsible for ensuring they are available to travel and have valid travel documentation (including passport/visa/visa waiver as may be required), obtaining adequate travel insurance and appropriate vaccinations/inoculations for foreign travel at their own expense. Winner can invite additional guests, up to a total of twenty (20), at their own expense. Travel insurance, food and drink (outside what is previously declared in the board basis), spending money and all incidental expenses are the responsibility of the prize-winner. Prize is subject to Oliver's Travels terms and conditions. Stay must adhere to the terms listed here: Your information will be used to administer this Promotion and otherwise in accordance with our privacy policy at and those of the partners. Promoter is Times Media Ltd. Full T&Cs apply — see
Times
14 hours ago
- Times
As always with Dave Brailsford, the big questions remain unanswered
For journalists at the Tour de France, moseying about the team buses in the morning is a ritual. An opportunity for a catch-up with people you may see only at this time of year. There is also a chance to interview sports directors and staff members. Riders remain inside the buses, which is understandable. They've got a race to ride. For the past two weeks I've avoided the Ineos Grenadiers bus. The one time I stopped and chatted, it was because he wasn't anywhere to be seen. I am talking about Sir Dave Brailsford, who returned to the team two weeks ago after five years away. Journalists who have spoken to him sense that he has come back from his time in football a little chastened. Cycling was the hometown girl he fell in love with as a teenager. They enjoyed a great life until his head was turned by a more glamorous woman from a very rich family. We are speaking, of course, of Manchester United. Alas, the rich lady grew tired of him. So here he is back with his first love, trying to start again, but she has changed, grown older and is not quite who she once was. I avoid Brailsford because I know he is not going to answer questions that need to be answered. At the time he founded the professional cycling team Team Sky, he insisted that it would never cross the ethical line. In 2016 my colleague Matt Lawton discovered that in 2011 a secret package had been couriered by a staffer at British Cycling from Manchester to Team Sky, who were then racing in France. When Lawton asked Brailsford about the package, the Team Sky boss said: 'If you didn't write the story, is there anything else that could be done?' Decide for yourself what he meant by that. As you can about the 40mg injections of the corticosteroid triamcinolone, given to Bradley Wiggins days before the start of the Tour de France in 2011 and 2012. Team Sky claimed in an application to cycling's governing body that the rider needed the medication for therapeutic reasons. Wiggins suffered from allergies. Medical experts question the appropriateness of the treatment, especially as triamcinolone is also a performance-enhancing drug. A 2018 report by the digital, culture, media and sport select committee into Team Sky and British Cycling was damning. It said the use of the triamcinolone 'was not to treat medical need, but to improve his [Wiggins's] power-to-weight ratio ahead of the race'. It added: 'This does not constitute a violation of the World Anti-Doping Agency [Wada] code, but it does cross the ethical line that David Brailsford says he himself drew for Team Sky. In this case, and contrary to the testimony of David Brailsford in front of the committee, we believe that drugs were being used by Team Sky, within the Wada rules, to enhance the performance of riders, and not just to treat medical need.' There are, of course, many other unresolved issues. Why did Dr Richard Freeman, then a senior doctor working with both Team Sky and British Cycling, order a consignment of 30 testosterone sachets in 2011 and have them delivered to the National Cycling Centre in Manchester? After the testosterone was discovered, Freeman lied that it had been sent to him in error and the head of medicine at Team Sky, Dr Steve Peters, asked Freeman to get the supplier to confirm this in writing. Peters would later say that he didn't tell Brailsford about the testosterone. That was remarkable. And, of course, the testosterone delivery had been ordered by Freeman. It was strange that Freeman should have been the one person who had to properly explain his part in all that went down at Team Sky and British Cycling. In a 'fit to practice' case initiated by the General Medical Council and processed by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service, the tribunal concluded that the testosterone was ordered for the purpose to giving it to an athlete. Freeman lost his licence to practice. Mary O'Rourke, the barrister in Freeman's corner, believed Brailsford should have been a witness at the tribunal. 'Dave Brailsford is the spectre missing at these proceedings,' she said in her summing-up. 'He would have been able to answer an awful lot of questions about what was going on at British Cycling and Team Sky.' Subsequent to losing his medical licence, Freeman received a four-year sport's ban from UK Anti-Doping. Freeman loses his career, Brailsford gets a knighthood. The knight of the realm has never said a bad word about his team's former doctor. You may wonder why all this is recalled right now. Well, other journalists were beating a path to the Ineos Grenadiers bus last week. They were lining up to ask Brailsford about his head soigneur, David Rozman. An investigation by the German state broadcaster ARD had linked, but not named, a Team Sky soigneur with the doping doctor Mark Schmidt. At a Munich court in January 2021, Schmidt was found guilty of 24 counts of using doping products and given a prison sentence of four years and ten months. During the case there was evidence of 2012 mobile phone messages between Schmidt and a person involved in cycling. According to an ARD report, the person Schmidt was communicating with worked for Team Sky. They said they knew the person, but because of a statute of limitation law in Germany, they could not name the Sky employee. Last weekend the Dublin-based Sunday Independent said the person involved was Rozman, then the Sky soigneur who is still with Ineos Grenadiers. The most concerning message was one from Rozman to Schmidt asking if he still had the 'stuff that Milram [a team he had previously worked with] used' and if he could 'bring it for the boys'. Later in the week Ineos issued a statement saying it was aware of the allegations surrounding a team member: 'These allegations have not to date been presented to the team by any appropriate authority, however the team has made a formal request to the International Testing Agency (ITA) to request any information it considers relevant. The team reiterates its policy of zero tolerance to any breach of the applicable Wada codes, historic or current.' That wasn't an untypical response from the team. Ineos could have said it had spoken to Rozman and asked if he had been party to the now much publicised conversation with Schmidt in 2012. Had he written those messages? If he had, what did he mean when asking Schmidt if he could bring stuff 'for the boys'? Rozman, they say, remains part of their Tour de France team. And so the journalists at the Tour tried to get some answers. The first question to Brailsford about the latest controversy drew a straightforward: 'I am not commenting on that.' Another journalist wondered if it was fair to have the staff member (Rozman) taking so much heat? Brailsford replied: 'Did you hear what I just said? I won't be commenting.' As he retreated to the sanctuary of the bus, Brailsford said, 'F***ing hell, guys, come on.' The questions, as always, remain unanswered.
