France – Les plus beaux villages

This map shows the “most beautiful villages in France” as determined by an association of the same name together with “small cities and villages of character”!! I’m not sure how independent the selection is but it certainly contains some very beautiful villages. The dark coloured markers are for the “plus beaux villages” and the light coloured markers are for the “petites cités et villages de caractère”.

The petites cités et villages de caractère started off in Brittany and seems to be a designation which is decided locally and only by some regions, so you will see that they are concentrated in certain areas with others areas not represented at all. The plus beaux villages seems to be nationwide.

The key is designed for motorhomers:

Blue or light blue = Aire de Camping in or very near to the village

Orange or light orange= Campsite in or very near to the village

Green or light green = Informal overnight parking in or very near to the village

Red or pink = None of the above

To discern the above designation I have used Park4night.com. You should noted that from the comments on Park4night.com many of the “informal parking” designations actually look as if they are aires de camping and not designated as such on Parking4night.com, so I have erred on the side of caution and not designated them as an aires de camping on my map.

If the village has an aire, then it will get a blue designation even if it also has a campsite. Likewise a village without an aire but with a campsite will get an orange, even if there is an informal parking area available in the same village.