Map of France

France is divided into 22 administrative regions, which themselves can be grouped into 7 main "cultural regions", which share common points.

The Ile de France is the region surrounding the French capital, Paris.
Northern France is one region where the world wars have left many scars. It includes Nord-Pas de Calais, Picardie, and Haute-Normandie.
Northeast France is a region where wider European culture (and specially German culture) has merged with the French, giving interesting results. It includes Alsace, Lorraine, Champagne-Ardenne and Franche-Comté.
The Great West is an oceanic region, with a culture greatly influenced by the ancient Celtic peoples. It includes Brittany (French: Bretagne), Basse-Normandie, and Pays de la Loire.
Central France is a largely agricultural and vinicultural region, featuring river valleys, chateaux and historic towns. It includes Centre-Val de Loire, Poitou-Charentes, Burgundy (French: Bourgogne), Limousin, and Auvergne.
Southwestern France is a region of sea and wine, with nice beaches over the Atlantic ocean, as well as young, high mountains close to Spain. It includes Aquitaine and Midi-Pyrenees.
Southeastern France is the primary tourist region of the country outside of Paris, with a warm climate and azure sea, contrasting with the mountainous French Alps. It includes Rhône-Alpes, Languedoc-Roussillon, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur and the Mediterranean island of Corsica (French: Corse).
The world-famous Loire Valley - best known for its wines and chateaux - extends across two regions in west and central France.

Corsica is a large French island located to the south-east of mainland France in the west Mediterranean Sea (close to Nice on one side and Livorno, Italy).

Overseas departments
Guadeloupe
Martinique
French Guiana (Guyane Française)
Réunion.

Overseas territories

French Polynesia (Tahiti)
New Caledonia (Nouvelle Caledonie)
Saint Pierre et Miquelon
Mayotte
Wallis et Futuna
The following overseas territories are remote possessions kept as natural reservations:

French Southern and Antarctic territories (Terres Antarctiques et Australes Françaises, or TAAF), consisting of Terre Adélie in Antarctica and some islands in the Indian Ocean
Scattered Islands of the Indian Ocean (Iles Eparses): Europa Island, Bassas da India, Juan de Nova Island, Glorioso Islands (Glorieuses)
Clipperton Island
A very limited form of tourism is available in the TAAF islands.

Cities

France has numerous cities and towns of interest to travelers.

Below is a list of nine of the most notable:

Paris -- the "City of Light", the capital of France
Bordeaux - city of wine, capital of South-West
Bourges -- a middle aged city, capital of central France.
Cannes -- host of the annual Cannes Film Festival
Lyon - France's second city, with a history from Roman times to the Resistance, restaurants (Beaujolais and delicatessen)
Marseille - big harbor, heart of Provence
Nice - a major resort on the French Riviera
Strasbourg -- a historic city on the Ill Rhine and home to, among other institutions, the Council of Europe, the European Court of Human Rights, the European Ombudsman, the European Parliament
Toulouse -- "La Ville Rose," a very nice and lively city in the south of France

Other destinations

Cities with the largest number of visible Roman monuments:

Orange - Arles - Nîmes - Elne.
Cities with an outstanding Gothic cathedral :

Paris - Amiens - Reims - Chartres - Rouen - Beauvais - Laon - Le Mans - Coutances - Bourges
Cities with an outstanding castle :

Fontainebleau - Vaux le Vicomte near Melun - la Malmaison in Rueil-Malmaison -
Roquetaillade castle in Bordeaux, restored by France's most famous architect Viollet le Duc.
the Loire Valley with Montreuil-Bellay - Azay le Rideau - Blois - Chambord - Chenonceaux.


Others:

Annecy - Medieval city situated on the shore of a mountain lake in the French Alpes
Bayeux - this Norman town preserves the famous Tapestry depicting Duke William's conquest of England in 1066 - also the first French town to be liberated after the D-Day landings in 1944
Carcassonne - perfectly restored walled medieval town
Chamonix - hometown of Mont Blanc, Europe's highest point
Moissac - the Cloister ( twelfth and fifteenth centuries), Centre of Romanesque Art, wonderful countryside
Mont Saint Michel - World Heritage preservation of a medieval abbey, situated evocatively on an offshore island off the coast of Normandy
Oradour-sur-Glans - the town preserved as a monument by Charles de Gaulle, its inhabitants murdered and the town destroyed by the Gestapo in June 1944.
Versailles - on the outskirts of Paris, the vast royal palace and magnificent estate of Louis XIV, the Sun King, and his successors
Vitré - Medieval city with a very rich heritance (castles, churches, etc.) in the East frontier of Brittany.

Theme parks

Disneyland Paris
Parc Asterix
Futuroscope

Climate

A lot of variety, but temperate. Cool winters and mild summers on most of the territory, and especially in Paris. Mild winters and hot summers along the Mediterranean and in the south west. Mild winters and cool summers in the north west (Brittany).

Cool to cold winters and hot summer along the German border (Alsace). Along the Rhône Valley, occasional strong, cold, dry, north-to-northwesterly wind known as the mistral.