With a capital that’s synonymous with romance, a culture that’s richer than foie gras, and a gene poll of philosophers, revolutionaries and designers, it’s no wonder France has status. Fantastic ski slopes, glamorous beach resorts and rural villages complete the picture, while the food and wine score a gastronomic A+. Passionately patriotic, the French believe they live in the best place on earth. And since they invented joie de vivre, they might just be right.

April and May (spring ) or September and October (autumn)

Taking a boat down the Seine and marveling at the Parisian architecture Checking out the glitz and glamour of the Le Mans 24-Hour Race Paying your respects at the evocative D-Day landing beaches in Normandy Enjoying on-piste action and après-ski at Val d’lsere Sipping a glass of Dom Perignon in Champagne Visiting the Loire

Read Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, a 19 th -century classic about rural life and deluded passions

Listen to Serge Gainsbourg’s ‘Je t’aime…moi non plus’-it is impossible not to turn Francophile when you hear this song

Watch A Bout de Souffle (Breathless). Jump cuts, long takes, Jean Seberg’s gamine look, Jean-Paul Belmondo’s smouldering gaze-this is nouvelle vague cinema at its best.

Eat bloody steak, croissants, baguettes, Camembert

Drink red Bordeaux from Medoc, dessert wine from Sauternes

Ooh la la!

Café society; stinky cheese; the Eiffel Tower; garlic; la guillotine; stripy T-shirts; berets; Cartier; Chanel; Gaultier; Louis XIV; the impressionists; boules; red meat; red wine; Gauloises

Attitudes can be conservative; bars close at 7pm in rural market towns

‘The French think mainly about two things-their two main meals’, a well-fed bon-vivant French friend once told s. ‘Everything else is in parentheses’. And it’s true. But don’t suppose for a moment that this obsession with things culinary means dining out in France has to be a ceremonious occasion or one full of pitfalls for the uninitiated. Approach food and wine here with even half the enthusiasm les francais themselves do, and you will be warmly received, encouraged and very well fed.