France is the world’s favorite country to visit, but this is the village the French like best
By Maureen O’Hare, CNN
(CNN) — This week in travel: The world’s best cheese and plenty of delicious bread to pair with it, another Italian town offering sweet deals to new residents, plus a medieval village in France that earns top scores from the French.
France’s favorite village
France has for some years been the world’s most visited country, with a record 100 million international tourists going there last year to enjoy its culture, food and scenery. In 2022, a Belgian man even cycled 870 miles just to taste a very special croissant in Nice.
But which destination in France is a favorite among the French? Earlier this year, viewers of the TV show “Le Village Préféré des Français 2025” chose Saint Antoine l’Abbaye as France’s favorite village for 2025.
So what’s the appeal? This medieval village with cobbled streets and a stunning abbey is tucked away among green rolling hills between Grenoble and Lyon in the southeastern department of Isère. Vercors Regional Natural Park is on the village’s doorstep and the whole place bustles with performers, music, shows and stalls for the medieval festival held each year in the first week of August.
The hanging cliffside houses of Pont-en-Royans are 14 miles away and the town of Saint-Marcellin, famous for its delicate creamy cheese, is just an eight-mile drive.
The world’s best cheese and Germany’s best bread
France is rightly celebrated for its cheeses, from Comté to Camembert, but it was an aged Swiss Gruyère that was anointed the finest on the planet at the World Cheese Awards in Switzerland on Thursday.
“Three cheeses on, we could still taste it,” was the conclusion of English judge Perry Wakeman, describing its “fruit-funk notes, some slight burn on there like charcoal.”
More than 5,200 cheeses from 46 countries were gathered for the judging at Bern’s Festhalle venue, the pageant queens growing ever more pungent as the day wore on. CNN was there for all the sights and smells.
Moving from cheese to bread, the iconic French baguette has been hailed by President Emmanuel Macron as “250 grams of magic and perfection,” but all is not well in this world of flour and yeast. Even though UNESCO has deemed the baguette an essential cultural icon, France’s bread consumption is plummeting, with the daily trip to the boulangerie a disappearing way of life. Here’s how the humble bread baton is facing its uncertain future.
France isn’t the only European country whose loaves have received UNESCO heritage status, however. German bread culture made the Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2015 and the country has more than 3,200 officially recognized types of bread. A nutty little number named Nussbrot was named Germany’s bread of the year for 2025.
New life in the Old World
Debra and Eric Stillwell, both in their 60s, relocated from Burbank, California, to France’s Dordogne Valley five years ago. The medieval towns, castles and landscapes were what lured them, Eric tells CNN.
As retirees, they find the cost of living easier on their budget. “Everybody thinks that Americans living in France are all rich, and that’s not true,” says Eric. “Our house cost 70,000 euros… We aren’t rich.”
Next door in Italy, the picturesque village of Radicondoli, in Tuscany, has a relocation plan offering up to $23,000 to anyone willing to buy and live in one of its vacant homes, along with an extra roughly $7,000 in contributions towards expenses like heating and transport.
A seafood feast in Marseille
Actor Tony Shalhoub is on a mission to find the world’s best, most surprising food items for under $10. That money nets him a seafood feast in the French port city of Marseille. Watch the final two episodes of CNN Original Series “Tony Shalhoub Breaking Bread,” beginning Saturday at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CNN and stream the entire series next day for subscribers of CNN All Access.
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