France
in Western Europe
Europe

National active POI Bordering countries
Country Quickfacts
Currency and Currency Code:
Euro - EUR
Spoken languages:
French, Breton, Corsican, Catalan, Basque, Occitan
Local electricity:
230 V - 50 Hz (plugs: C, E)
Mobile phone / cellular frequencies (MHz):
900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 3G, 4G
ISO 2-Letter code:
FR
Internet top level domain:
.fr
Country phone prefix:
+33
Local Time (capital):
Timezone:
UTC/GMT offset: hours

Map of French Unesco Heritage Sites

Click any of the markers above to learn more about the corresponding heritage site and learn more about France in Europe. The list below is ordered by name. The oldest site is Chartres Cathedral. On the list since 1979. The youngest site is Decorated Cave of Pont d’Arc, known as Grotte Chauvet-Pont d’Arc, Ardèche. On the list since 2014.

Name Since
Abbey Church of Saint-Savin sur Gartempe
Known as the 'Romanesque Sistine Chapel', the Abbey-Church of Saint-Savin contains many beautiful 11th- and 12th-century murals which are still in a remarkable state of preservation....		 1983
Amiens Cathedral
Amiens Cathedral, in the heart of Picardy, is one of the largest 'classic' Gothic churches of the 13th century. It is notable for the coherence of its plan, the beauty of its three-tier interior eleva...		 1981
Arles, Roman and Romanesque Monuments
Arles is a good example of the adaptation of an ancient city to medieval European civilization. It has some impressive Roman monuments, of which the earliest – the arena, the Roman theatre and the c...		 1981
Bordeaux, Port of the Moon
The Port of the Moon, port city of Bordeaux in south-west France, is inscribed as an inhabited historic city, an outstanding urban and architectural ensemble, created in the age of the Enlightenment, ...		 2007
Bourges Cathedral
The Cathedral of St Etienne of Bourges, built between the late 12th and late 13th centuries, is one of the great masterpieces of Gothic art and is admired for its proportions and the unity of its desi...		 1992
Canal du Midi
This 360-km network of navigable waterways linking the Mediterranean and the Atlantic through 328 structures (locks, aqueducts, bridges, tunnels, etc.) is one of the most remarkable feats of civil eng...		 1996
Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Former Abbey of Saint-Rémi and Palace of Tau, Reims
The outstanding handling of new architectural techniques in the 13th century, and the harmonious marriage of sculptural decoration with architecture, has made Notre-Dame in Reims one of the masterpiec...		 1991
Chartres Cathedral
Partly built starting in 1145, and then reconstructed over a 26-year period after the fire of 1194, Chartres Cathedral marks the high point of French Gothic art. The vast nave, in pure ogival style, t...		 1979
Cistercian Abbey of Fontenay
This stark Burgundian monastery was founded by St Bernard in 1119. With its church, cloister, refectory, sleeping quarters, bakery and ironworks, it is an excellent illustration of the ideal of self-s...		 1981
Decorated Cave of Pont d’Arc, known as Grotte Chauvet-Pont d’Arc, Ardèche
Located in a limestone plateau of the Ardèche River in southern France, the property contains the earliest-known and best-preserved figurative drawings in the world, dating back as early as the Aurig...		 2014
Episcopal City of Albi
On the banks of the Tarn river in south-west France, the old city of Albi reflects the culmination of a medieval architectural and urban ensemble. Today the Old Bridge (Pont-Vieux), the Saint-Salvi qu...		 2010
Fortifications of Vauban
Fortifications of Vauban consists of 12 groups of fortified buildings and sites along the western, northern and eastern borders of France. They represent the finest examples of the work of Sébastien ...		 2008
From the Great Saltworks of Salins-les-Bains to the Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans, the Production of Open-pan Salt
The Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans, near Besançon, was built by Claude Nicolas Ledoux. Its construction, begun in 1775 during the reign of Louis XVI, was the first major achievement of industrial a...		 1982
Gulf of Porto: Calanche of Piana, Gulf of Girolata, Scandola Reserve
The nature reserve, which is part of the Regional Natural Park of Corsica, occupies the Scandola peninsula, an impressive, porphyritic rock mass. The vegetation is an outstanding example of scrubland....		 1983
Historic Centre of Avignon: Papal Palace, Episcopal Ensemble and Avignon Bridge
In the 14th century, this city in the South of France was the seat of the papacy. The Palais des Papes, an austere-looking fortress lavishly decorated by Simone Martini and Matteo Giovanetti, dominate...		 1995
Historic Fortified City of Carcassonne
Since the pre-Roman period, a fortified settlement has existed on the hill where Carcassonne now stands. In its present form it is an outstanding example of a medieval fortified town, with its massive...		 1997
Historic Site of Lyons
The long history of Lyons, which was founded by the Romans in the 1st century B.C. as the capital of the Three Gauls and has continued to play a major role in Europe's political, cultural and economic...		 1998
Jurisdiction of Saint-Emilion
Viticulture was introduced to this fertile region of Aquitaine by the Romans, and intensified in the Middle Ages. The Saint-Emilion area benefited from its location on the pilgrimage route to Santiago...		 1999
Lagoons of New Caledonia: Reef Diversity and Associated Ecosystems
This serial site comprises six marine clusters that represent the main diversity of coral reefs and associated ecosystems in the French Pacific Ocean archipelago of New Caledonia and one of the three ...		 2008
Le Havre, the City Rebuilt by Auguste Perret
The city of Le Havre, on the English Channel in Normandy, was severely bombed during the Second World War. The destroyed area was rebuilt according to the plan of a team headed by Auguste Perret, from...		 2005
Mont-Saint-Michel and its Bay
Perched on a rocky islet in the midst of vast sandbanks exposed to powerful tides between Normandy and Brittany stand the 'Wonder of the West', a Gothic-style Benedictine abbey dedicated to the archan...		 1979
Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin
Remarkable as a landscape shaped over three centuries of coal extraction from the 1700s to the 1900s, the site consists of 109 separate components over 120,000 ha. It features mining pits (the oldest...		 2012
Palace and Park of Fontainebleau
Used by the kings of France from the 12th century, the medieval royal hunting lodge of Fontainebleau, standing at the heart of a vast forest in the Ile-de-France, was transformed, enlarged and embelli...		 1981
Palace and Park of Versailles
The Palace of Versailles was the principal residence of the French kings from the time of Louis XIV to Louis XVI. Embellished by several generations of architects, sculptors, decorators and landscape ...		 1979
Paris, Banks of the Seine
From the Louvre to the Eiffel Tower, from the Place de la Concorde to the Grand and Petit Palais, the evolution of Paris and its history can be seen from the River Seine. The Cathedral of Notre-Dame a...		 1991
Pitons, cirques and remparts of Reunion Island
The Pitons, cirques and remparts of Reunion Island site coincides with the core zone of La Réunion National Park. The property covers more than 100,000 ha or 40 % of La Réunion, an island comprising...		 2010
Place Stanislas, Place de la Carrière and Place d'Alliance in Nancy
Nancy, the temporary residence of a king without a kingdom – Stanislas Leszczynski, later to become Duke of Lorraine – is paradoxically the oldest and most typical example of a modern capital wher...		 1983
Pont du Gard (Roman Aqueduct)
...		 1985
Prehistoric Sites and Decorated Caves of the Vézère Valley
The Vézère valley contains 147 prehistoric sites dating from the Palaeolithic and 25 decorated caves. It is particularly interesting from an ethnological and anthropological, as well as an aesthetic...		 1979
Provins, Town of Medieval Fairs
The fortified medieval town of Provins is situated in the former territory of the powerful Counts of Champagne. It bears witness to early developments in the organization of international trading fair...		 2001
Pyrénées - Mont Perdu
This outstanding mountain landscape, which spans the contemporary national borders of France and Spain, is centred around the peak of Mount Perdu, a calcareous massif that rises to 3,352 m. The site, ...		 1997
Roman Theatre and its Surroundings and the "Triumphal Arch" of Orange
Situated in the Rhone valley, the ancient theatre of Orange, with its 103-m-long facade, is one of the best preserved of all the great Roman theatres. Built between A.D. 10 and 25, the Roman arch is o...		 1981
Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France
Santiago de Compostela was the supreme goal for countless thousands of pious pilgrims who converged there from all over Europe throughout the Middle Ages. To reach Spain pilgrims had to pass through F...		 1998
Strasbourg – Grande île
Surrounded by two arms of the River Ill, the Grande Ile (Big Island) is the historic centre of the Alsatian capital. It has an outstanding complex of monuments within a fairly small area. The cathedra...		 1988
The Causses and the Cévennes, Mediterranean agro-pastoral Cultural Landscape
This 302,319 ha property, in the southern part of central France, is a mountain landscape interspersed by deep valleys that is representative of the relationship between agro-pastoral systems and thei...		 2011
The Loire Valley between Sully-sur-Loire and Chalonnes
The Loire Valley is an outstanding cultural landscape of great beauty, containing historic towns and villages, great architectural monuments (the châteaux), and cultivated lands formed by many centur...		 2000
Vézelay, Church and Hill
Shortly after its foundation in the 9th century, the Benedictine abbey of Vézelay acquired the relics of St Mary Magdalene and since then it has been an important place of pilgrimage. St Bernard prea...		 1979