Is anywhere as romantic as Paris on Valentine’s Day? Well, yes, it turns out. The city of light doesn’t have the monopoly on love. There are plenty of other corners of France with l’amour in their hearts.

Take the Côte d’Amour, for example. Lovers can stroll along its stunning beaches on the Loire-Atlantique coast. There, they can take in the beauty of La Baule, often cited as one of Europe’s prettiest bays.

Or there’s Saint-Amour-Bellevue. This village in the Saône-et-Loire département of Burgundy hosts a romantic candlelit dinner for upwards of 100 people each Valentine’s Day.

There’s also Saint-Valentin, of course. I posted about this Indre village last year. There, they hold an annual lovers’ festival and you can pin a love note on the tree of vows in the village’s jardin des amoureux.

Then there’s the Val d’Amour, in Ounans, in the Jura département, and the Bois Amour in Saintes, in Charente-Maritime.

“Other towns have been less fortunate with their choice of names. Anus is unlikely to be a top Valentine’s destination”

Other towns have been less fortunate in their choice of names. Something tells me that Anus, in Yonne, is unlikely to prove a top Valentine’s destination. Monteton in Lot-et-Garonne, too, may attract more sniggers than visitors (in case you’re wondering, a téton is a breast).

Mind you, Bezons, in Val-d’Oise, is set to attract a few selfies with its town sign as the backdrop today. Its name sounds very much like an extremely direct call to action – baisons literally means ‘let’s f*ck’. Although lacking the romance of a stroll along the Seine or dinner by candlelight, the invitation may prove just as popular.

14 Feb This entry was published on Sat, 14 Feb 2015 at 07:24. It’s filed under Language and culture, Places and people and tagged Indre, Lot-et-Garonne, paris, Saint-Valentin, Valentine. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.