15 guides, each rated 1 to 5 with the reason — and two lists per place, where you are comfortable and where to pay attention. Nowhere is called dangerous; the specific thing is what helps.
Rural and calm, with almost no crime against visitors. What there is happens in Marseille and at the motorway rest stops, where hire cars are broken into. The mistral wind can blow for three days and closes roads to high vehicles, and August wildfires close whole massifs — the Luberon and Sainte-Victoire are shut on red-risk days.
Comfortable: Aix-en-Provence · Gordes · Roussillon · Isle-sur-la-Sorgue · Avignon
- Hire-car break-ins at motorway rest stops and at trailhead car parks — leave nothing in it, ever
- Marseille — the Quartiers Nord, and the station area at night
- Wildfire closures in August, when the Luberon and Sainte-Victoire massifs shut on red-risk days
- The mistral, which blows for three days at a time and closes roads to high vehicles
The town is very comfortable at any hour. The mountain is not a resort mountain: Chamonix’s off-piste is glaciated, crevassed and reached from lifts without any transition, and people die here every season who would have been fine in a ski area built for skiing. Off the marked runs, go with a guide or do not go.
Comfortable: the town centre · Chamonix Sud · Argentière
- anything off the marked pistes — the terrain here is glaciated and crevassed straight off the lifts
- the Aiguille du Midi without acclimatising — you go from 1,000 to 3,842 metres in twenty minutes and altitude sickness is routine
Very comfortable. The lake is the thing to respect rather than the town: it is cold enough below the surface to cramp a strong swimmer even in high summer, and the far shore is a long way when the wind gets up. The old town cobbles are slick in the wet.
Comfortable: the old town · the lakeside · Albigny
- swimming far out in the lake — the water is cold below the surface and the far shore is further than it looks
Comfortable, and the resort is well run. The hazards are the altitude and the weather: the village sits at 1,850 metres and the lifts go to 3,450, wind closes the high ones for days at a time, and the off-piste here is avalanche terrain with a bad record. Check the bulletin, not the sky.
Comfortable: the village · La Daille · Le Fornet
- the off-piste bowls after a snowfall — avalanche terrain with a bad record, and it is reached straight from the lifts
- the high lifts in wind — they close for days and the resort does not refund the pass for it
Very comfortable, and heavily policed by the standards of a ski resort. The real risks are on the mountain: the Grand Couloir is a marked run that is genuinely steep and narrow and catches people out every year, and the off-piste between the valleys is avalanche terrain. The village roads ice badly at night.
Comfortable: all four villages · the lift stations · Le Praz
- the Grand Couloir — a marked run that is genuinely steep and narrow, and catches people out yearly
- the village roads after dark — they ice hard and the gradients are severe
Comfortable and very well run for snow. The altitude is the thing: Val Claret sits at 2,100 metres and people arrive from sea level and ski hard on the first day, which is how the resort clinic fills up. The off-piste under the Grande Motte is crevassed glacier, not a powder field.
Comfortable: Tignes Le Lac · Val Claret · Les Brévières
- the glacier off-piste — it is crevassed, and the crevasses are under the snow rather than visible
- the first day at 2,100 metres — altitude and a hard first morning is what fills the resort clinic
Very comfortable. The mountain hazards are the ordinary ones of a big linked area: it is easy to end up in the wrong valley at the end of the day and expensive to get back by taxi, and the off-piste between the valleys is avalanche terrain. Watch the lift closing times.
Comfortable: Méribel Centre · Mottaret · the lift stations
- being in another valley at closing time — the taxi back round by road costs more than the day did
- the off-piste between the valleys — avalanche terrain, and the lifts make it easy to reach without meaning to
Comfortable. La Sarenne is long rather than difficult and the real risk on it is running out of daylight and legs at the same time — it finishes in a gorge with no lift. The plateau ices at night and the resort is spread out enough that people drive it.
Comfortable: the plateau · the lift stations · Oz and Villard-Reculas
- starting La Sarenne late in the day — sixteen kilometres finishing in a gorge with no lift out of it
- driving on the plateau at night — it ices hard and the resort roads are steep
Safe for visitors. The roads are the hazard — narrow, unbarriered, with a drop on one side and a hire car coming the other way. Swimming is unpatrolled on most beaches and the mountain weather turns fast on the GR20.
Comfortable: Ajaccio · Bastia · Bonifacio · Calvi · Porto-Vecchio
- the mountain roads — narrow, unbarriered, with a drop on one side and a hire car on the other
- the beaches without a lifeguard — which is nearly all of them
- the GR20 in bad weather — one of the hardest waymarked routes in Europe and not a summer stroll
- fire-risk days in high summer — the maquis burns and paths and roads close
Comfortable and busy by day, with a big student population. Pickpocketing and phone-snatching cluster around Saint-Jean station, Saint-Michel and Place de la Victoire late at night, and bikes go missing from anywhere unwatched. The riverside is well lit and used at all hours; Chartrons and Saint-Pierre are fine into the evening. Cycling here is easy but the tram tracks catch narrow tyres — cross them square.
Comfortable: Chartrons · Saint-Pierre · the Golden Triangle · the riverside quays
- around Saint-Jean station and Saint-Michel late at night — pickpocketing and phone-snatching, and a rougher feel than the centre
- Place de la Victoire after the bars close — student drinking, and the theft that works a drunk crowd
- a bike left unwatched — they go, locked or not, anywhere outside a garage
Safe by day everywhere a visitor goes, and less so around the station after dark, where the streets between the Gare Centrale and the Grande Île have an open drug scene and the usual pickpockets. The Christmas market weeks bring crowds, bag-snatching and concrete barriers at every entrance. Petite France and the Grande Île are fine into the evening.
Comfortable: La Petite France · the Grande Île · Krutenau · the cathedral quarter
- the Christmas market crowds — pickpocketing rises sharply and the barriers at the entrances are new
- the station district after dark — the streets between the Gare Centrale and the Grande Île have an open drug scene and the pickpockets that go with it
- the cycle lanes — they are everywhere and pedestrians walking in them is the local complaint
Nice Reasonably safe
Safe, though the Promenade and train station area attract pickpockets in summer. The beaches are pebble, not sand — bring water shoes.
Comfortable: Vieux Nice · Promenade des Anglais · Cimiez · Port Lympia
- Nice-Ville station — and the streets behind it at night
- Beach thefts while you swim, which are constant in July and August
Lyon Reasonably safe
A big French city with a big French city's problems, concentrated in a few places. Pickpocketing on the metro and around Part-Dieu station is constant; Guillotière and the Place du Pont have an open drug and street-selling scene and are the one central district to cross by tram after dark rather than on foot; phone-snatching on the Presqu'île has risen with the rest of France. Vieux Lyon, the Presqu'île and Croix-Rousse are busy and fine into the evening. The traboules are private buildings — go quietly, and before evening.
Comfortable: Vieux Lyon · Presqu'île · Croix-Rousse · Confluence
- Part-Dieu station and the metro at rush hour — for pickpocketing, which is constant
- Guillotière and the Place du Pont after dark — an open drug and street-selling scene; cross it by tram rather than on foot late at night
- phones in hand on the Presqu'île — snatching from bikes and scooters has risen here as everywhere in France
Paris Stay alert
Serious crime is not the visitor’s problem here; organised theft is. Petition and bracelet crews work Sacré-Cœur and the Eiffel Tower, and pickpockets work Line 1, Châtelet and the Gare du Nord. Keep bags closed and in front of you on the metro, and simply walk away from anyone who approaches you with a clipboard or a friendship bracelet.
Comfortable: Le Marais · Saint-Germain-des-Prés · Canal Saint-Martin · Montmartre
- Châtelet–Les Halles — and Gare du Nord, especially the RER B from the airport
- Trocadéro — and the base of the Eiffel Tower, for organised pickpocketing
- Barbès–Rochechouart — and parts of the 18th and 19th at night
- The friendship-bracelet men on the Montmartre steps, who will not let go of your wrist
Marseille asks for more attention than any other French city, and the guide should say so rather than talk it up. Phone-snatching and pickpocketing are organised and frequent around the Vieux-Port, Noailles, Belsunce and Saint-Charles station, scooters take bags from pavements, and cars are broken into at the beaches and the Calanques. The violence the city is known for is drug-trade violence in the northern arrondissements, which no visitor has a reason to enter. Le Panier, the Corniche and Cours Julien are fine by day and busy into the evening; after dark, the station district and the streets north of La Canebière are where to take a taxi rather than walk.
Comfortable: Le Panier · the Vieux-Port · the Corniche · Cours Julien · Notre-Dame de la Garde
- the Vieux-Port and Metro line 1 — pickpocketing is organised and frequent, and phones are taken from hands and café tables
- Noailles, Belsunce and Saint-Charles station — the streets north of La Canebière, and after dark the district is one to cross by taxi rather than on foot
- the northern arrondissements — where the drug-trade violence the city is known for happens; no visitor has a reason to be there
- pavements beside the road — bag-snatching from scooters is a Marseille speciality; keep the bag on the building side
- the beach car parks and the Calanques — break-ins are routine and nothing should be left visible; in high summer the Calanques paths close on fire-risk days
The ratings are this site's own, from the guides' authors and the corrections readers send in; they are not an index. Read the general advice in travel safety tips.
