The most enjoyable route to the view from Montmartre involves a gentle walk up the hill from the Metro station Abbesses (line 12) to the Place du Tertre. This modest square is thronged with portrait painters, and on its western edge is the flamboyant Sacre Coeur from whose steps a magnificent panorama opens up over the city. The blocks and towers of La Defense are particularly striking and the Eiffel Tower looks like a Meccano model.

Lac de Gaube, the Pyrenees For a quite unforgettable Pyrenean view, you need, first of all, to find your way to the car-park at Pont d'Espagne, a very popular spot just outside the spa town of Cauterets.

From there, a couple of hours' walk will take you through a grassy valley to Lac de Gaube.

At the end of the valley behind the lake is the massif of Vignemale, a semi-circle of snow-covered peaks which includes Mont Vignemale, the highest on the French side of the Pyrenees. A restaurant beside the lake makes a perfect vantage point from which to enjoy the scenery.

Gorges de Verdon, the Var and Alpes-de-Hautes-Provence The most gorgeous of gorges in France are those carved out of the limestone plateau by the River Verdon on the border of the departments of the Var and the Alpes-deHaute-Provence, 120km from Nice.

The Grand Canyon du Verdon, as it is also known, is 21km long and 700m deep. Most conveniently, there are roads along both edges of the canyon with plenty of viewpoints from which to ponder this miracle of nature. The southern route starts just south of the village of MoustiersSte-Marie and continues towards Trizanne.

Laon, Picardy As unexpected as it is spectacular, the town of Laon dominates the dull, flat landscape of Picardy in northern France from its perch on a high ridge, providing great views not only as you approach it but also from the medieval ramparts of its upper town.

What you first see, at a distance of many kilometres, are the five towers of one of France's finest Gothic cathedrals, which have gained its site the name of 'the crowned mountain'. The cathedral of Notre-Dame was built in the 12th century and served as a model for Chartres among other great French cathedrals. Its interior is vast and surprisingly light, while among its splendid gargoyles are two bulls, a tribute to the beasts that hauled the stone building blocks up the hill. You get a very good idea of the magnitude of their task when you look down across the plain, from the ramparts that encircle the old town.

Carcassonne, Aude Carcassonne combines a beautiful setting and superb architecture with a deep and tangled history involving Romans, Moors and Cathars. After the Treaty of the Pyrenees was signed between Spain and France in 1659, Carcassonne lost its strategic importance and became fossilised . . . which is why you can enjoy some amazing views.

The fortifications of the old city, high above the right bank of the Aure, have been preserved and embellished over the centuries to create a unique ambience, offering spectacular views: the Montagne Noire to the north, the Pyrenees to the south, plus close-ups of tottering towers and a cross-section of a couple of millennia of fortifications.