France
The classics survive because they still work, not because anyone's obligated to keep them.
A brasserie that's run the same menu since before the war isn't stuck — it's found the version that doesn't need changing. Those are worth more of a trip than most of what opened this year.
Places in France
Courchevel 1850
The highest and most expensive of Courchevel's villages, and the one with the Three Valleys opening straight off its doorstep.
La Clusaz
A working Haute-Savoie village an hour from Geneva, skied hard by locals and largely ignored by the international crowd.
Megève
A medieval village the Rothschilds turned into a ski resort in the 1920s, and one of the few French resorts that still looks like a village.
Paris
The tourist-menu brasseries are a five-minute walk from the ones locals still argue over.
Logged in France
Café de Flore
Paris, FranceA Saint-Germain café since the 1880s whose regulars ran from Huysmans to Picasso — and whose most famous couple got a film named after it.
Le Dôme Café
Paris, FranceAn 1898 Montparnasse seafood brasserie Anthony Bourdain called second only to the Eiffel Tower as a Paris must-visit.
Le Pavillon de la Reine
Paris, FranceA 17th-century hôtel particulier tucked off Place des Vosges, built as the queen's own garden pavilion.