The official site of the French tourist board, franceguide.com, remains the best place to locate regional sites - of which there are hundreds, many diligently maintained by out-of-the-way tourist offices. Most list accommodation, and almost all are in English as well as French. Skiing resorts are catalogued at the otherwise unimpressive skifrance.fr.

By train

Note that eurostar.com will only take you as far as Lille or Paris; bookings to other towns and cities need to be made via an agency or online at sncf.com/indexe.htm. Useful background information can be found at seat61.com .

Flying

The principle budget airline for France, Buzz ( buzzaway.com ), will begin flying to a number of smaller French airports, such as Bergerac, Caen and Tours, in the spring. Ryanair ( ryanair.com ) flies to Carcassonne (though not during March), Nîmes, Biarritz and Perpignan, while easyJet ( easyjet.co.uk ) goes to Nice and Go ( go-fly.co.uk ) to Nice and Lyon.

Sailing

P&O ( posl.com ) and SeaFrance ( seafrance.co.uk ) compete on the Dover-Calais route, while Brittany Ferries ( brittany-ferries.com ) plies four longer routes. Ferrysavers ( ferrysavers.co.uk ) claims to offer the lowest prices, although at present its 2002 timetables are still incomplete and online booking is only available to car passengers.

Driving

A couple of readers have emailed me with criticisms of Eurotunnel's ( eurotunnel.co.uk ) Points Plus 10% discount scheme . But while the site is not particularly exciting - unless you need to be persuaded of how cheap French supermarkets are - it functions smoothly. The admirable viamichelin.com , meanwhile, continues to provide the most comprehensive driving directions. You can choose the fastest, cheapest and most scenic routes and print out a list of restaurants on your way.

Staying

Hundreds of agencies deal in French property rentals. One of the best is frenchconnections.co.uk ; one of the cheapest (and largest) is Abritel ( abritel.fr/services/abritel/uk/default.ssi ). Parishotels.com and Travel in Paris ( travel-in-paris.com/hotel-selection.htm ) both specialise in non-chain "hôtels du charme", while Gîtes de France ( gites-de-france.fr/eng/ ) has details of more than 55,000 countryside gîtes. Campers and caravanners can find more than 11,000 pitches at campingfrance.com/indexuk.htm, although the lack of photos is a pity.

Visiting

Virtually every French monument, museum and gallery can be tracked down via L'Internet Culturel ( portail.culture.fr/sdx/pic/culture/int/ ). It's only available in French, but demands a minimal command of the language. RATP ( ratp.fr ), the Paris transport authority, has information on travelling in the capital. One of the most useful sites is the Pages Jaunes search ( pageszoom.com/wrmm_rue_marchande.cgi ). This lets you "walk" along a street in any major town or city and locate a particular shop, restaurant or hotel.

Eating

Again, if you speak a little French, the choice of sites opens up. Among the best are PlanResto ( paris.planresto.fr ), an interactive guide which can even search for a particular speciality, such as choucroute or chateaubriand, and restos-pas-chers.fr for cheap bistros. Buried in Le Figaro ( lefigaro.fr - look under Art de Vivre and then Gastronomie) are France-wide restaurant reviews. Reviews in English can be found at timeout.com/paris/eat/ and fodors.com/paris .