Ruskin, aged seven, first visited France with his parents on a short trip in 1825. They visited Paris and went on to Belgium, where they saw Brussels and the field of Waterloo. In 1833 the family visited again on their way to Italy and Switzerland, entering France at Calais and thence to Strasbourg, following the course of the Rhine. The return journey passed through Paris, Amiens, Montereuil and Boulogne. The Ruskins travelled through France again in 1835 on the way to Switzerland and Italy by way of Calais, Montereuil, Abbeville, Rouen, Paris, Soissons, Rheims, Nancy, and Dijon, returning through Strasbourg and Paris. The family again travelled through France in September and October of 1840, spending six weeks on the way to Italy following Ruskin's becoming ill at Oxford. On this occasion they travelled south from Rouen through Pontgibaud, Clermont, Brioude, Le Puy, St Étienne, Valence, Montélimar and Aix to the Riviera at Nice. They returned in June 1841 by way of Nancy, Rheims, Laon and Calais. The family's annual summer tour of 1842 to Switzerland took them through France via Calais, Boulogne, Montereuil, Abbeville, Rouen, Chartres and Fontainbleau and Auxerre. In May of 1844 the family's tour again took them through France where they visited Rouen on the way to Chamonix and the Simplon. They returned in August through Champagnole, Paris, where he visited the Louvre, Beauvais, Amiens, Montereuil, and Calais. Ruskin's first continental tour without his parents, of 1845, also took him through France on his way to and from Italy. This journey was repeated in their company in 1846, the passage through France being by way of Calais, Abbeville, Dijon, Beauvais, Paris and Champagnole. The return journey included Sens.
Following his marriage to Euphemia (Effie) Gray, Ruskin and Effie visited Normandy where Ruskin carried out architectural research for The Seven Lamps of Architecture. This took place in Caen, Abbeville, Rouen, Falaise, Avranches, Coutances, St Lô, Bayeaux, Mont St Michele, and Honfleur in August and October. Ruskin wrote disparagingly of the architectural 'restoration' taking place. They also visited Paris. Ruskin returned to the continent with his parents but without his wife in April 1849, travelling to Switzerland via Paris, Sens, Dijon and Champagnole; returning in September via Dijon, Paris, Amiens and Calais. In October of the same year he again travelled through France on his way to Switzerland and Italy with Effie. The return journey by way of Paris took place in March and April of 1850. Ruskin and Effie passed through France again in 1851 on their way to Switzerland and Italy, by way way of Boulogne, Paris, Sens, Dijon and Champagnole. They returned to England in the middle of 1852.
Following the break down of his marriage Ruskin again visited continental Europe without his parents in 1854, passing through France in May and June via Calais, Amiens, Beauvais, Chartres, and Champagnole. He returned by way of Paris, where he visited the Louvre, in September. In 1856 Ruskin again travelled through France on his way to Switzerland, and studied in the Louvre in Paris on his return journey. Similar journeys took place in 1858, 1861 (when he thought of settling in Savoy), 1862 (on the way to Italy), 1863, when he visited Annecy in Savoy, and 1866. In 1868 Ruskin again studied the architecture of northern France in Abbeville and Amiens. He again travelled through France on his way to Italy in 1872 and 1874. 1880 again saw Ruskin working in northern France, The Bible of Amiens, the resulting work, being published in 1885. He visited France again in 1882 with W.G. Collingwood and on his final continental tour of 1888. France was significant for Ruskin primarily for the work done in Normandy which provided some of the grounds for The Seven Lamps of Architecture and later for The Flamboyant Architecture of the Valley of the Somme and The Bible of Amiens.