Pokémon X and Y: The France Behind Kalos

Every Kalos journey opens in Vaniville Town — Bourg Croquis in the French edition — the small town that represents Moulins in central France. Here the new arrival has just moved in with their mother Grace, and receives a starter Pokémon — Chespin, Fennekin or Froakie — from Tierno before setting off across Kalos. The real Moulins is the capital of the Allier department, on the river Allier. Its cathedral began as a Flamboyant collegiate church at the end of the 15th century, and its treasury holds the famous triptych by the Maître de Moulins, commissioned around 1500.

Location precision: The games name no real town; the pin marks Moulins, the town Bourg Croquis represents in the French mapping.

Visitor guidance: Moulins stands on the river Allier in central France.

Kalos's largest city is Lumiose, inspired by Paris: Prism Tower is the Eiffel Tower, the art museum the Louvre. The story gathers trouble here — the first visit finds a partial power outage, and the player meets Lysandre, who desires a more beautiful world. Later it returns for Team Flare's secret lab beneath a café, where the 9-foot-tall AZ, a 3,000-year-old king who once used the ultimate weapon, waits; the tale ends at the champion's parade, where AZ battles and his Floette returns. The real tower, built by Gustave Eiffel's company from 1887 to 1889, is 330 metres tall and still the tallest structure in Paris.

Location precision: Lumiose City is inspired by Paris; the pin marks the Eiffel Tower, the model named for Prism Tower.

Visitor guidance: The Eiffel Tower is on the Champ de Mars in Paris; expect queues and book the lift ahead in season.

West of Lumiose stands the Battle Château, a beautiful château on a river where many trainers come to train — a nod to the châteaux of the Loire and, notably, Chenonceaux, with its river representing the Loire itself. The real Chenonceau spans the river Cher near the village of Chenonceaux in Indre-et-Loire. The current château was built in 1514–1522 on the foundations of an old mill, and is one of the best-known châteaux of the Loire Valley.

Location precision: The Battle Château's model is a fan identification; the pin marks Château de Chenonceau, the named inspiration.

Visitor guidance: The château spans the river Cher near Chenonceaux, in the Loire Valley.

From Fort-Vanitas — the small fortified town representing Blois — the route opens onto the famous palais Chaydeuvre, representing the château de Versailles. The real palace southwest of Paris was the principal residence of the French kings Louis XIV, Louis XV and Louis XVI; the king, court and government lived there permanently from 6 May 1682 until 6 October 1789. Conceived by Louis XIV to glorify the French monarchy, it now covers about 63,154 square metres and contains roughly 2,300 rooms — a French classical masterpiece fit for Kalos's grandest palace.

Location precision: The palais Chaydeuvre's model is a fan identification; the pin marks the château de Versailles.

Visitor guidance: The palace is in Versailles, southwest of Paris; arrive early in summer.

Ambrette Town — Roche-sur-Gliffe in French — is a coastal town prized for its aquarium and its fossil study office, and it represents La Rochelle. The real aquarium is family-owned and vast: over 8,445 square metres of surface area holding 3 million litres of seawater. Its 73 display aquaria and 150 quarantine tanks exhibit more than 12,000 animals of 600 different species, and the aquarium draws an average of 800,000 visitors per year.

Location precision: Ambrette Town's model is a fan identification; the pin marks the Aquarium de La Rochelle, the feature its mapping highlights.

Visitor guidance: The aquarium is in the city of La Rochelle.

Above Shalour City — Yantreizh in French, which represents Saint-Malo — rises the Tower of Mastery, a great island tower where the chosen must prove themselves worthy of Mega Evolution; it represents Mont-Saint-Michel. Here the player learns Mega Evolution from guru Gurkinn and his granddaughter Korrina, the Gym Leader, and earns free use of it by beating Korrina in a special battle with Lucario. The real Mont-Saint-Michel is a tidal island in Normandy, unconquered during the Hundred Years' War, inscribed on the UNESCO list in 1979 and visited by more than three million people a year.

Location precision: The Tower of Mastery's model is a fan identification; the pin marks Mont-Saint-Michel, the island mount it represents.

Visitor guidance: The tidal island lies off the Normandy coast; a footbridge links it to the mainland.

Anistar City — Flusselles in French — is famous for its sundial and holds the Psychic gym of Astera; the city represents Strasbourg, and its sundial refers to the cathedral's astronomical clock. The real clock is the third on its spot, inside the Cathédrale Notre-Dame of Strasbourg; the current one dates from 1843. Every day at solar noon the 18-inch-high figures of Christ and the Apostles file past while a life-size rooster crows three times.

Location precision: Anistar's sundial model is a fan identification; the pin marks the astronomical clock of Strasbourg Cathedral.

Visitor guidance: The clock is inside Strasbourg Cathedral; the automata play at solar noon.

Geosenge Town first appears as a small town of vestiges and many menhirs — Cromlac'h in French, representing Carnac — and the stones outside it are the Carnac stones. But Team Flare's lair is hidden there: the player storms their second base in Geosenge Town, the location of the ultimate weapon, finds a dormant Xerneas or Yveltal at its core, and escapes before Lysandre turns the weapon on itself. The real stones are an exceptionally dense collection of megalithic sites on Brittany's south coast — more than 3,000 prehistoric standing stones, the largest such collection in the world, erected around 3300 BC.

Location precision: The stones' model is named in Wikipedia's setting note; the pin marks the Carnac alignments themselves.

Visitor guidance: The alignments lie just outside the town of Carnac in Brittany.

In the Kalos mountains, which represent the Vosges, Terminus Cave hides Zygarde, the legendary guardian of order, at its bottom; the vast abandoned mine is inspired by the many abandoned mines of the real massif. Xerneas, Yveltal and Zygarde are the games' three legendaries, and a war 3,000 years ago set Mega Evolution in motion by infusing energy into an asteroid. The Vosges are a range of medium mountains in Eastern France, near the border with Germany; their highest peak, the Grand Ballon, reaches 1,424 metres.

Location precision: The Kalos mountains stand for the Vosges; the pin marks the range itself.

Visitor guidance: The Vosges stretch near France's border with Germany; the Grand Ballon is the highest peak.