Okay, Rick Steves may not be my favorite guy in the world (see my last post), but his writing is everywhere, and since the Travel Show (again, see my last post) is going to be Stevesless this year, I thought we’d check in on him today.

This week Rick is giving us the heads-up on tips for France in 2010. For example, the Eiffel Tower has set up a new online reservation system, helping to alleviate line congestion at the most visited monument in the world. Those hoping to visit the Picasso Museum will be out of luck for a couple years while the museum renovates, but Paris’ Catacombs has been reopened after a recent vandal-related closing (come on kids, time to check out some skeletons!) as well as has Versailles after its own multi-year makeover.

Rick warns travelers to Chartres’ cathedral to be prepared to encounter a wall of scaffolding around the iconic church, but don’t worry, the inside’s untouched.

And for travelers in the search of wine on Provence’s Cotes du Rhone wine road, Rick recommends Domaine de Mourchon, the “buzziest” of the vineyards in the area and run by a couple of Scots, which Rick notes “eliminat[es] the language barrier.” Because, you know, incredulously, the French like to speak French.