Guizot preferred people to things, and books to travel.

Circumstances decided his territorial attachments: Nîmes, where he was born, Geneva where it was formed, England where he was ambassador and then exiled, his house in Val-Richer in the Pays d'Auge, where he settled without really choosing it. These, he says, were his four homelands.

Although he lived in Paris For most of his life, he never felt truly Parisian.

As for travelling for pleasure or curiosity, in France or abroad, the idea does not seem to have occurred to him. François Guizot's favourite place is wherever he happens to be.