Before your post, this wasn’t even remotely on my radar. Now I’ve googled a bunch of pictures and I need to go there ASAP. Looks amazing!
If you do decide to go, feel free to PM me and I’ll send you whatever recommendations I can. We are in the “greater area” every summer (Carnac-Plage).
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Do you have any specific interests to build in like art, architecture, walking, history, food? France is huge and I have been around 30 times, but still not seen it all.
The other thing is where do you live and what weather do you prefer. It can be cool and wet in April.
Having just done an extended trip to France in September involving tasting in the Loire, Champagne and Alsace (and having taken numerous previous trips to other parts of France), here’s my two cents:
The Loire is pretty fantastic and was very educational for me, someone who thinks (perhaps erroneously) that he knows a lot about wine. We started in Savennieres and worked our way east. Visits to Joly (Coulee de Serrant), Damien Laureau, and Baumard are highly recommended. Saumur was next and Yannick Amirault was a highlight. We weren’t able to visit Thierry Germain (closed at the time) and Clos Rougeard is basically impossible to get into at this point. Next was Chinon. Charles Joguet was a very pleasant surprise. Again we were shut out of some locations because of timing/harvest (e.g. Bernard Baudry). On the way from Chinon to Vouvray we had a leisurely lunch at Auberge Pom’Poire, which may have been the best 1-star lunch I’ve ever had (and I’ve had a few). Vouvray was the last stop; for such a famous wine locale, it’s almost bizarrely tiny – literally two restaurants in the town (although the estimable Michelin-starred Les Hautes Roches is just down the road and exceeded expectations). A visit to Huet was very perfunctory and transactional, but you kind of must do it, right? In Vouvray, lodging at La Rocheliere was terrific. Cool place run by the nicest people (ex-pat Finns of all things). The Loire was the highlight of the trip.
We then drove to Champagne (4 hours-ish of Iowa/Nebraska like scenery). A few strong views there: (1) you need to make every single restaurant reservation in advance. There is a woeful shortage of decent places to eat and they are all jammed to the gills; (2) stay in Reims, not Epernay. It is MUCH nicer; (3) Champagne is surprisingly unscenic – the romance is in the bottle, not the views; (4) Larmandier-Bernier was probably the best place we went where you can just call and make an appointment. It’s out of the way but very much worth a trip; (5) despite being a tourist area near Paris, Champagne shuts down almost completely on the weekends – basically nothing is open on Sunday and about 60% of wineries are closed on Saturday – I’d highly recommend going during the week or, at a minimum, heavily scripting your Saturday activities in advance. As you might sense, we were a bit disappointed.
Enjoyment-wise, Alsace was close to the Loire. Towns are startlingly picturesque – even beyond what I expected. Abundant, amazing restaurants with glorious food. I would skip the rather bizarre Alchemille, but otherwise it is hard to go wrong. I stayed in Kaysersberg (at the Hotel KLE, which was perfectly fine and excellent value for money). For tasting, I’d finagle your way into Barmes-Buecher. While I had pleasant experiences at the Trimbach/Weinbach/Zind-Humbrecht troika, all three were somewhat transactional except for my sweet-talking my way into a bit of Clos Ste. Hune.
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I stayed in Colmar when I visited Alsace about a decade ago, but agree with you. Loved Bergheim (where we had dinner) and Ribeauvillé (where Trimbach is located).
Here is a thread about my visit. A day touring a fairy tale land - WINE TALK - WineBerserkers
Do searches in this forum and in the food and restaurant forum as there are many, many recaps of visits of board members in most wine regions. These threads are hugely informative and a great source for restaurants recommendations in particular. Even in big cities, they are great - for example, when I go to Rome and Barcelona, for example, I basically just go to restaurants recommended on this board.
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And my wife’s favorite question when tasting in France was “What do you have that isn’t sold in the United States?” This proved to be a great opener to do a compare and contrast between the typical American tastes and French tastes in wine.
For some city time, don’t forget Lyon. A lovely city and great food.
No wrong way to do it unless if you manage to fill your schedule with too many winery visits in advance. We started traveling around France with wine in mind first and foremost but eventually wine became secondary, although obviously I focused on booking dinners at restaurants with great cellars. A couple of places away from the vines that I highly recommend are Auberge du Pot d’Etain in L’Isle sur Serein (Burgundy) and Hotel des Bains (not a hotel) in Charavines (Savoie). You will not regret going to either of them. Otherwise what we have enjoyed the most are the Alps (Annecy, Aix les Bains, Chambery etc), Noirmoutier (nothing to do with wine and a just a wonderful place to stay for a couple of days), inland and coastal Provence, Alsace (Kaysersberg, Riquewihr, Eguisheim), Jura (Château Chalon!), Champagne (usually stayed in Reims for conveniency and wine shops), Burgundy (Beaune, Meursault, Pommard), Lyon, Normandy (stayed in Deauville), Bretagne (stayed near Cancale)… We mostly like to avoid cities and prefer to say in B&Bs in smaller towns or in the countryside.
Yes. St Malo, Mont-St-Michel, the Jura (Ambois), Carcassonne, Dordogne, Chinon, Chartres (amazing). With one month, I would tire of vineyards all the time.
Start in Paris. Agree with a couple of days in Nice. Finish with 5 days in Bordeaux before heading to Paris for last couple of days before heading home
We’ve been to France several times. Biked it, hiked it, trained it.
We really enjoyed the Dordogne River Valley. Great food, wine and home to many of the famous cave painting areas.
You can start in Bordeaux which is a smaller, for us at least, more enjoyable city than Paris.
Southern Rhône is also spectacular for food and wine. We could have spent a month there just enjoying the medieval towns like Avignon, St Remy, Gordes, etc. The land of Van Gogh. So much history.
Was at the KLE this fall. Not super luxe accommodations but everything I wanted in a centrally located nice hotel. Kayserberg is one of those places that makes you go: Is this heaven? Nope, it’s France. Felt the same way about Arbois in the Jura.
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Think about taking a river cruise from Avignon to Lyon, which includes one trip to Beaune. Stops in several Chateneuf areas. Add another three nights in Burgundy. Add one or two nights in Aix in Provence, Gives a nice overview of that region. Lyon is the best for food!
Exactly so. Two thumbs way up.