Where to eat (and drink!) in France?

[emilywish]

I'm planning a trip around France in March, and would like to organize my itinerary around the places where I can find delicious food and tasty white wines (my mom and I are not red wine fans, so I can skip regions that produce predominantly red). :p

On the agenda so far:

* drive through Alsace, tasting Riesling and Gewürztraminer
* stop in Reims for champagne
* a few days in Paris for the sights
* Versailles
* Chablis? (the town isn't covered by my guide book, though, so I don't know what there is to see)
* Burgundy, esp. Beaune for sights and the Chardonnays
* ending up on the Cote d'azur
* driving back to Lake Constance, our starting point, through Italy and Switzerland

Does anyone have recommendations for (more or less) nearby regions to visit, sights, restaurants, hotels, or wineries we should try? I'd be grateful for your suggestions!

Thanks,
Emily

[honeygirl1971]

Your question is a bit general, so I'm having trouble coming up with specific suggestions, but I was wondering if you liked dry rosé wines since Provence is known for them and there are lots of interesting things to see/do in Provence.

As for your list, Beaune is a good choice--the hospice there is interesting, and you will be near a lot of the great Chardonnay-producing wineries. I went to Chablis many, many years ago and barely remember it, so I'll have to do a little research to see if it's worth visiting or not. French chablis wines are different (and better) than American ones, so it may indeed be worth visiting, but then again, you may decide visiting the wineries near Beaune is a better use of time.

Oh, and now that I'm thinking about it, one region very well known for whites AND for tourism that is not on your list is the Loire valley! The Touraine and Vouvray wines are really lovely and the countryside is beautiful and packed with castles and history! Is there some reason it is not on your list? It's one of the major white-wine-producing regions...And it's not that far from Paris.

Brittany is also not on your list...Do you like seafood? The region is known for oysters, mussels, and other types of seafood, and for very dry white wines. Mt. St. Michel (sort of between Normandy and Brittany geographically) in particular is worth a visit...

How much time do you have in France total?

[emilywish]

Your question is a bit general, so I'm having trouble coming up with specific suggestions, but I was wondering if you liked dry rosé wines since Provence is known for them and there are lots of interesting things to see/do in Provence.

As for your list, Beaune is a good choice--the hospice there is interesting, and you will be near a lot of the great Chardonnay-producing wineries. I went to Chablis many, many years ago and barely remember it, so I'll have to do a little research to see if it's worth visiting or not. French chablis wines are different (and better) than American ones, so it may indeed be worth visiting, but then again, you may decide visiting the wineries near Beaune is a better use of time.

Oh, and now that I'm thinking about it, one region very well known for whites AND for tourism that is not on your list is the Loire valley! The Touraine and Vouvray wines are really lovely and the countryside is beautiful and packed with castles and history! Is there some reason it is not on your list? It's one of the major white-wine-producing regions...And it's not that far from Paris.

Brittany is also not on your list...Do you like seafood? The region is known for oysters, mussels, and other types of seafood, and for very dry white wines. Mt. St. Michel (sort of between Normandy and Brittany geographically) in particular is worth a visit...

How much time do you have in France total?

thanks for your suggestions! we do want to end up on the coast, so we can certainly include provence. i don't think we can really do brittany on this trip, though, (although my mom and i LOVE seafood ...) since we're only planning on spending a week driving around france altogether. with a few days in the paris-versailles area, that doesn't leave a lot of time. i'll check my wine book on the loire wines you suggested, though, they sound like something we should try. :)

[Becky13347]

I would recommend Beaune for wines, plus the sites are interesting. There are also many other white wines in the Alsace region besides Reisling and Gewurtztraminer. Be sure to try as much new wine as possible. This led my DH and I to buying 40-50 wines in 4 trips there over the past 4 years. :eek:
Chateau de Meursault and M.Chapoutier are 2 particulars I would recommend. They are pricy (but would be even pricier in the US) but well worth it in our opinions. We spent gobs of time just driving in the the Rhone areas and pulling over at all sorts of small wineries. They almost all will let you have free wine tasting (which usually leads to buying for us ;) ) I LOVED discovering all these little places. (I also recommend that plan for Alsace region)

If you are willing to try reds, I also recommend that. My DH and I were only rare drinkers of red wine. Now we buy and drink as much red as white. we really have learned to love it, much thanks to learning to buy well in France!

Have wonderful time discovering France! I'd go again in a heartbeat!
Becky