Plan your Vacation in the Wine Country of France

Wine country vacation in France spreads wide across the Gallic state, including regions that have become the namesakes of popular wines worldwide. So, the three most notable of these regions – Champagne in the northeast, Bordeaux along the western coast and Burgundy in the southeast – feature developed tourist industries, but lesser-known regions, such as the Loire, Languedoc, and Roussillon, make for a less expensive and more intimate holiday.

Planning Your Trip

Depending on your time frame, select one to two regions to visit during your vacation. Each region offers much in terms of scenery and food as well as wineries, so you won't be able to experience much if you try to pack in too many regions for Geology and wine. You can fly into a regional airport close to the wine region you plan to visit, though most overseas flights land at Paris' Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport. From there, you can connect or travel with a regional, budget airline onto Strasbourg, near the Alsace wine route; Lyon, located by the wine region of Burgandy; Marseille, near mainly the Provence Wine Region; Toulouse, which sits between the Southwest and Languedoc-Roussillon wine regions; and Bordeaux, which of course is wine country of its own.

Winery Visits

While some French winery owners have hopped on the tourism bandwagon, for many, wine tour France production is still their most important activity. A few areas, such as the city of Epernay in Champagne, nearly uniformly offer organized tours and tastings, but visits can be hit or miss in many regions, particularly in small villages. The best way to discern which wineries accept visitors and whether an appointment is necessary is to visit the Maison or Syndicat du Vin, an organization representing local wine growers. Each city and village usually has its own, and in addition to providing winery information, the Maisons typically sell regional wine with little or no mark-up.