portobelloB

Hello Fodorites,
We are planning a visit to France late September this year. So far, this is our itinerary for a 15 day trip:

Friday - traveling
Sat - Fly from Paris to Bordeaux- get in noon- rent a car - drive to St. Emilion
Sun-St. Emilion
Mon- Bordeaux
Tue- Bordeaux - drive to Cognac?
Wed- Bordeaux - return rental car
Thur-Bordeaux/fly to Dijon
Fri - Dijon - day trip?
Sat- Dijon- train to Beaune
Sun-Dijon
Mon-Dijon
Tues-Dijon/TGV train to Paris (3rd visit to Paris)
Wed-Paris
Thur-Paris - Giverney (Monet's Garden)
Fri-Paris
Sat-Paris - Versailles
Sun-Fly home

Background: In our 50's, loves to travel, enjoys good food and wine/cognac, architecture, art, farmers markets, scenery, hiking, biking, 3-4 star hotels accommodations, and blending in and getting to know the locals. We have been to Paris & South of France (Nice, Antibes, St. Raphael, St. Tropez, Cannes, St. Jean Cap Ferrat, Menton, Villafrance), Provence (Avignon, Arles, Aix, Cassis, St. Remy, Les Baux), Annecy, and now we are excited to visit Bordeaux and the Burgundy regions for the first time.

Would appreciate recommendations for hotels & restaurants for St. Emilion, Bordeaux & Paris (Left Bank area). Already have plans to rent an apartment in Dijon.

We plan to rent a car for the Bordeaux area (car rental/airport?) and plan to take the train from Dijon for day trips. We decided to fly from Bordeux to Dijon as we didn't want to spend 7 hours driving there.

Thank you in advance for letting me know about the highlights of your trip you can recommend to us.

Michael

This might interest you: http://www.cognac-only.com/cms/affic...numRubrique=12

Carla_Jung

I would not drive to Cognac - while there are the famous cognac factories there you can visit the town is very...industrial looking.

Instead explore Bordeaux or the wine country of Medoc north of Bordeaux or Saint Emilion a short drive away.

http://southweststory.com/bordeaux-tourist-sites

http://southweststory.com/bordeaux-r...sted-itinerary

HTH

Carla

annhig

portobello - thank you for your timely thread. In May DH and I may be going to share a gite near Bordeaux with some friends, so I'm up for ideas about what to do.

We spent a few days in that area about 35 years ago - we did go to Cognac and enjoyed a trip round one of the chais [Hennesey I think] and we drove up to the far tip of the gironde peninsular but unfortunately I was rather ill that day so we didn't do much more than drive up and drive back.

I seem to remember that St Emilion was very pretty but very busy too, and I can't imagine that it's less busy, 35 years later.

Hope you don't mind my piggy-backing your thread!

annhig

mmm - looking at Carla's post and the link about vineyards has reminded me of the tour we did of Chateau Prieure-lichine. We were shown round [along with a french couple] by a young girl who though she spoke excellent french, did not sound quite french to our english ears. afterwards, we were chatting to her and it turned out that she was indeed english, and would happily have done a bi-lingual tour had we asked.

oh well, it was good for our french!

And we retain a fondness for the chateau's wines, though we can rarely afford them.

cocofromdijon

Good idea to take a flight from Bordeaux to Dijon. You may check the schedule here http://www.dijon.aeroport.fr/assets/...timetables.pdf

Also I suggest you stay in Dijon on Friday to enjoy the market and discover the town and go on a day trip on Monday which is quieter. Have fun!

ira

Hi P,

If you haven't made uncancellable reservations for Dijon yet, I strongly urge you to stay with Coco if she has an availability.

http://www.myhomeindijon.com/

In place of Cognac, I suggest you drive out to Arcachon.

What's your budget for a Paris hotel?

Enjoy your visit.

bilboburgler

Great that you have a plan. If you want to visit any of the great wine houses in Bordeaux you might benefit from an invitation, which your local wine merchant (if any good) ought to be able to arrange, if not you have to take your luck with what allows people to visit. This can tend to be the smaller houses offering cheaper wine. However if you work your way down to the sweet end of the river (Cadillac etc) you will find village tasting houses which may suit.

Burgundy is easier to taste in, obviously there are the pleasant tourist cellars of Dijon but if you get out into the country (armed with a map from tourist office) you will find much more interesting wines for a reasonable ticket price.

Bordeaux has some well laid out bike paths between the towns. this may help http://www.mybikeguide.co.uk/Bordeaux_Guide.php and Bordeaux TI offers wine visits and bike hire (well they did last year). Arcachon is a nice bike ride from Bordeaux city for lunch.

Burgundy is less well laid out for bike usage in the south except along the canals and rivers. However the north, where Chablis and Auxerre comes from the roads are so quiet that you can pedal around easily.

StCirq

Driving to Cognac will take you an age. You better plan to spend a night or two.

portobelloB

You guys are so great! Thank you for all the recommendations and information links that were sent. We decided to not go to Cognac and stay in Bordeaux for the first five nights and take a day trip to St. Emilion instead of staying there. We had read that it is a very scenic drive and will look into seeing the Medoc wine region and other places that were suggested. Also, will check in on renting bikes while in Bordeaux. Is there a one day biking trip that you can recommend?

We are planning to stay at Coco's Place in Dijon after reading all the raving reviews. This was decided before I posted but when I saw Ira's recommendation and getting such lovely replies from Coco earlier, I'm thinking we are going to really love Dijon. It may be the hidden treasure of France.

Our budget for Paris is $200 but we could go higher. We won't be spending much time in our room but would like a place that is close to cafes/shops so Left Bank is preferable. Oh, and good coffee and breakfast would be a bonus. We drink lots of coffee in the morning

I hope we get more recommendations of places to see, shopping, restaurants and hotels. I'm interested in what unique things you bought on your trip? Keep them coming to help with my planning.

Thank you all Fodorites for your helpful responses.

bilboburgler

Ride to the Arcachon or into the Haut Brion

http://www.bordeaux.fr/p1243 gives a bunch of info

bilboburgler

sorry Haut Medoc. Tourist info will let you have maps

StuDudley

Note that shops will be closed on Sundays in Bordeaux and in Dijon. Also, as Coco noted, pretty "slow" on Mondays too.

Perhaps get some more info about Sundays in St Emilion. We've visited it twice - but never on a Sunday. Shops may be open on Sunday because it seems like the town is almost entirely dependent on tourism.

We stayed in a B&B in Sauternes in '12 and visited sites in the area. Like Ira - we really enjoyed Arcachon - especially the Winter Resort area if you like architecture. It might be a good place to go on Sunday.

Here are other places we visited.

Cadillac/Chateau 9:30-12:30 2-6
Sadirac, Creon - market day in Creon
Ch Cazeneuve** 2-6
Ch Malle* 2-6 Cl S, Su winery pg 153 gardens + 30 min guided tour/tasting
05 56 62 36 86

June 14 Thursday
St Macaire* pg 149
La Roel, Monsegur Cad 199, 195
Mich GG drive pg 153 Sauternes & Barsac
Ch Villandraunt 2-6 guided 1 hr – get there at 1:30
Ch Roquetaillade** tours @ 3 & 4 guided 1 hr - call to confirm pg 106 05 56 76 14 16

June 15 Fri
Arcachon & surrounds 1 ¼ hrs to get there pg 76 & 80 Get map at TI
Ch La Brede* 2:30-5:50 call to confirm

June 16 Sat
Bazas* pg 105, market day

Stu Dudley

Magster2005

I can highly recommend a wine bar in Bordeaux called Bar a Vin: http://baravin.bordeaux.com/ Excellent choice of wines by the glass along with plates of cheese and charcuterie served by friendly people in a relaxed but classy atmosphere. Really a marvelous place!

Another fun place in Bordeaux is Baud & Millet with cheese that you get to select from their extensive cheese cellar & good wine too: http://www.bsadiffusion.fr/restaurant.html

Sounds like a great trip!

StCirq

Also the Boîte à Huitres, which serves nothing but champagne, wine, and fresh shellfish (particularly oysters).

cocofromdijon

"Note that shops will be closed on Sundays in Bordeaux and in Dijon." Fortunately that Sunday will be extra busy with the Days of Patrimony (20/21 Sept this year in Dijon and all over France).

voyager61

We highly recommend Elohim and his tour through the wine country around Dijon. Obviously a lot of people feel the same way. This was one of our favorite experiences during our last trip to France.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserR..._Burgundy.html

Enjoy your trip!

sherryhill

Highly recommend this lovely hotel, across the street from Lumexbourg Gardens.
Hotel Luxembourg Parc
en.luxembourg-paris-hotel.com/‎
Hotel Luxembourg Parc - 42, Rue Vaugirard 75006 Paris.
Check out the TripAdvisor reviews.

StuDudley

>>Fortunately that Sunday will be extra busy with the Days of Patrimony <<

Fantastic. We were in Dijon for Patrimony weekend about 7 years ago. Dijon really "opens things up" and we saw lots of stuff that tourists (and even locals) don't normally get a chance to see. Don't miss!!!!! Dijon did a much better job than other cities we visited on subsequent visits during Patrimony.

Stu Dudley

portobelloB

Thanks everyone for your recommendations. I am really enjoying looking at all that has been suggested and hope to visit them. I have our apartments set for Bordeaux, Dijon and now working on Paris.

I was thinking of bringing my iPad 2 with us for our trip. I have not used it before for Europe and I'm hoping that the GPS will help us find places when we have a car in Bordeaux. We will have some Michelin maps we will bring with us but they may not be as detailed. This would be the only reason why I would bring my iPad because I'll have my camera and smart phone also with me. I would be interested to hear if people have found their iPad's GPS accurate while taking day trips in Bordeaux and Burgundy?

Stu - you are referring to pages for some of the places you are recommending. Is this from a journal or guide book?