jrmama42

My husband and I are planning on spending a week each in Burgundy (Beaune) and Tuscany (near Cortona) in July to see the sights and sample the wines. We'll have a car so we were thinking of driving from France to Italy. Any suggestions on the route to take?
Also, any day-trip destinations or restaurants you can recommend? We've been to both countries, but not these regions.

robjame

Check out my Burgundy photos
http://tinyurl.com/m39xz
For a great wine tasting/lunch experience book a wine tasting at Olivier Laflaive.
Book a meal at Ma Cuisine in Beaune.
Drive to Pommard and eat at Caveau de Lagrange.

bobthenavigator

That is a very long drive, and you will have a big drop charge by changing countries. Why not Piedmont and Tuscany if you love wine? It will save you a day of driving.

hopscotch

You can drive through the Mont Blanc Tunnel and down the Valle d'Aosta. I went the other way and enjoyed the views and the fresh air in July, except for the diesel GAGH fumes in the tunnel.

Or you can drive south through France and then east along the Cote d'Azur. That also has its virtues but will be a madness of traffic in July. Been there and done that also.

Underhill

As someone above said, note that by taking a car from France and leaving it in Italy you will incur a hefty drop charge--probably around $250.

StuDudley

I'll make the same comment as Bob - why those two areas - they are very far apart. I would do Burgundy & Provence, or as Bob suggested Piedmont & Tuscany.

That drive is going to be a killer. The sun will be in your face while driving & it won't be enjoyable at all unless you take about 3-4 days to do it & travel the back roads. ViaMichelin says it's a 10 hr affair. I dread the section around Genoa & avoid it at all costs (last June I took the train).

Also, If you happen to take this drive on a weekend, there may be hours of delay at toll booths as all of France (it seems), is on the freeway from Paris south. We drove the opposite direction in July last year on a Saturday, and there was a 10K backup at one the toll booth - and you will encounter more than one.


About 1 month ago, I posted a list of my favorite restaurants in Burgundy - with descrption of the courses we had. Click on my name to find it.

Stu Dudley

cocofromdijon

Welcome on board!
I would avoid at all costs to drive from the airport to Burgundy with all those traffic jams (+ you can get lost very easily)
Why don't you take a TGV to Dijon and then rent a car at the railway station? Beaune is only 45km from there and you will enjoy more the countryside if you're not tired (take la route des Grands Crus, parallel to RN74 and right into the vineyards).
Don't miss a visit to Dijon if you like architecture and good food. My pictures
http://tinyurl.com/okerl
Check www.voyages-sncf.com to get the Prems tickets (as low as 20€ if you check carefully)
If you like castles, go to La Rochepot(16km from Beaune), Chateauneuf en Auxois (35km)

Here are a few postings about Burgundy
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34919262

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34907221

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34900913

Happy travels!
coco

hdm

Robjame and Coco,
Thank you so much for the great pictures! I'm just beginning to plan our itinterary for our firt trip to France and we hope to spend time in both Dijon and Beaune after a week in Paris.

Coco, what is a TGV? We were planning to rent a car at the end of the Paris week and drive to Dijon or Beaune but would you suggest we take the train and rent a car in either one of those cities?

cocofromdijon

Thanks hdm
A TGV is Train Grande Vitesse (High speed train). They take you from Paris to Dijon in 1h40 as it takes 3hours for a "normal" train (Corail, TER,(Transports Express Régionaux))
It depends on how long you want to spend on the road.
If you make a few stops, it is obvious that you'll need a car but otherwise you'll enjoy the scenery from the train with no stress. (and will spend more time in Dijon eventually ;-))

What season are you going? You should definitely take a train in July and August as the A6 (from Paris to the South of France) can be a nightmare on summer holidays...

hdm

Thanks for your prompt respons, Coco. We'll be in France for the last two weeks of May (first week in Paris) and then the first week of June. We hope to spend the second and third weeks travelling around Provence and visiting a friend in Nice and will probably drive most of the time, though a train out of Paris and back into Paris at the end of the trip seems a good idea.

Once I know when we'll be in Dijon, I'm going to email you in the hopes your apartment will be available -- it gets such excellent reviews!

cocofromdijon

It is always a pleasure to welcome a Fodorite
However don't wait too long since May and June are almost fully booked.
à bientôt!
coco

hdm

coco,
I'll try to pin down a date by the beginning of the week. Thanks for the 'heads up'!

jrmama42

Thanks for the tips, everyone! Loved the photos, robjame and coco. Can't wait to see these sights for myself! As for the driving bit, turns out we won't be driving to Italy. That was something we tossed around, thinking we might take European delivery on a new BMW (a 25th anniversary gift to ourselves!) and drive from Germany, through France and to Italy. But we decided to save that for another trip.
I'm intrigued by your recommendations, robjame. I read your description of Olivier Laflaive (thanks for the link, coco!) "We learned more about wine, how to taste wine, how to find what you like in wine, growing grapes and the winemaking process." My husband doesn't speak French and mine's quite rusty, so the discussions would probably be lost on us... Sounds really interesting though!
We will definitely visit Dijon. It looks beautiful!
Thanks again for all the great suggestions.