My wife and I are planning a trip to Burgundy either for the fall or spring. Our favorite thing to do is visiting small towns and villages in the countryside, drinking the local wine and eating the local fare. I would be greatful for any tips on towns in the region to visit.

Burgundy is lovely. Try to include the city of Beaune in your visit. You may want to stay just outside in the hamlet of Levernois, which has some good hotels and excellent restaurants.

The town of Chablis and surrounding vineyards are definitely worth visiting.

If you travel in fall, keep in mind that it is harvest time and many of the smaller producers may be too busy to spend much time with you.

I suggest the southern part of Burgundy-the Beaujolais area. It consists of soft rolling hills and a variety of small wine villages like Flurie and Saint Amour. There's lots of small vineyards to visit and some great places for lunch like the Auberege du Paradis in Saint Amour. It's little known and not crowded with tourists. I love the place.

We stayed in Nuits St Georges last July about 10 minutes from Beaune, and we enjoyed it quite a lot. Wineries everywhere and we stopped at a few small ones. Market day in Beaune is wonderful.

Take a look at <i>Discovering the Villages of France</i> by Michael Busselle for some ideas of villages to visit.

For a VERY small village--a hamlet, in fact--spend a day or two in Bouilland, not far from Savigny-l&egrave;s-Beaune, at the Hostellerie du Vieux Moulin. It's a charming inn with a very good restaurant in a lovely rural setting.

From Bouilland you can visit Beaune, the wine villages and wineries along the C&ocirc;te de Nuit, the lovely town of Autun (with a magnificent cathedral), and many other places. In Burgundy it's hard to go wrong--the country is very scenic, and you can just lay out your map and go in any direction.

How much time will you have? You will probably want to select certain areas in which to base yourselves and then plan day trips from there to places of interest.

Here's a link to some articles on Burgundy that might give you some ideas:

http://www.bonjourparis.com/pages/se...Jean+Underhill