We are three sisters who are currently planning a trip to France. We are flying to London for a few days and then taking the Chunnel to Paris. We thought that we would arrive at Gare du Nord and then take a train to either Bordeaux, Burgundy or somewhere for a week of touring and wine tasting before returning to Paris for a few nights and then flying home. Any suggestions on an itinerary?

For information about Bordeaux:

http://www.dmjwineworks.com/
http://www.bordeaux.com/

Here are two excellent, very professional wine tours around Burgundy (this would be my choice of tours and area to visit):

http://www.toursetdetours.com/
http://wineandvoyages.com/

You don't specifically mention the Rhone River area (Provence) but here is some general information:

http://www.vins-rhone.com/pages/home-en.asp
http://www.medoc-wines.com/

I should have mentioned that we usually rent a car and do our own tour. I was wanting input on what wine areas you find the most interesting, picturesque, etc. Besides enjoying wine we also love markets, good food, lovely little towns, etc. We would prefer to stay in one or two towns during our 7 days and do day trips from there. Do you prefer the Burgundy region to Bordeaux and if so, why? Thanks for your response.

Bordeaux has one major city and St Emillion which is a world unesco wine town. The wine producers are generally large (5 to 300 acres) and mainly sell through world wide distributors. There are tastings to be had but often by invitation. To resolve this most towns will have a tasting room where the local product can be tried and bought (not always in the vinyard) Note also the importance of sweet wine to the area.

Burgundy has a number of centres, Chablis to Beaunne and the vinyards are often small .2 to 5 acres or even smaller with multiple ownership. This means the negociant has a different input to the industry.

if it were me i would do burgundy but try to prebook some critical visits.

Start in chablis, st bris auxerre and around for say 2 days then move to say nuit st george and trip around

Although the wines are not as reknowned (sp?) the countryside is more beautiful IMO in Provence. And it has buckets of charm. A good rose de provence or a bandol can be quite wonderful as well.

I realize you are thinking of Bordeaux, but if you consider the Alsace wine road, this is a great thread. I have it marked.

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...e-and-skip.cfm

We love Burgundy, we always stay in Beaun, Dijon is a great place as well. You can see our pics here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jamie.a.shearer/Burgundy#

Frank has a good idea. I think both Provence and Alsace more
interesting areas for travel than Bordeaux or Burgundy though most would agree that the latter two have the superior wines.