I plan to visit Paris this spring and want to attend a wine festival near Paris or within a short train ride. Does anyone know of any...can't find any on the internet. I can schedule my trip around the festival.

Shick, festivals are held at vendage, (grape picking) and that is usually in October. There's one in Paris in Montmartre across from the old Lapin Agile.

Shick: The nearest "wine region" to Paris would probably be the Champagne or Loire regions, which you could easily visit by train. You won't find a wine festival, however, in the springtime, because the grapes are harvested at the end of September/beginning of October, and that's when the festivals are traditionally held. You can visit wineries and do a dégustation at any time of year, however. In fact, you can just stay in Paris and go to wine bars to do some tasting.

OOps! mispelled the grape harvest. It's vendange.

Shick,

Unfortunately you just missed the Salon du Vin at Porte de Versailles. Thousands of small wine producers gather at the convention center for five days. It ended on Monday, Dec 1st. It is held every year at the end of november, early december. It is fantastic!

Shick,

Try this web site and look under "manifestations"
http://www.vigneron-independant.com/

As i stated before, you missed the big one for this year, but there is another one in the spring time--mid April, 2004? Here you'll probably find around 500 or so small producers promoting their wine from all wine regions in france.
Hope that helps.

Thank you for your response, and we'd love to attend this one in April, however, that web site is in French...no English option. Can you help with the Date? Time? Place? What events are involved?

shick,

The event in Paris in April is called Le Salon du Vin (vigneron independant)
There will be approximately 300 or so independant, small French wine producers set up in booths much like a convention. They give you a glass and you can taste and buy as many wines as you like. Everything from Champagne, Bordeaux, Burgundy, Loire valley, southwest wines, etc..
Entrance fee is about 5 euro.
It will be held at the Porte de Champerret in Paris. The dates, I believe, will be April 8-12, 2004. Timing is about 10am to 8pm each day. But I recommend checking their website in January or February to verify the dates and times.

Hope this info helps.