September 2026
The first two images in this newsletter should tell you all you need to know if wondering, why do all of Gary’s France Wine Tours begin in Paris? Because it is PARIS!!!!!!
On our first night in The City of Light (so named, if you have wondered, because of Paris’ early adoption of street lighting in the 17th-19th centuries, and its role in the Enlightenment) we took in a casual meal at a Bistro near our hotel in the 16th arrondissement.
As if anticipating our tour of Bordeaux a few days later wasn’t enough, when I picked up the wine menu and saw this Margaux offering, I thought “now, this is a good start to my reconnaissance tour of France!” I would have to check my receipt – for both name of restaurant and price of the bottle of wine, yet memory tells me it was under 90EU.
This image is of our second night in Paris. Beautiful. Right? It is one of the dining rooms in the Four Seasons Hotel, where we went for the One Michelin Star meal at Le George. I had been to Le George in 2023. It was memorable then. It was memorable in 2026, especially since my dinner guest was my daughter, on her 26th birthday!
In between fine meals and great wine, we went shopping on the Champs Elysées, took one of the touristy but always relaxing and pretty boat rides on the Seine River and ducked into a bar or two for refreshments. So yes, the tours will begin with at least two nights in Paris. From there, we took one of the fast, non-stop trains to Bordeaux to begin our tours of the fabled Left and Right Banks.
We toured a number of Chateaus in the Cabernet Sauvignon-weighted Left Bank (Médoc), including an unplanned stop a Chateau Margaux D’Issan. That was a magical and a personal coincidence for me because several months earlier I had purchased a flight of (6) wines from this winery, with the wines dating from 2010 o to 2019 vintages. We are planning a linear tasting of these wines in a blind “taste off” with one of our local Sonoma County wineries that specializes in Bordeaux style wines in the fall of this year when the weather cools. If you are reading this and wish to attend one of our blind tasting events, a la “The Judgment of Paris,” you had better call. I get to bring 6, maybe 7 guests.
With warmer than usual weather, grape clusters were ahead of growing schedule and literally all the wineries we toured, some seven or eight of them, said they would be picking early – in August, as they did during the 2024 season. No surprisingly for my tastes, I preferred the Right Bank wines with their emphasis on Merlot blended with Cabernet Franc and sometimes a touch of Cabernet Sauvignon. Merlot and Cab Franc are easily my go to wines when pairing with bigger foods.
The villages in the region and town of St. Emilion are so charming! After all, it is a medieval city with a history that goes back 35,000 years. You read that right. I bought 3 cases of wine (a case in France is 6 bottles) to ship back to the states and my house in October from two different wineries. I have another local Sonoma winery in mind for a blind “taste off” to compare with their Right Bank and Cab Franc wines that they make and sell. Call me if interested in a seat at the table for either of these.
Now, for the business of wine tours.
From recent experience, I now know that we can go to Paris, do a four-night tour of Bordeaux, then hop a flight and fly to Nice on the French Riviera (with a change of planes and connecting flight in Paris), and head into Provence for more wine tours. I did that, with a three-day break in Monaco as regular tourists (fantastic) and four nights in Cannes to hang out on the beach, because lounging on the Cannes beach in prime season when the weather is warm and the Mediterranean Sea is nice for swimming is about as good as it gets. And then we went in to Cotes de Provence to resume wine tours.
Well, not exactly. We did do a one-day tour from Cannes to the Bellet wine region of France, the smallest appellation in the country located in the hills above Nice and technically part of the Provence region. The rosé style wines were nice but a little underwhelming. The highlight of the tastings featured the Rolle grape, or Vermentino, which is a white wine with refreshing acidity and vibrant flavors that would pair nicely with oysters, shrimp cocktail, bagels and lox. As a diversion from the beach, it was a nice day, though I don’t think we will be offering tours there.
Provence is so big geographically, and once we leave Nice, Cannes, Eze, or the Cap Ferrat (Saint Jean Cap Ferrat) on the Riviera and head into the heart and soul of Provence, we will want to move on to Bandol. And, or, Avignon, to take in a few days of Chateauneuf Du Pape drinking.
However, is it practical to think of touring Bordeaux, and then Provence, and more? Not really. The distances are too great. If you look at a map, the two regions are closer than they appear. Yet the French railway system is very effective for north and south routes, but less so for east-west traveling. If you are traveling light, you are young, and don’t mind changing trains two or three times and spending all day – literally, 8-10 hours traveling from Bordeaux to Nice, it is doable.
But this isn’t for the demographic I am thinking of for In Between Drinks Lifestyle tours. No. We want comfort. Ease. Luxury. We want to step off a plane and be picked up by our driver, waiting to take us to our hotel for the next phase of the tour. However, the train from Bordeaux to Avignon is entirely doable and requires some 6 hours of travel, with only one station and train change. Thus, we will be offering Bordeaux tours (that begin in Paris) and then 3 nights in Avignon, with two half-day tours to one of five wineries that we like. This Bordeaux-Avignon Tour (check the tours section of the website) will feature 13 days and 12 nights in total.
For people interested in just a week, or 8-9 days, we offer Paris, Bordeaux and Loire Valley for wine experiences and tours.
All tours are customized for larger, comprehensive groups – meaning 6, 7 or 8 guests traveling together.
As for Provence and Bandol, if reading this newsletter, please check the Tours section of this website. Having stayed in or toured the hotels, dined in multiple restaurants, and visited a few wineries, we can now offer specific tours for the South of France – to two and perhaps three of \the greatest wine producing regions in the country.
CHEERS! gary
