Drinking wine and eating good food in France in July 2019

We are planning on flying into CDG and immediately renting a car to drive to the WWII beaches

After what will presumably be an overnight flight you plan to drive 160+ miles ?

We are planning on flying into CDG and immediately renting a car to drive to the WWII beaches

Agree with joe - do not do this, it's very dangerous. Spend your first night in Paris, so you can recover from exhaustion and jetlag, and you can start getting "adjusted" to being in a foreign country. Driving in France is not difficult, but driving in any foreign country, where everything is just a little different from what you're used to, requires a mental adjustment. Give yourself a little time before stepping up to that challenge.

I know I need to ignore the first day due to jet-lag so we'll take it slow

No, you've got that completely wrong - in fact, you could not be more wrong about that. If you "ignore your jetlag" it could kill you (and yes, I mean that literally). You need to take your jetlag (and exhaustion from the trip) into account, and plan for it. On your arrival day, don't expect too much from yourself - just try your best to stay awake until after an early dinner (it will not be easy).

Spend at least the first night in Paris. It would be a shame to go all that way and skip Paris. You may have heard, they have some pretty decent food and drink there, too - not to mention a million other worthwhile things. If you skip Paris, you will regret it.

Can't help with high-end food and don't like wine, but I really, really encourage you to take a one-day van tour of the D-Day sites rather than driving around and looking at sand and concrete. If you're primarily interested in the museums scattered around the area, that may be fine; I enjoyed several of them. I think trying to see the actual invasions sites without a guide/driver is shortsighted unless one of you is a Normandy Invasion scholar, and even then you probably will waste a lot of time with navigational errors.

Joe and David, thank you for the advice. I see it says you’re both from WA. My husband and I had a wonderful time flying out there for our honeymoon and exploring the Seattle region. We love car rides and after a morning hiking, we drove from Olympic National Park to Portland which is about the same distance. I’ve never driven in France though so comparing the drives may not be accurate. Do you have advice? Could we pick up the car and stop at another, closer site instead overnight and then continue our journey?

I may not have typed my intent accurately. When I said “I know I need to ignore the first day due to jet-lag so we'll take it slow” I meant that I know we need to take it slow because we will have jet lag so that first day we won’t have anything intense planned- just treat it like a recovery day. I flew from the US to France as a layover so I do remember the jetlag- especially when I reached Italy, my final destination. I know it is something to consider when making the rest of the plans; thank you for the reminder though.

We are planning to spend a week in Paris, but I already have that itinerary planned out so in this post, I wanted to focus on areas I wasn’t sure of. Same with the D-day sites, acraven. It is good to know that those two locations are so highly recommended. I read the post on tour companies that is in another thread and I’ve reached out to a handful of tour companies for the D-day sites so hopefully I’ll hear some good news back.

Any ideas about the wine or food questions?

Sorry can't help about France. But if you're going that far and will be there around the same time, hope a train for half-day trip to Vevey, Switzerland and hit the once-every-twenty-years Fete des Vignerons.

https://www.montreuxriviera.com/en/P10180/fete-des-vignerons

Upon arrival, just head to Paris for your first night. Walk around and enjoy just being in Paris (being outside will help you stay awake); skip the museums and indoor sights as much as possible, those will push you towards a bed. Fight hard to stay awake until after an early dinner (though you might be tempted to plan a fancy dinner this first night, I'd suggest you not do that - you won't enjoy it much as you will be struggling to stay awake at that point; there's plenty of good but easy food to be found). After dinner, hit the sack and sleep deeply. Wake up the next morning - that's actually the first day of your trip, the previous day was a travel day - take a train to somewhere outside central Paris and rent your car there (driving in Pars itself is stressful and prone to accidents, it's no place to make the mental adjustments to driving ion France). Once you get away from Paris, the driving will be easy.

All of Normandy is wonderful - not just the historic D-Day locations. It's one of France's best food region's and one of its prettiest. Don't miss Mont St Michel while you're so close.

After your time in Normandy you can turn the car in anywhere you find an agency near a train station. Take the train back in to central Paris to avoid driving in. Driving in central Paris is not impossible but in my experience it's quite stressful (to the point of being dangerous, especially upon arrival) and no fun. Driving around Normandy is easy and delightful by comparison.

I love Normandy, and have visited it several times (yes, even driving straight there after an overnight flight). Unfortunately though, it is one of the few places in France that doesn't support wine making. It is just the wrong terroir for the grapes. However, there are many small, family run distilleries for Calvados. Calvados is the local, dry, apple brandy (don't think of sweet brandies you may get in the states). When you head to the Loire you will be able to go to wineries, but I can't advise you on that.

dovetraveler and Phil, thank you! Exactly what I was hoping for. The festival in Switzerland looks amazing! Phil, I had no idea Normandy was known for brandy- what a cool thing to try. Thank you for teaching me something new. I've read about Les Andelys and Rouen. Have you ever stopped in either of those cities on the way?

David, thank you for the tip on avoiding driving in Paris. I'm glad to hear Normandy is easier to navigate.

I think you are really going to enjoy France, given your interest in food and wine. Each region has its own specialities, and regional cuisines can be quite different. When traveling in France, we often enjoy breakfast in our hotel (although we might just buy something fresh at the bakery). For lunch, we like to pick something up at the market. You can buy small quantities for that day’s picnic, maybe some local cheese, bread, fruit, or salads. If we miss the market, there are small shops selling what we need. I always hit the cheese shop! For dinner, we would ask for recommendations at our hotel. They would often make reservations for us. We almost always had 2 hour dinners and even our kids enjoyed the long meals! We don’t go to the very best restaurants, but you could certainly make reservations in advance.

Restaurants always have menus posted outside. We often look around and then choose. If you aren’t sure what something is, just take the plunge and try it anyways! It is almost sure to be good. (Menus have very specialized vocabulary, so even if you speak French they can be hard to understand).

You can easily google about specialities it the tourist office can tell you about them. The Loire valley has a few wines, but my favorite is Sancerre, which I often order here at a good fish restaurant. Of course, wine is excellent in Burgundy. Food in Burgundy will be what you may think of French food — cooked with red wine. Normandy, I think of dairy and apples!

I can’t give you any specific recommendations. We don’t do any advance planning — we arrive in town and figure it out.

Hi Ermis,
Below is our trip report from a while back. It covers Burgundy & Paris and may have some of the answers to your queries.
Bon Chance! I am done. The end.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/the-return-of-the-son-of-burgundy-paris

Eef, I am really looking forward to having a picnic! It sounds like a nice relaxing part of the vacation. Thank you for the food suggestions. We were watching one of Rick Steves’ shows on Amazon last night and we saw the cheese shop- why don’t we have those where I live!? I’ve never heard of Sancerre so thank you for that- I’ll make sure to try it. I appreciate your time.

Greg, thank you for including the link. I actually stumbled upon it a couple days ago and had a couple laughs and enjoyed the experience through your eyes. You mention a Vineyard Walk from Volnay to Meursault. Are the vineyards easy to spot? Do I need to make reservations or just walk on in? This sounds exactly like what we want to do. Thanks for a fun, detailed post.

We went to one winery in the Loire Valley...Marc Bredif. We were on a day tour so I don't know what town it's in (you can google it). They had a very nice cellar tour, followed by a tasting. Then we bought 2 bottles and they boxed them up for travel for us.

If you find yourself in Paris, we did a nice wine & cheese tasting at Caves du Louvre. For my upcoming trip we're planning on a wine & cheese lunch at O'Chateau. We also did the champagne tasting Seine river cruise through O'Chateau.

Haven't been to Reims yet, if we go there on our next trip, my stop would be Taittinger...my favorite Champagne. I believe they have a cellar tour as well.

Kerri, perfect! Thank you very much for the clear examples. I'm adding them to my list! I'm so excited to hear about the river cruise you mention. We can discover local drinks and view the Seine all in one excursion.

These sites might be helpful:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/france/wineries-in-france-where-to-go-within-3-days
https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/burgundy-biking-wine-route

Yo Ermis,
De rien (its nothing, you're welcome).
That vineyard walk goes directly through the fields, you will have the vines on either side of you as you stroll on a sort of paved bike path/country lane, so impossible to miss. Its an easy walk either direction, one that I refer to with all due respect, as a 'granny hike'. Very few vehicles, mostly cyclists. The same description applies to the lane connecting Meursault down to Puligny-Montrachet. Actually by coincidence, we saw film footage of the exact same Volnay route a month or so ago, while watching the doc that I have posted about here on RS, 'Grand Cru'! Guess the film-makers and the main wine-maker subject (Pascal Marchand) regard that area as an iconic motif symbol, representative of the area and its viticulture.
Volnay itself is quiet and has a few restaurants, but the one there referenced in our trip report seems to be the local fave.

Beaune: Bistro Bourguignon on the main drag seemed to have the wine list most likely to include A-list producers available by the glass. The pinch marks are still there. Pricey to drink that way of course, but incredible quality and variety---we'd do it again in a heartbeat! The couple who run it were apparently the first to establish a local wine bar in town. Bon Chance!
I am done. The end.

In Rouen I would recommend La Corrone. It is the first restaurant Julia Child tried in France and she said it changed her life. I took the train to Rouen to rent a car for my normandy trip so I had lunch there - sole meuniere and tarte tatin. Delicious. Enjoy

I am only chiming in to Say NO don’t skip driving around and self touring D Day sites in favor of a one day van tour. The week we spent touring the DDay sites ourselves still remains one of our top trips ever. You can see and do so much more than the drive by and say HI tour.

We love car rides and after a morning hiking, we drove from Olympic National Park to Portland which is about the same distance. I’ve never driven in France though so comparing the drives may not be accurate.

The main difference is that upon arriving at CDG, you will have spent a long day traveling, a mostly sleepless night, and your body will be adjusting to the nine-HOUR time difference, none of which is a picnic. With all due respect, it is indeed different than doing a hike and then driving a similar distance.

Edit to add: I’m not sure whether you're from the East Coast or West Coast, or somewhere in between, so maybe it's a six-hour time difference, maybe up to nine hours. In any event, it's enough to affect your body.

One of the first things you should do in Paris is take the wine and cheese lunch class at O'Chateau. It'll teach you about all the wines you will drink on your way around France. You'll learn about Sancerre and that it goes really well with the local (Loire) goat cheese.
Follow Rick Steve' guide on Burgundy, stay in Beaune and rent bicycles to tour the vineyards. Burgundy is the place to go if you like food and wine. Do some tasting in town to learn a little before you set out.

I would recommend a very memorable restaurant that I went to several years ago in Paris - the name is Le Taillevent (I think I spelled that right!) - it is a very intimate, yet expansive restaurant near the 7th arrondisement. The food and service is out of this world - not cheap, but well worth the expense. If you are looking for a romantic French restaurant, this is the place to go!

Chiming in as a fellow foodie and wine lover!

In Paris, O Chateau is great -- they have a tasting bar in the city but do great trips. I took an all day small group tour that met in Paris and went to Champagne, (about 1 hr drive from Paris) and thought it was well worth the price. Our guide was a sommelier, we went to three champagne houses, had a huge tasty lunch at one of them and tastings at all three, and even stopped to taste the grapes (it was after harvest time, November, so the grapes were not going to be harvested . . . this is due to government limits on how much can be harvested each season . . .). They have other tours as well.

I also did a day trip to the Loire Valley with Val de La Loire (Mario); I highly recommend him but if you like "big" reds, you may find the wines from this region to be too light for your taste.

If you can get to Bordeaux, then do it! I spent six days in St Emillion in 2017. In that region, by far my favorite restaurant was Troplong Mondot (it is also a winery with some pretty expensive wine). This was hands down the BEST dining experience my husband and I have ever had in our lives -- amazing food, great wine, attentive and not pushy or overbearing service, beautiful outdoor setting, and a reasonable price! (Although if you're a woman you won't see the price listed on your menu . . .)

My favorite restaurant in Paris is Le Timbre. It is TINY and you need to reserve in advance, but it is fine dining at a great value. Le Reminet is also recommended by many locals. La Dame du Pic is a great for a high end meal.

Please let us know where you end up going and enjoying! I am particularly interested in whatever wineries and restaurants you find and enjoy, as I am going to Paris myself in a couple of months.

Taillevent is in the 8th arrondissement, not anywhere “near” the 7th.

Thank you again to everyone who took the time to respond constructively. You provided me with many options and I love hearing each of your experiences. Its interesting how different our palates can be isn't it?! We have dinner at Fat Duck and thanks to your encouragement and love of Normandy and Burgundy, we moved it towards the end of our trip so we can take it slow through this region of France instead of racing through. I'll update when I make arrangements/reservations.