Itinerary help please! 12 nights France - small villages/wineries

Go directly to the Les Plus Beaux site and mark a map of the villages you would love to visit. This helped me plan a driving route last fall.

We drove from Paris CDG into Amboise for a stop to see Clos Luce, Da Vinci's home.
Then we drove into the Dordogne for several nights, staying at the lovely L'Ombriere where we visited all the villages like Sarlat and Belves (great markets too) and kayaked the river through Beynac and La Roque Gageac. You must make a reservation to eat at La Belle Etoile in La Roque. It is a delicious Michelin restaurant overlooking the river with a set price of 35 euros. You normally pay SO much more for a Michelin restaurant !
We drove into Belcastel to stay at the castle in this medieval town with NO visitors. We loved it.
Then into Uzes (great market and nice cooking class) and kayaking the Pont du Gard with Canoe Collinas, staying at Les Carmes right outside of L'Isle sur la Sorgue.
This villa was inexpensive and amazing for our journeys into Gordes, Menerbes, Lourmarin, and hiking in Rousillon, and up the Cotes du Rhone to Gigondas and Vaison.

You have so many possibilities ! Enjoy the planning !

Thank you! I'm also looking for suggestions of villages to visit based on the time we have and our interests. I've been getting some ideas from the forums and doing some guide book reading as well.

"...see some beautiful small villages, wineries and castles. We love nature and scenery, walking/hiking, markets and good food and wine."

Thai's a pretty broad list of interests. You are going to have to decide on some priorities as you are unlikely to find all of these in one place. I say one place because, with only 12 nights you really don't want to be wasting time moving very much. Two locations would be doable but, truly, the process of packing up, checking out, checking in and unpacking just eats up pretty much a whole day. Practically speaking if you stay in one place you have 10 usable days; 2 places = 9, 3 places -8 usable days. So, for example, if you go to 3 places you will have only 2 or 3 days to see each area. Given your interests that is simply not enough.

If I were you I would pick one or, at most two areas to explore. Burgundy and the Rhone would be a good combination. I would also suggest you consider renting a cottage(s). VRBO, HomeAway, Air BnB all have voluminous listings in these areas and there are local agencies, too, that you can find on the web. These are fun to browse, too. If you do this it puts you in the community - shopping locally, talking with locals for advice and contacts. We always fix our own breakfast and try to hit the road fairly early. When visiting wineries always ask for recommendations for other local wineries to try. Sometimes they will call for you and make an appointment at places not usually open. Never hurts to ask.

Good luck researching! Robbie

You could spend a week in any of these places.

Is wine really the driving factor? If so, Burgundy plus either Alsace or the Rhone valley would work really well.

Could you visit all 3 places? Yes, but don't. Not for the kind of trip you say you'd like to have.

Michelin maps for the regions that interest you (the 300 series) are probably all you need. If you are going to be doing serious waling or bicycling (there are some lovely route out of Beaune) then you might consider the IGN topo maps.

Driving will be great for this type of adventure, but don't forget that the trains can be great and save you time. There are TGVs between Paris and Alsace, Burgundy, and Provence.

Finally, if you are tempted by an urban break, consider Lyon.

Thank you everyone for the suggestions!

The suggestion of the Rhone and Burgundy (I'd suggest southern Burgundy) is a good one. Last year we rented a house in Nyons, in the southern Rhone, for the second time. Nyons is a beautiful village, and is certainly convenient to wineries, as well as to great scenic drives. Here's a link to one of the entries in my travel blog which covers the beginning of our stay in Nyons. There are more after that. http://mainelywinenews.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-drome-provencal.html

My trip was in late June and the driving was mostly scenic, rolling hills with either vineyards or wheat fields in varying degrees of ripeness. I picked up a car on leaving the Alps, spent a night in Cluny (well worth a few hours), then drove to Burgundy, stopping at the Chateau (the grandest Louis XIII apartments remaining in France), 4 nights in Avallon, day-tripping to Vezelay, Noyers, Auxerre, Fontenay Abbey and Domaine La Croix Montjoie winery. Unless you are very interested in the wine-making process, the only reason to go to a winery is for tastings and buying. You can get good wines by the glass at every restaurant and bottles at wine shops in every town. Then I drove to the tiny village of Eguisheim (3 nights) just outside Colmar (perfect for me), stopping in Saulieu and the Beaune (half a day was enough for me). While in Eguisheim I explored a lot of the villages on the wine route, a bit of Colmar (I'd been before), the ruins of the Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg and spent 2-3 fun hours at nearby Monkey Mountain (home to a colony of about 100 macaque monkeys, aka Barbary apes). From there I drove on the autoroute (no tolls :-) to Strasbourg (2 nights) and dropped the car. I flew out of Frankfurt.

I lucked out with markets in several places, happened to be there on their market day. A bonus, since I hadn't planned for that. The car had built-in GPS, sometimes it was challenging since sometimes towns and villages in different parts of France have the same name and I'd have to guess. Knowing zip codes will help. I could have happily spent more time in Burgundy - it's large and I only saw a small part.

Well, I finished reading my guide book and now I'm more confused. So many beautiful places to see, but not enough time this trip. After some thought, I've decided that wine is not the driving factor here. It's more about the small villages and sights and walking around (or driving around) and exploring. Markets, and good food and wine, but we don't need to visit wineries. And my husband would really like to visit some castles. The places that I find most alluring are Alsace, Dordogne, Burgundy and Provence. Pretty sure that at most, I can choose two of these places to visit this time. So back to my reading and searching. Any suggestions would be much appreciated! thanks again!

From my limited experience (Burgundy, Alsace, around Paris, French Riviera), wherever you choose will be wonderful.

Burgundy is a great area for Chateaux. This covers southern Burgundy: http://www.castlesinsouthernburgundy.com/UK/

I think I'm making some progress with my decision. Alsace area for sure. Then the second half either Provence - the Luberon area or Dordogne. I've looked at Burgundy over and over, but it just doesn't seem to be "calling me" like the other two. Any more advice? In the meantime, I'm going to keep reading!

Thanks again everyone - I appreciate the help!

Hi Lori,
The book that you seek is definitely available for free at the TPL public library branches Deer Park plus Riverdale (I perused the book at both branches this past week). I'd be surprised if it weren't also available at several other branches.
As for your decision, you are spoiled for choice and the areas that you've narrowed it down to are all fantastic. With a 12 day time period, it'd be wise to be super-selective.
You might benefit from checking out the recent trip reports that we wrote here about some of them: 'Provencal Echo' and also 'The Return of the Son of Burgundy and Paris'.
Bon Chance!
I am done. The end.

Thank you! I will read the trip reports tonight! I think I've made my decision though....Alsace and Provence. Dordogne will have to be another trip. Now I have to decide where to stay in both places and how to get from one to the other. I took a quick look at flights and I think flying into Paris and home from Marseille will work. We could do the reverse as well, but it's more expensive. The bigger issue is how to get from one region to the other. The plan right now is to arrive August 30th and stay in Alsace are until Sept. 5th. So that's the travel day. Then Provence from 5th to the 11th. Fly home on the 11th.

Possibilities for Alsace are: Strasbourg, Colmar, Eguisheim, Riquewihr, Ribeauville, Kayersburg.
and for Provence/Luberon: Lourmarin, Roussillon, Gordes, Menerbes and maybe St. Remy or Isle-sur-la-sorgue.
my apologies if I made any spelling mistakes!!

I've already made some notes about these places from previous posts and trip reports, but I would appreciate any and all suggestions and ideas.

Thanks once again!