One month in France to wine regions

• Bordeaux to Aix is a long way by train, don't hesitate to fly from Bordeaux to Marseille.
• Beaune and Dijon are very close to each other, maybe 30 min drive. If you have a car (best rented in Dijon), there's no real need to stay in one then move to the other.

Otherwise, do you plan to do non-wine related visits and activities? It will help us recommend length and location of stays.
If mostly wine, then maybe add northern Côtes du Rhône area, a stay near Vienne / Condrieu for instance. It's on the way from Aix to Beaune, and more prestigious than Aix region vineyards.
Or Beaujolais, which is very pretty.

Thank you for your information!
We are flying in and out of Paris. We have been there several times and especially enjoyed the art museums. This time we will just be spending the night.

We enjoy festivals, art museums, architecture, food and wine.

In Bordeaux we plan on staying near Bordeaux Lake at either the Ibis or Hotel Novotel. There is tram stop very close by. We were thinking of buying a Bordeaux Metropole City Pass so we could get access to buses, museums, etc.

We could take an evening train into Marseille and rent a car. There are several markets (fish, food) we would like to visit.
Then to Cassis to take a boat tour of Calanques.
Saint Remy use hop on hop off buses, to see the town.
Rhone-Tain L’Hermitage Area- Wine Safari has tours of the Northern Rhône Region. A stop at Valrhona chocolate shop.
We have not decided where to stay while in this area.

We will either use a rental car or train to go to Lyon. We would like to take a Beaujolais wine tour.
Beaune looks beautiful. Maybe we should stay in the historic center. It was recommended that we go to The Cave of the Guardian Angel for wine tasting.
Then onto Dijon.
Which of these towns would be best to make our home base from?
Any recommendations of things to do, or places to eat would be appreciated!

Another question.... do we need to purchase our train tickets ahead of time?

How long I think it depends on what else you will do besides wine. I can visit 2 maybe 3 wineries a day max and two days of that is enough.
I loved the Champagne region and I think it's my favorite of all the place (haven't done Loire Valley yet though) and it's not on your list. I found it the most easily accessible for tourist.

If you like to bike the paths around Beaune are great and the local bike shops will help you select the stops to make for tastings. Not sure you need to stay in Beaune AND Dijon - as mentioned they are very close to each other. Many of the wineries will be by appointment only but the local wine shops or the TI's can help you make them. Some towns have one tasting place (in Italy it would be the enoteca but I don't know the French equivalent). My husband emailed some wineries ahead of time to arrange appointments... In Beaune our host at the Winery B&B we stayed at also made appointments for us.

Check out the wine industry magazines for loads of ideas.

Thank you! The champagne region sounds wonderful. Perhaps we will go there on our next trip.

We are in Beaune right now for days. Agree that you should choose either Dijon or Beaune.

Most wine tasting activities are in or around Beaune, we did the bike ride, great fun but somewhat strenuous.

Rigel, which wineries did you enjoy the most in Beaune? Where are you staying?

The Bordeaux Lake area is unexciting, it is basically a conference center, office and mall district. I would recommend staying closer to the center.

As for ST Rémy de Provence: small town, no hop on hop off buses. Best visited either with a car or with a tour. But given the choice, I'd much rather visit Arles, which is feasible as a day trip from Marseille, although it is better to stay there (train from Bordeaux stops there).
I would also NOT use a car in Marseille. Driving there is stressful, I've lived there a few years and find that it is by far the worst place to drive in France. Use a car for areas outside Marseille only.

Top of my list would be Burgundy, Alsace and Champagne regions - essentially a northeast tour of France. Burgundy makes the best wine, probably on the planet. It's also amazingly beautiful. I didn't really think much of Beaune (good sights but not really a beautiful town, especially away from the top tourist sights). I love the medieval stone towns that dot the landscape through Burgundy. Alsace is a beautiful region. The half timbered towns look like something Disneyland would create. Like the stone towns in Burgundy, each one is prettier than the last. I'm not really a white drinker but the Gewurztraminer from Alsace is terrific. I haven't really explored Champagne, I've only visited Reims. It makes sense as part of a relaxed pace trip through the best French wine regions.

Everything else (really just my opinion) is a step below these.

I attended the Bordeaux wine festival June 2018 and tried dozens of wines. I've never really liked Bordeaux wines but I thought it might be related to just what is exported. The mineral flavor in Bordeaux wines (and Rioja Spanish wines) isn't my favorite taste. After trying dozens at the wine festival, I'd say I really liked only one. My current theory is the best Bordeaux has a person's name on the label (not a celebrity, an owner/vintner).

I like the rose wines from Languedoc and Provence, but those are summer wines. It might be awkward asking for rose in October (like asking for a Cappuccino in Italy in the afternoon)? I loved the forests and Pyrenees in the Languedoc area. Provence is a little too hot and dry for me, it's not green like most of France. I was there in September 2017 (maybe rose is appropriate?). There are a ton of things to see in Provence, so don't rush through it. The amazing thing (for me) about Provence is Van Gogh's paintings aren't as surreal as I thought before visiting. The hills and colors really look like that.

There is also a somewhat famous white in the Loire region but (not being a white wine enthusiast) I didn't really see the appeal.

Now I am considering the Burgundy region! We have never driven in France before. How easy is it to explore Burgundy by car?
Also, how far ahead do we need to buy train tickets?

Thanks everyone for all of your ideas and suggestions!

Stay in Beaune and take some organized tours to the wineries. We did and it was wonderful. We also took a full day tour from Lyon to Northern Rhone. We are in southern Rhone now. I think we could spend much more time here.

Exploring Burgundy by car is easy thanks to light traffic, and there are plenty of interesting villages and towns (Autun, Semur en Auxois...)
. However, a car isn't great for touring many wineries for obvious safety (and legal) reasons, so I'd throw in a winery tour from Beaune as well.

I am confused as to how to purchase high speed train tickets. How far in advance do we need to buy them?

I didn't see that anyone has asked yet what you and your husband's favorite wines are. I would let that opinion determine how much time you spend in each area. And if you have a favorite wine from the region, see if you can make a reservation to visit their vineyard.

Are you talking about this September? Make reservations for the high-speed train right now; the cheaper fares sell out.

Me, my husband and our adult daughter visited Provence in May (husband and I had been there previously). They both love the Rhone wines, so in addition to the Roman antiquities in the area and other historic places we visited, we spent four nights in the northern Rhone, tasting lots of wine! We stayed at a B&B-type place just outside the small town of Beaume de Venise, but now that I've been there, the better choice for us would have been to stay in Gigondas. (We also spent four nights in St. Remy.)

We've driven in a lot of areas of France, and find it very easy (especially with a GPS system or Google maps). It's really the easiest way to get around places such as Burgundy or Provence, where there's not much public transportation.