Quintessential/quaint French town from Lake Como, Italy?

option 1-Maybe just take a day trip from Lake Como to France? Is that even possible? Is there a town in France similar to Beaune that we could easily visit from Lake Como, Italy? Last time we stayed on Lake Como we took the Bernina Express to St. Moritz, Switzerland and loved it. Is there a similar train that could take us from Como through some of the wine country in France?

No Lake Como is too far for a day trip to France and there is no equivalent train to the Bernina Express.

option 2- Another possibility was to fly into Geneva from ATL... maybe stay there a night or two and take a day trip someplace in France... is that doable? Worth it? Too much travel?

You can daytrip to Annecy, France from Geneva easily by bus.

Thanks so much, Jazz+Travels!
I assumed that might be the case concerning travel between Como and France.
And I'll definitely look into Annecy.

Option 2 – at the Genève-Aéroport you can hop on a direct train to Annecy (1h 30m). When you’re ready to move on you can fly into Milan non-stop from Geneva or…
take a train from Annecy to Chamonix Aiguille Midi (Europe’s tallest mountain) taking 2h 30m and requires two connections. You can then glide over the border between FR and IT via cable car that takes 45-minutes arriving at Pointe Helbronner on the Italian side. However, I believe you’ll need a car to get from Pointe Helbronner to Aosta (5-miles) where you can hop on a train to Varenna (Lake Como) that involves two connections taking a total of 4h 45m. Rick Steves’ FR guidebook does a good job explaining how to do this.
Option 3 – it will take 3h 30m to take a train from the Genève-Aéroport to the Beaune (Chagny) station and involve two connections.

Annecy, France came to mind for me, also. But, it is a lake town, and with Lake Como, think about whether that is too similar of a landscape. When we combined Italy & France in one trip (after being to both separately multiple times), we stayed in Torino before heading to Annecy, Lyon & Paris. We really enjoyed Torino, and it would be a nice stop between Lake Como & heading into France.

(We always travel by train in Europe, so these are all fine routes for train.)

I'd try hard to avoid flying between Geneva and Milan. There are three trains a day that take less than 4-1/2 hours, and they go to the center of Milan. Flights to Malpensa would be especially undesirable, because that airport is a long haul from the city--54 minutes by train; Linate's not as bad.

I don't know Annecy, but I think I would look at flying to Nice, and visiting Cannes, or Nice, and along the way Eze and Monaco, along the Med. There's a train linking all those places. Then train to Lake Como, possibly my favorite European destination (we liked Varenna, thanks Rick!).

We have spent a few weeks in Nice before heading into Italy. Car rentals are ( or were) cheaper in France, so we rented one in Nice at airport and then later returned it there after spending the majority of our trip in Italy. It would be the easiest way to add France to Italy. You could also stay in a smaller town like Antibes which is near Nice.

oh my goodness! So many great ideas!
• MaryPat, thanks to your and Jazz+Travel's suggestion I have looked into Annecy and it looks great!
• Jean, I agree with you that, since we'll be staying on Lake Como (and we're also staying in Venice), we'll already have our time on the water, so maybe Lyon will be a good option.
• Julie, Varenna is where we stayed previously and LOVED it! It's why we want to go again, haha!
• Acraven, I think you're right... the more I looked into it, it seems like it's just going to be too much travel time taken from the trip.
• Suki, I'll definitely look more into Nice... I got Scott's Cheap Flights email last night with cheap flight fares to Nice and Lyon so I've been looking into those today. So far I'm leaning towards Lyon because of our stays on the water in Como and Venice.

Thank you So much, everyone!!

I am puzzled by how far you are willing to go. France is not actually near Lake Como, and the better known wine districts are not near at all. But France grows (different ) grapes everywhere - so there's Alsace, and the Jura, much closer to Italy. I'd mention the towns of Besançon (worth sleeping in) and Perouges, not quite as much to see, but unique - and a lot nicer than many medieval "gems" like MSM. 8 people is a challenge.

If you head to Torino you can go to Oulx, and cross into France in Montgenèvre. There are lovely restaurants in Oulx (La Barrica is fantastic and a woman named Jordan is an excellent host). From Montgenèvre you pass the incredible vallée de la Claree and can enter the Vauban city of Briançon which is delightful and quite stunning as the highest city of 10k people in France. The drive alone is worth it and the trip from Torino to Briançon is only a total of 1.5 hours driving. Enjoy!