Regions of France

I love Burgundy and have rented a place in Semur en Auxois one May. April is a little early for rural locations as the weather is likely to be chilly and rainy but Burgundy is just beautiful.
https://janettravels.wordpress.com/category/burgundy/
We also love the Dordogne; beautiful villages, great food, chateaux and the prehistoric caves.

There are many lovely regions -- Normandy, Alsace, Provence, the Riviera, Dordogne, Burgundy, Loire and others. Your idea of choosing one and basing in a central place is great. We have done this in the Dordogne twice, three times in Tuscany, in Burgundy, in Provence, on the Riviera and for shorter periods than a week in Normandy and the Loire -- Loved them all but focus and really enjoying an area is key.

I took my first outside-Paris trip last year (June) and loved it . . . Burgundy and Alsace. The area was "littered" with chateaux, picturesque villages, abbeys, medieval churches and cathedrals, really interesting local museums, great local wines, good restaurant food, good fresh market food. In Burgundy I based in Avallon and in Alsace in Eguisheim. I did drive into Colmar and Beaune but liked staying in the small places best. Driving in and out of either of those cities would be too time-consuming, not to mention more expensive rooms and paying for parking. In Avallon I ended up with a studio-kitchenette and with so much fresh food from the markets, I just stayed in for suppers, but I saw some really tempting restaurants in nearly every town.

What French city did you fly into? E.g. Paris and take the train to your destination or fly directly there with maybe a plane change in Paris.

Merci!

Well, I wouldn't want to spend 10 days based on any one place. But if I did, I think I would choose a small town in the Dordogne valley for its food, its natural beauty, and the richness of its attractions (stone fortresses, cave art, hill towns).

I like Burgundy a lot too, and there are ten days worth of stuff there (with a car), but being tied to one spot would mean a lot of driving to get to many of them. Of course many people do not mind driving 3 and 4 hours in the course of a day; I would find it wearisome. Burgundy is also a premiere wine destination, since you mention vineyards. There are grapes almost everywhere, but Burgundy's appellations are world famous.

Burgundy is an excellent idea, vineyards of course but also hills, forest, lakes, the Burgundy canal, abbeys, chateaux, fortified towns.
Dijon is a great base to discover all of it , and also as a destination itself with its rich history (the Dukes of Burgundy as powerful as the king) the architecture, churches, the food hall, parks and of course the gastronomy and wine.
The TO video will make you want to visit! http://www.destinationdijon.com/en/dijon_video.htm Bon voyage!

I would do Burgundy (we stayed at http://www.acarpediem.com/ twice and loved it! If you stay there, have dinner there every night!!) lots to do in the area, and then you could drive over to Alsace- we stayed in Eguisheim to explore the wine route. We love those areas but with a bit more time you could also add southern Burgundy area. Having 10 days sounds wonderful for village France.

We hope to get to the Dordogne. It is further and more out of the way so it takes more time to get to, but it is high on our list.

With ten days I'd suggest Burgundy and maybe also Alsace, or the Dordogne and maybe also the Languedoc region around Albi and Carcassonne. For the latter, you could fly into and/or out of Bordeaux or Toulouse. For Burgundy/Alsace you might as well fly in and out of Paris. In either case, instead of basing in one place for ten days you might consider two five-day bases to reduce driving and give yourself different living experiences.

I was on an RS tour that ended in Chamonix. You might consider flying into Geneva. It's on the Swiss/French border and I believe you can rent a car there on the French side. Or take a bus (airport shuttle maybe?) to Annecy for your first night. Strasbourg has a small airport, but I flew home from Frankfurt. I returned the car in Strasbourg and spent a couple days/nights there, then took the train to Frankfurt.

Two suggestions, splitting your time with 5 days in each ...
- Brittany and the Dordogne
- Alsace and Burgundy

A region that I have enjoyed is the Basque region. I am including both the French and the Spanish sides of the region, so this is not a purely French recommendation. I have stayed at both Bayonne on the French side and San Sebastian on the Spanish side. Great scenery and food. I don't know much about wine, so cannot say anything about that. I did not have a car, but I now wish that I had one so that I could have explored the mountain areas of the Basque region. I only stuck to the coast which was really beautiful.

Burgundy is a great choice. It's beautiful, there's lots to see, and good food and cheese. The Dordogne is fabulous, although very limited insofar as wine is concerned (but not food).