I'm planning a trip with my husband and 2 small children to France in November. I've never been to the Champagne or Burgundy region before so am excited about going to see new cities, however we are having trouble deciding which city we'd like to have as our home base. We are going to rent an apartment for 6 nights and then head to Paris for our last few nights before flying back home. Which city has more to offer Reims, Dijon or Metz? We'd like to rent a car and take a couple of day trips and spend the rest of the time exploring the city we'll be based in. I'm trying to limit our time in the car and/or train to 1.5 hours. Again we have 2 small children so I'd like a city that has nice playgrounds and things for children, but also enough for us to see and do to enjoy this trip.
Posted by
Los Angeles
4392 posts
When we were in that region, we stayed at an abbey outside Dijon/Beaune and did a daytrip into Beaune. It's a very pleasant city, but I'm not sure 2 small kids would find it interesting. The hospital is a very unusual and beautiful buidling, and inside there are lots of exhibits of what passed for healthcare back in the day. There are also companies like Patriarch that maintain miles of wine caves under the city, again not kid friendly unless you don't mind them doing tastings :).
Beaune is small and walkable and has lots of pleasant looking stores and restaurants. For the grownups, the main attraction in the region are all the vineyards outside town. Rick lists several wine drives in the area. The TGV passes right through Dijon.
Posted by
Corvallis OR
7027 posts
Metz is very centrally located for trips to lots of nice cities, including Reims, Nancy, even Luxembourg City and Strasbourg. Although this region might be slightly cooler and wetter in November than the Dijon area, I don't think it would be enough of a difference to make that a decision maker.