Which region of France for small towns, great food, and pretty architecture?

You don't say when you are going, but..."food is important to my husband who's never been to France." It's trite to say it, but in Lyon food is a full contact sport. The Rhone-Saone Valleys are lovely and not that far from the Alps. The Beaujolais region has excellent wine tours too.

NickB, I edited the post above to say we are traveling late August/early September 2026. Thank you for those suggestions. I will look at those areas!

To sharply reduce the likelihood of dealing with a heatwave, you could head to Normandy, Brittany or Nord. There are towns with lovely architecture and good food all over France. I suppose Normandy sustained more war damage than some other regions; perhaps Brittany would be better from that standpoint, though it's quite a drive from Alsace.

I've lived in both Bourgogne and Normandie, each for over 4 years. Lived in Lyon too, but that's another story.

Reading Andrea's post, I would suggest the Bourgogne portion of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. The architecture is more quaintly medieval in more areas; mostly because the terrific damage done to so many Norman cities, towns, and villages during WWII. There are a lot of very good restaurants (Michelin and Gault & Millau are helpful guides) and some absolutely beautiful scenery, with vineyards, hillsides, and rolling countryside cut by streams and canals. The network of Romanesque Cluniac churches is fascinating (speaking as an atheist) and sights are closer together with less driving between good-sized towns than in Normandie.

Normandie has the coast, and there are some very good, casual, coastal towns and seafood-focused restaurants but the risk of bad weather (rain and wind) is greater in Normandie than in Bourgogne.

Plus, the wine is very accessible and affordable. On a house-hunting trip to Bourgogne in 2016, my wife and stayed at a quaint hotel. We went down to the bar area before dinner for a glass of wine. We were brought two glasses of passably good red pinot noir, a small plate of warm gougères made with Comté cheese as a freebie, and owed a whopping total of 6€ when we finished. One of those glasses of wine could easily have cost twice that in the U.S.

$0.02

I can't speak for food because that doesn't even make my top 10 of important things while travelling, however for small towns with history and architecture I'll suggest the Dordogne region. It's an easy drive from town to town and most have history and castles oozing out of their pores. As for food we got into a routine of almond croissants for breakfast and local cheese, crackers and raw vegetables for our main meal while sitting in the back yard of our hotel in Beynac with a view of a castle on the hill.

Here's my Trip Report if you're interested. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/trip-report-part-2-hills-and-castles-dordogne

I can't think of any region in France without good food, charming small towns, and architectural gems.

Bob's suggestion about Burgundy and Lyon seems convenient from a geographical point of view, being relatively close to Alsace.

Lyon is the epicenter of a certain traditional French gastronomy, with true legends like Mère Brazier, Paul Bocuse, Françoise Fayolle, and others.

Our favorite part of France is the Dordogne. We have stopped for a night or two in transit many times and have done a week in Cadouin in a rental and one in Limeuil for a week. We like to base in small towns and then drive from there to abbeys, castles, gardens, neolithic caves, river canoeing etc. WE no longer drive and thus it is now out of reach; you really need a car for this area. Here are a couple of day trips we took in the area; we particularly enjoyed the night market which is generally available in small towns in July and August. We were lucky to find the last one in early September.
https://janettravels.wordpress.com/2017/08/01/montferrand-du-perigord-and-its-12th-century-stone-church-st-christophe/
https://janettravels.wordpress.com/2017/07/25/perfect-place-for-murder-commarque-chateau/
In addition to wonderful sights and charming small towns; the food is wonderful. This is where foie gras comes from and we have had many really great meals at hotel restaurants in this region. Canoeing past towns and castles on the Dordogne river is a dream.

We loved visiting neolithic caves and the recreation at Lascaux. And the castle options are varied -- it was fun to see
Josephine Baker's chateau as well as the ruins of Commarque.

I spent 4 nights in Avallon to explore Burgundy. I don't have enough superlatives. Avallon was easy to drive in and out of, but I didn't have time to explore it. Places I did spend time in: Auxerre, Fontenay Abbey, Vezelay, Noyers (tiny gem), Chateau de Bazoches, and, on a long day trip from Avallon to Colmar, Saulieu, Autun, and a few hours in Beaune.

We also loved Burgundy and stayed in an apartment in Semur en Auxois to visit local abbeys, chateaux etc and stayed a couple of times in a wonderful little hotel on the edge of the Morvan where we could hike in the forrest as well as visit nearby towns like Vezelay. The hotel was: https://moulindesruats.com/en/. They have a wonderful restaurant which attracts people from all over the region which includes live trout in the millrace -- if Truite au bleue is your think, they do it nicely here.

For something different, the French Basque Country might fit the bill.

You can easily get there from Paris by train.

Bayonne would make a good base. Saint Jean de Luz can be visited by train or car, and is worth the visit.
With a car you can visit the Basque villages like Ainhoa, Espelette or Cambo, and over to Saint Jean Pied de Port.

Another trip could take you out to Pau, and if it is of interest Lourdes.

Of course, beside the beautiful views and charming little towns, the cuisine there is also very good. Just a footnote, but the best Cafe Gourmand I've ever had was in Bayonne.

Beaune has great food and lovely architecture.

I can recommend the small town of Vaison-la-Romaine, in the Cotes-du-Rhone wine region of Provence, especially if you like medieval village architecture. My wife and I stayed in an apartment there for the entire month of May last year, and loved it. The town itself has a medieval section up on the hill, a 2000-year old Roman bridge, and lots of Roman ruins. In the surrounding area there are several beautiful medieval villages, such as Crestet, Seguret, Le Barroux, and Buis-les-Baronnies. Beautiful scenery on all the surrounding side roads; follow Rick Steves' driving tour route for the area. Excellent, delicious dining options in or just outside Vaison-la-Romaine at La Bartavelle, Brasserie Kameleon, and La Fleur Bleue, for example. And I should mention that there is a fabulous town market in Vaison-la-Romaine every Tuesday morning, which occupies a large part of the town.

For the end of August early September period I agree with Burgundy for temperature and proximity to Alsace, giving you more time on the ground and off the autoroute. Be sure to buy a map that specializes in sites to visit: historic buildings, panoramic views, canal walks. Also for driving backroads, buy a very detailed map and ditch the gps except for emergencies. Remember that Burgundy starts just over an hour outside Paris in the Sens area and goes as far south as Macon.
Finally, Lyon can get very hot that time of year due to its configuration at the bottom of a couple river valleys.

I would say Burgundy. It has foods, history, and it's easy to drive there between villages.

I would suggest consulting a book which is titled something like "100 Prettiest villages in France". You can look through it by region and see what villages catch your interest (although I suspect you will like all of them). we did this some years ago and stopped at some amazing villages between Lyon and Bordeaux. As others have said, you will have a hard time getting bad food in any part of France.

I understand the interest in Normandy for cooler weather in August, but though I generally love French food, my love doesn't really extend to Normandy. Galettes? Meh.

Since Normandy has an extensive culinary repertoire, I hope people go beyond something as simple and fast as galettes, which didn’t really even originate in Normandy. Buckwheat galettes were the basic diet in Brittany, like rice in China or chestnuts in the center of France. People survived on these foods. OTOH Normandy has always been gifted with the best cream, butter, cheese, alcohols, meats, fruits and vegetables and has made use of these in its cuisine.

Added notes: Burgundy cuisine, with its fabulous red-wine sauces and ham with Chablis sauce is worth trying, too.
With family in Brittany, the best galettes au sarrasin are in Brittany or at the tiny restaurants opened by Breton immigrants who came to Paris in the early 20th C on rue de Montparnasse in Paris.

For Christmas, I like Colmar.

Thanks Elizabeth for the clarification.

I don't know who convinced jphbucks that galettes were a Normandy specialty. Perhaps someone who wanted to get rid of a stock of unsold galettes? :)

Sounds like I might need to revisit Normandy and avoid the galette shops.