French Wine

My expereince is that in most cases a carafe of house wine is perfectly drinkable, but of course you can find bottles of excellant wine if you know what types you like ?

I always get the house wine and have never been unhappy with it. Admittedly I'm not a wine connoisseur. I just know what tastes good to me.

Try the house wine- a number of different restaurants in paris specialize in wines from different regions. I am fairly knowledgeable about French wines, but always enjoy trying the local wines when i am in france. And if you try the house wine and dont like it- you wont have wasted a ton of money. Just try something else

If you are not knowledgeable about wine, especially French wine, you can do two things. French wine is almost always labled by region, not grape as we do in the US. The house wines will almost always be just fine, even good by US standards. This works really well for a more informal lunch. Bistros will almost always have a house wine. If you wish to purchase a bottle, ask the waiter for a recommendation. Any halfway decent restaurant will be able to recommend a good wine pairing for your ed meal. You can let them know how much you want to spend (peruse the wine list first to get an idea of price ranges). Often you will be able to order half bottles (demi). If it's just two of you, this is a great and more economical way to try finer wines in France. Look on the wine list to see if they have demi bottles, and if so, ask for a recommendation from those.

Douglas made a good point about ordering half bottles, if available. Even better- most French restaurants i can remember had the house wine available in carafes which were available in smaller amounts- generally two glasses worth

The question about French wines reminds me of the Paris Wine Tasting of 1976 in which French wines were compared to California wines.

The best American wines compare very well with the best French wines. Nowadays, good American wines compare very well with good French wines. Bad American wines are swill compared with French table wines...

I agree with Douglass. Unless you're a serious wine person, there's no need to spend a lot to enjoy wine in France. Try the house wine, maybe as you learn more while you're there you will be interested in trying a specific bottle. French reds may seem a lot less "big" compared to the California reds you may be used to. But if there's a particular California varietal you like (Pinot Noir, Syrah, etc) you might want to look up what region(s) in France specialize in those grapes so you have a better idea of what you're ordering when you get there.

Thank you all! Our friends that are traveling with us own a wine store in our small town. And yes we all love the full bodied wines of California. He is not a wine broker, so has never travled to Europe to try the wines. So I wanted this to be a good experience for them. All your feedback has been great! we will only be in Paris.
Thank you

All the tips above are good, but I'd put Doug's at the top of the list. Ask your waiter to help you choose a wine that will go well with the meal you've ordered, and give him an idea what you want to spend. Most of the time I've found them very helpful, and not infrequently they've brought out something very good that we wouldn't have thought of on our own.

Your friends (and you) might enjoy checking out some wine bars and shops in Paris, especially some known for really interesting wines. Bertrand Calce, a French photographer who lives in Paris, writes a terrific blog on wine that includes lots of info about wine bars and shops. Check out http://www.wineterroirs.com/2012/09/wine_trip_in-paris.html as one example.

In cafes and restaurants I usually order a glass or 2 of wine. I like red and what I see in most places is: Sancerre (red) Chiroubles Cote du Rhone Bordeaux Beaujolais all are very good. I have friends who live in Nice and they turned me on to Rose, but it has to be from Provence. also very good. You might want to give these a try.
Have fun!