Loire/Burgundy/Paris- i’ve made a decision

SalB

The Tours-Amboise area is a great base in the Loire. Since you have a car, I'll suggest Amboise since parking will be much easier. It will also be much easier to get in and out of town. Traffic is a problem in Tours since it's a city.

 I feel the same way about Burgundy. If you have a car, stay in a smaller town. That means Beaune would be your touring base because Dijon is definitely a city. I must admit that as cities go, Dijon may be one of the easier to drive in.

I'd stay in Beaune because it is both charming and centrally located for touring the area. We always stay at the Hotel Grillon in Beaune. It is completely charming, pretty inexpensive, they speak English if you wish and you can walk to Old Town from the hotel. There is also plenty of parking just outside Old Town if you prefer to drive. The web site for Hotel Grillon is http://www.hotel-grillon.fr/

BTW, Madame Grillon makes the best kir we've ever had. We enjoy research on the subject. 8^)

Some things to visit in the Beaune area are (besides Beaune), Nuits St. Georges http://www.ot-nuits-st-georges.fr/site/site_uk/_index.php where you can do wine tasting and, our favorite, visit the Cassisium. It is a museum dedicated to cassis, the black current liquor used to make the traditional kir (cassis and aligote, a white Burgundian wine). After the visit, there is a tasting and then the marvelous gift shop. It is just plain fun. (A kir royale is cassis and champagne, slightly more expensive but delicious)

Also not too far from Beaune is Chateauneuf, a marvelous stone village covered with flowers. They are renovating the chateau but it's still fun to tour and the views are fabulous. For an excellent and very inexpensive meal, have the duck at the ?Au Marronnier. It's not a fancy restaurant, just has delicious duck.

We visited the Chateau ?La Rochepot and ?Abbaye de Fontenay on different days. Don't miss Vezelay. The town and the church are just amazing. Books have been written about Vezelay. One of the Crusades (the 2nd, I think) left from the church there. The town is all stone and beautiful.

The two must-sees for us would be Beaune and Vezelay. Next in order, Dijon and some of the wine villages.

In Paris, Notre Dame and the Louvre are excellent choices. Also think about the Musee d'Orsay across the river from the Louvre. This is a former train station so the architecture is also interesting. All the Impressionist paintings everyone wants to see are not in the Louvre; they are in the d'Orsay. The collection is not a large one but is stunning. We also enjoyed the Rodin Museum and the Picasso and both are in marvelous old houses. Our very favorite place in Paris is the Tuileries Gardens just outside the Louvre. We always go there and are always delighted. They have recently reopened the Orangerie at the far end on the Place de la Concorde after a very long renovation. Monet's waterlilies are in the Orangerie and very specially lighted. They have a very nice, although small, collection.

This is probably too much information. If you have any more questions, please feel free to ask.

BTW, we always make our Paris hotel reservations right here on France.com and have always had a good experience. Two favorites are Hotel Clement in the St. Germain district and the Hotel de la Sorbonne in the Latin Quarter. The Clement is nicer but the Sorbonne is better located although both are in central Paris within walking distance of nearly everything and very close to multiple Metro stops.

Hope you have a great trip. Sounds like you are really doing your homework. That's a great start.

SalB

Denise, I just thought of something. We rented a cottage in the Loire but the couple who rented it to us have four B&B rooms and they are really lovely. It's a pair of Brits with a small daughter and a tiny dog who have moved to France. They have a Gites de Charme and the B&B is part of it.

Here's the link to see if you are interested. It's a few miles from Montrichard and that is about 8 miles from Amboise. http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/7ba16/18d8d/3/

Click on "Resume in English" to get info in English. If you e-mail, they are British and language is no problem.

If you like, check http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/7ba16/18d8d/3/

This is a little review I wrote about the gite. Their web site has B&B photos. It might be a bit far from Amboise for you, but we loved it and it was quite centrally located. We visited chateaus at Chenonceau (7 km), Chaumont, Valencay, Villandry (a favorite), Langeais, Azay le Rideau and many others too numerous to mention. Chambord is quite near also and is the largest of the chateaus although it's not got much furniture and is too ornate for my tastes. Azay is my favorite. Oh yes, Blois and Tours are very close.

Just a thought.

France.com

Choosing between Beaune and Dijon is a tough one.

Beaune is small town in the center of the wine region, and if you intend to learn more about wine it really is the place to stay. You can take day trips and visit the route des vins. Depending on your budget there are a few places in Beaune or nearby. You can see most hotels in and around Beaune here . If budget allows, we recommend either Le Cep or the wonderful countryside Hostellerie de Levernois.

Dijon is a bigger city, but one of France's most beautiful mid-size cities. It's full of a rich history and the center of town is an architectural marvel with many interesting monuments and buildings.

For travelers, Beaune wins on charm and its privileged location in the heart of the wine country. We agree with SalB that Beaune is a better base for an exploration of Burgundy.

denisema18

wow!  thanks to all for the fantastic advice!

it's going to take me a couple of days to go through all of the links provided, but I definitely feel like I actually have plan now.

Also, thanks for the extra info on Paris. I haven't even begun to research it sicne I've been so obsessed with Loire and Bugundy. I do wan tto stay near the Louvre though, so I'll definitely have to check out your hotel suggestions.

 I've booked the flights last night…now it on to planning the fun stuff!

thanks again!

denisema18

thanks for all the details, this is really great.

 So, I'm hearing Beaune may be the preferred area to base ourselves. My next question is: is it nearby any shops/food, etc that we can walk to?

 I'm just getting worried that we're going to have to hop into a car to do everything and I don't want that.

I LOVE the quiet, but being somewhat closeby to some shops or interesting walkable streets would be great.